Place-based approaches
An innovative package of measures is being led by the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Social Services. The measures are designed to build whole-of-government capability to work in partnership with communities, explore innovative funding models, and enable better coordination of investment priorities
Communities are best-placed to understand local needs. Targeting entrenched disadvantage requires Government to work in partnership with communities and other stakeholders to improve outcomes together.
Logan families – the Logan Together movement is supported by the Stronger Places, Stronger People initiative. Image: DSS
In Australia, disadvantage is often clustered in particular places and has proven difficult to shift using traditional approaches.
Positioning Government to be a better partner involves equipping the Australian Public Service to listen to communities – within the right authorising environment – to achieve meaningful improvements on priorities that matter most to communities.
The 2023–24 Budget provided $199.8 million to identify better ways to address community disadvantage, underpinned by a whole-of-government framework. The framework will focus on building APS capability to put community voice at the centre of policy and service design, and aligning investment to achieve better social and economic outcomes.
In addition, the framework will inform how mainstream services can be delivered more flexibly, and how tailored approaches like place-based and outcomes-based contracting can complement universal safety nets.
Over 6 years, the Stronger Places, Stronger People initiative will work in partnership with 6 of its 10 community-led initiatives to resource shared decision-making and local solutions.
The Australian Government will partner with states, territories and social enterprises through a 5-year outcomes fund to tackle disadvantage. Projects will be funded that deliver outcomes in communities, and a social enterprise development initiative will focus on capability-building grants.
The integrated data assets to be developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics will help inform improved outcomes over the long term.
The Government will also partner with philanthropy through the Investment Dialogue for Australia’s Children, to better coordinate investment and reform efforts that reduce intergenerational disadvantage.
DSS and Treasury will work closely with Australian Government departments and other key partners in designing and implementing this important body of work.
Growth in Government spending on welfare services has outpaced gross domestic product growth over the decade to 2019–20, but many Australians continue to face disadvantage. Evidence suggests that multi-faceted interventions, such as place-based approaches, are needed to address the intersecting causes of disadvantage.