Managing when government cuts budgets

Photo by cottonbro studio

We are deep into Government budget time and, particularly in Victoria, there are challenging times ahead. 

In Victoria, it is reported that there will be a 10% cut in spending on public sector wages across the board meaning a $3.6 billion cut over four years. While this may well be limited to ‘back of house’ costs, we know there will be either cuts to services or a narrowing of eligibility for some social programs. We also now know that more than half of all community health organisations are facing 15% cuts to funding that will impact direct services.

So what should we make of the spending restraint/cuts/efficiencies/austerity (choose your word) on the way? How do we try and quarantine our programs?  How do we respond?

At times like this, we believe it is more important than ever to advocate not for your program and service budgets but for your client outcomes. 

The steps you can implement to make sure you are advocating as powerfully as possible for your client outcomes are:

1. Identify those client cohorts for whom you are getting the best results. This means being clear about who your programs support, the things you are trying to achieve for and with them and being able to measure progress;
2. Think about where your growth opportunities are. Where does your mission, your capabilities, skills and resourcing suggest you focus? Where is there growth in demand and need that you can address?; and
3. Build a plan to ‘optimise’ your outcomes in those growth areas. Where there is demand and you have capability you should grow, reallocating resources from where you are less able to.

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You may be interested in an article from our archive on the rise in outcomes funding and steps social organisations can take to become more outcomes-focused.

The Rise of Outcomes