​For Latitude Network, 2022 has been a year of growth, new challenges, and the rewards of seeing efforts come to fruition. We’re glad you’ve been with us on the journey, as partners, supporters or simply interested friends. Here are some of the highlights from our year.

1. Building multi-provider operating models across sectors can be done as long as there is a single and shared operating system and a commitment to collecting and analysing data on activities and impact.
2. Aligning data collection across agencies within a sector is a powerful way to improve service quality and target innovation, both for providers individually as well as for entire sectors, and for the clients using these services.
3. Legacy data systems do not have to get in the way of cheap, efficient and effective data-collection and analysis tools. Don’t let your clunky old system stop you from investing in small, positive improvements to what you do.

To the network of people with whom we work - those who are dedicated to improving social systems and social outcomes - we are deeply grateful to be collaborating with you on this important but difficult work. We look forward to connecting with more people in this movement for high performance and outcomes focus in 2023.

Read about four important projects we undertook this year - 

​Toward Home Alliance (THA) is a network of six housing services along with the South Australian Housing Authority, working together across South Australia to address homelessness in a single service system. In 2022, we conducted a detailed review of the Alliance’s operations and governance structure. As a trusted advisor for THA, we’ve worked with them for a number of years, and this next step allowed them to develop a new cross-agency operations manual. 

This truly is a ‘systems change’ project as it allows a single entity (the Alliance) to manage every part of the homelessness service system. The new operations manual was built to enable more than 100 staff working across five agencies plus multiple service partners to work to a common, integrated service model. This allows all agencies to provide more tailored, appropriate support but also to work across the usual silos of the sector.

In 2023, we’ll work with THA on a ‘Continuous Quality Improvement’ process embedded in everyday operations. The aim is to continually update and improve service delivery, guided by the Ops Manual and by the data being collected by all services. 

Hello Sunday Morning (HSM) is a digital platform operating on mobile and desktop, established in 2009 to support people to reduce alcohol consumption and alcohol harm. Their Daybreak app enables and facilitates peer-to-peer support, generating over six million data points that HSM engaged Latitude Network to analyse.

The project helped the team interpret and segment the data and understand the stories it was telling about their clients, how they were using the app, and how to use the data to better support and engage clients. We provided detailed segmentation of the App users, provided insights about who is using the online service, for how long, how intensively, and how long they stay in contact. This allowed HSM to develop strategies to maintain connection with those likely to disengage.

In 2023, we will use ‘machine learning’ tools to develop predictive models for the client to create an ongoing learning loop. This will then provide a range of early-warning data for HSM on factors such as likely client disengagement and drop-out rates and impact data. Using innovative new ways to track and measure data is crucial for services such as Hello Sunday Morning, and we’re excited to see how the service will evolve with increasingly rich and detailed data to support their development. You can read more about this project here.

Community Colleges are important providers of education and job pathways for people with various barriers to learning and employment. They sit at the intersection of adult education and social impact, and government funders are increasingly looking to explore outcomes-based funding in this sector.

Latitude Network is working with the peak body Community Colleges Australia and five community colleges to run a collaborative data project with the NSW Department of Education. The aim is to develop a common set of data collection standards across multiple colleges to allow comparative data on outcomes and performance.

This is an exciting project that demonstrates how data systems, continuous improvement and innovation processes can be applied at a systems level in social and education sectors. The project is designing a system that works for multiple different organisations using different student management systems (databases), in a range of different geographies serving a wide range of student needs. The de-identified data can then be collated across multiple organisations in a consistent way to create dashboards and analysis covering different programs, locations, services and outcomes.

In the next phase Latitude Network will build common dashboards and conduct periodic ‘deep dives’, or data analytics reports, to generate insights that enable colleges to improve (optimise) services and social impact. Comparative data is very powerful because it allows individual colleges to anonymously see their performance in the context of the performance of other organisations delivering in different regions. This provides evidence to flag performance gaps and to learn from best practices with objective data (not just those who claim to have good practice). 

