What is the lowdown on last week's $677M investment in outcomes and early intervention?

Last week's State Budget gives us yet more evidence that the journey to outcomes-based funding is speeding up. While the Feds will build an outcomes-contracting fund (the Outcomes Fund) the Victorian Government is using its Early Intervention Investment Framework (EIIF).

Both the Outcomes Fund and the EIIF do the same thing - allocate funding to programs that pre-determine their performance targets. The point is to direct funding to those practices that show measurable, real impacts and that, as a result, lower the use of acute social and health services.

In both cases, measuring 'avoided costs' will be critical. Avoided costs are State Government service costs saved from a successful service intervention (or, Avoidable Costs minus services delivered = Avoided Costs). This is the high-bar for impact measurement as far as Governments are concerned.

What does this mean for you and your program? Are you 'Avoided-Cost' ready? Reach out to us if you'd like to talk about the implications of this shift. Read more for the full list of EIIF funding programs.