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Wendy Paterson (Department of Social Services), John Stoney (Department of Social Services )

The Department of Social Services has responsibility for about one third of all Australian Government budget expenditure. Its policies and programmes impact directly on the lives of several million Australians. The Department is responsible for policies and programmes that operate across a very diverse range of social policy landscapes; the interplay between these inevitably raises complexities in terms of understanding what has worked, for whom and under what circumstances. Developing and harnessing a sound evidence base is crucial for the Department to fulfil its mission of improving the lifetime wellbeing of Australian people and families, and achieving its aspiration to be Australia's pre-eminent social policy agency. The Department operates in a dynamic  landscape with an increasing emphasis on measuring outcomes and enhanced accountability through the ongoing implementation of the Public Governance Performance and Accountability Act 2013 and its associated Commonwealth Performance Framework. 

To meet these challenges, the Department has instituted an evaluation policy, where all impact evaluations are overseen and managed by a central Evaluation Unit located in a Policy Office. The Evaluation Unit works collaboratively with - but is independent of - the Branches responsible for the policy and/or programme being evaluated. The Unit supports the DSS Approach to Policy Advice by ensuring our investment in evaluation activity is of strategic value to the Department and Government. The Unit's responsibilities include developing a rolling four-year strategic evaluation plan, providing subject matter knowledge, expertise and support to Branches who are undertaking formative evaluations and building evaluation capacity. This presentation will outline the rationale for adopting a centralised evaluation framework, and the experiences to date including benefits, challenges, critical success factors and lessons learnt.  Lessons learnt will be relevant to other Australian Public Service (APS) entities, organisations, and evaluation practitioners.