This work is important for peak bodies to consider as a tool to improve system performance in any sector or sub-sector of the social services system. Watch this space for more information as the project moves to implementation. Feel free to reach out to us about lessons from this project if you are seeking to improve performance in multi-stakeholder or cross-organisation collaborations.

​Latitude Network are thrilled to announce that we will be working with Reclink Australia and Vichealth on a unique outcomes challenge: to get 100,000 young Victorians to be more physically active and socially connected. In doing so, this project will tap into 160 different underutilised sites across Victoria to transform them into physical activity spaces for young people. 

Funded by VicHealth and supported by a host of youth organisations and agencies, the project will be genuinely co-design and produced by young people, using open innovation thinking to ensure that physical activities and environments meet the needs and preferences of the young people who will use them. 

Latitude Network will bring its expertise in open innovation and data-driven performance management to ensure that this project generates lasting, measurable outcomes for young Victorians, whilst building capability in Reclink (and partners) in its approach to data, program design, segmentation, outcomes and impact measurement. 

More on the project here.

SOCIAL ISSUE 

Prior to 2021, the South Australian homelessness funding, like most homelessness systems around the country, was divided between multiple different service providers who weren't incentivised to work together as one system. 

The three key limitations of the system were: 

• Outcomes were not being achieved: the system was not solving or reducing homelessness, with 73% of clients having  previously received homelessness services (‘service-cyclers) 
• Disproportionate emphasis on crisis: leaving little resource for those in the system or at risk of entering the system. 
• A poorly integrated response to homelessness: not easy to access or navigate and failed to offer wrap support to meet individual and family needs. 

CLIENT CHALLENGE  

The South Australian Housing Authority (SAHA) sought to redesign the homelessness system in order to reduce the number of those at-risk of entering homelessness and the length of time people are in the system. To do this, SAHA divided its jurisdiction into five discrete regions and called on social service providers to develop solutions. 

In the Adelaide City and South region, Baptist Care SA, Lutheran Care, Mission Australia, The Salvation Army and Sonder came together to form the Toward Home Alliance. 

The challenge for the Toward Home Alliance was to redesign the homelessness system so that service users received a tailored and individualised response. Resources, accommodation and services needed to be aligned to the outcomes for each of the service user groups 

• First-time users of homelessness services; 
• Those at-risk of entering the homelessness service system;
• Long-term users (‘cyclers’) through our system, including rough sleepers; &
• Aboriginal people - who required a culturally appropriate, First -Nation led response. 

The challenge of service design was compounded by the prevalence of factors that contribute to homelessness such as mental health, physical health, disability, drug and alcohol and life trauma - requiring the intervention to holistically address these issues too. 

THE ROLE LATITUDE NETWORK PLAYED 

Latitude Network played a central role in supporting the Toward Home Alliance. The process involved uniting a diverse set of national, state, local and Aboriginal-run service providers toward a common goal of reducing homelessness in a defined geographical region. The key functions of the Latitude engagement included:

• Supporting and advising the parties in establishing the Alliance, including facilitating the decision of Lead Agency, and deciding a sound governance structure, with a clear decision-making authority;
• Cohort segmentation: using data to identify priority groups and with Alliance partners, designing/ adapting the service system to address their needs;
• Working with partners to identify client and system outcomes, together with the necessary thresholds and target success rates for each outcome ;
• Planning a seamless, sensitive transition of clients from the existing system to the new system, and then developing a comprehensive implementation plan ;
• Designing a data system and measurement: mapping data to outcomes, dashboard reporting and promoting a ‘performance culture’;
• Working with the Alliance to develop a full commercial and financial model, including avoided costs.

THE IMPACT 

The first impact was that the innovative proposal was accepted by the South Australian Government with the Alliance winning the funding for Adelaide city and South. The funding changed on July 2021, and as with any significant system change, there are always lots of elements to work through. The team has formed well together and built a strong culture of collaboration, but it is still early days to work out how well the elements are working and how best to refine and iterate them. We will keep an eye out on the Toward Home progress and now doubt the challenges of making progress.

​One client reflected on the ‘innovation’ aspect of PADs/SIBs suggesting that learning or borrowing from other models is a good way to augment your proposed solution. While PADs give us a chance to trial new approaches ‘...that doesn't mean reinventing the wheel necessarily - look around for what is being done in another place or with a similar cohort and talk to the organisations delivering the program.’
 
Perhaps one of the most powerful aspects of an outcomes contract is the need for us to zero-in on lived experience. One client reflected that ‘when including people from the front line, or those with lived experience, prepare and encourage them to bring their experience and knowledge to the table…’
 
Indeed, the process may be uncomfortable for staff, ‘...they may feel outside their comfort zone [but should be encouraged] to think about how they go about their work in a different way.’ 

At the heart of a PAD is ‘being clear on your cohort and outcomes. Make sure you confirm this in the initial part of the project because you don’t want to get 6 months in and find you're not 100% clear on who and what.’
 
There is a flip-side to this outcome journey in all PADs and that is the service system journey for clients currently - what we can loosely call the ‘counterfactual’. ‘Make sure you understand the extent to which your clients currently use the service system and ideally understand how much this reduces through your program financially - savings are critical to government.’

One organisation suggested that ‘patience and a flexible approach is probably the most important’ thing in outcomes contracting. ‘Don’t expect it to be quick or straightforward.’ Another said to ‘be prepared for discomfort as you grapple with an intense and unfamiliar process, lots of workshopping, many unknowns and wondering how it will all come together.’ ​

​This excellent phrase was shared by one of our clients and nicely captures the way that PADS are trying to harness the relative strengths of each of the parties involved. ‘Don’t be afraid to tell the Government they are wrong. It's BAU for them to be conservative, NGOs should own the innovation space in front of Governments and be persistent’.
 
PADs really do alter the dynamics between Government and service provider. One of our clients put it this way: ‘You’ll need a thick skin and a strong commitment to what you know works. The Government’s needs aren’t necessarily your or the program’s needs and so you need to know what is non-negotiable.’
 
PADs also highlight the value of complementary skillsets. ‘You will be negotiating with numbers people… brilliant numbers people who have a limited understanding about the client group or how to do community development. They are great at what they do but so are you so don’t let them have it all their way!’
 
One of the benefits of an outcomes focus is that everyone is, effectively, a problem-solver. While Treasury officials are focused on the value-for-money challenges, officials from the line agencies will bring a practice-based focus: ‘Get other departments in the room. The line agencies will better know the sector people and programs - let them fight some of the programmatic battles for you.’

​The outcomes contracting process is nothing if not intensive. It needs resourcing internally. One client advised that you will ‘need to have at least one person dedicated to developing this. Most NGOs will fund this internally, however, this should be seen as a valuable investment, even if you don’t get the program up.’
 
As for the mix of the team engaged in the process, you will need ‘a mixture of ideas people and do-ers who can buckle down and progress the hard yards of research, seeking out answers and project management.’

​Some of the elements of an outcomes-based contract are highly-technical and specialised. One of our clients suggested that you will need ‘bloody good guides who have been there before and who can tell you when you are focusing on the wrong question’.

The process of negotiating a PAD, while intensive, can bring enormous benefits to the organisation itself. Becoming literate with data and how it can be used to check and adjust performance was seen as critical.
 
“Start with data… get literate about how numbers and data work because, at times, the process will become about the numbers ... Become an expert at it really fast and get your team used to measuring and counting at least something.’  
 
Creating a culture of measurement and the gathering and use of evidence is seen as key to success: ‘Having a culture of using measurement and evaluation to improve the services you provide to clients really helps with structuring and implementing a SIB/PAD/SII’. And even where data might be scarce, start with a hypothesis and ‘...use external sources including public data sets (ABS, AIHW etc), research and evaluations …’ to try to confirm your hypothesis.
 
The journey of negotiating an outcomes-based contract can be revolutionary for an organisation, giving it the tools, confidence, funding and time to re-imagine the way that services are delivered for a specific cohort of people.