Measuring Outcomes for Indigenous Australians by Matthew James

Outline • Six COAG Targets for closing the gaps in Indigenous outcomes • Key building blocks to close the gaps • Measuring the targets • Reporting on targets at national & state/territory level • Improvements in community level data • Measuring Indigenous outcomes at program & project level • Providing a “line of sight” between projects & the targets

COAG Targets for Closing the Gap • Halve gap in mortality rates for children under 5 within a decade • All 4 year olds in remote Indigenous communities have access to early childhood education within 5 years • Halve the gap in reading, writing & numeracy within a decade • Halve the gap in year 12 or equivalent attainment by 2020 • Halve the gap in employment outcomes within a decade • Close the life expectancy gap within a generation

The Building Blocks Early Childhood Health Schooling Healthy Homes Safe Communities Economic Participation Governance and Leadership

Measuring the COAG Targets • Measuring progress towards achieving the targets: o specifying the indicators o need for proxy measures o progress measures o selection criteria for indicators & measures • Identifying data gaps for reporting on the targets o Indigenous under-identification in administrative data sets o inconsistencies in definitions across jurisdictions o need for expenditure data

Framework for measuring progress – Examples for 2 of the targets: Target Halve the gap in year 12 or equivalent within a generation Indicator Close the life expectancy gap attainment by 2020 Estimated Life Expectancy at Birth Proportion of 19 year olds completed Y 12 certificate or equivalent Proxy Mortality rates (& excess deaths) Measure Proportion of final year students that receive a year 12 certificate or equivalent Progress Mortality rates (& excess deaths) Retention rates Yr 7 to 8; Measure by leading causes Attendance rates - Y 1 to Y 10

The Framework in Action • Commonwealth payments to States: o Indigenous-specific reforms via National Partnerships (eg Indigenous Early Childhood Development) o SPPs for mainstream services (eg education, health) • National Reporting Framework o Indigenous specific outcomes & indicators for all mainstream & Indigenous specific reforms o Data against performance indicators for mainstream service delivery reported at national & jurisdictional level, by Indigenous status

Improvements in community level data • NTER Monitoring Reports o Improvements in sourcing community level data from all levels of government administrative data sets (eg preventable hospitalisations – reported by community for 1 st time) o use of Government Business Managers Surveys as innovative way of collecting data on communities • Baseline data for place based interventions & local planning o eg Baseline Community Profiles

Collecting Data at Community Level • Variety of data collection methods eg GBMs, consultants, ICC staff o broad, mainly quantitative profiles o in-depth profiles including qualitative data & techniques • Data collected directly from communities (eg NTER surveys) • Supplemented by national & jurisdictional collections which disaggregate at small area level (eg ABS Census; schooling) • Comprehensive & standardised coverage of demographics, service delivery, and outcomes • Developing a single platform for collecting, reporting and sharing Indigenous data and information

Measuring Indigenous Outcomes at Program & Project level • Review of Fa. HCSIA’s Standard Performance Framework for community funded programs - to ensure mainstream access for Indigenous people is adequately captured in reporting o eg Family Relationship Services Program – reports # of registered Indigenous clients against agreed targets for each service provider • Review of Performance Indicators for Funding Agreements to improve measurement of project performance & reduce red tape for Indigenous funded organisations

Reporting on Projects • Fa. HCSIA has been working with agencies to streamline the current suite of several hundred performance indicators for reporting on projects under funding agreements with Indigenous organisations • Agencies will initially choose from a set of 10 generic indicators focusing on 3 basic questions: Efficiency - How much have we done? Quality - How well have we done it? Effectiveness - Did we achieve what we expected?

Reporting on Projects (cont) Generic indicators tailored to suit each project (eg A Healthy for Life Service) Efficiency - How much have we done? Eg. No of individual clients seen by the health service Quality - How well have we done it? Eg Antenatal clinic staffed by midwife operates minimum 20 hrs/wk Effectiveness - Did we achieve what we expected? Eg 60% of Indigenous expectant mothers in the community attend at least three antenatal clinics before giving birth

• Project manager should be able to say whether their project works & how it is contributing to Indigenous outcomes • When developing projects PIs, agencies need to show the project aligns with outcomes at higher levels Ø Eg Healthy for Life Service contributes to: Program objective – improve Indigenous child & maternal health Closing the gap – in mortality rates for children under 5 – in life expectancy

Aligning Projects with Closing the Gap Population Outcomes e. g. Targets Indicators & measures Whole of Government Policy e. g. Building Blocks Whole of Government Outcomes eg OID Indicators Agency Responsibilities Program Objectives Project Objectives Aligned with Population Objectives e. g. Closing the Gaps Targets Agency Performance Indicators eg Annual report Program Performance Indicators eg PBS reporting Project Performance Indicators

What still needs to happen: • Reporting should distinguish between ‘access’ & ‘take up rate’ (ie services available v’s Indigenous usage of services) • Enhance collection of Indigenous status to report proportion of Indigenous clients of mainstream services • Improvements in Indigenous identification required in administrative & survey data • Indigenous people need to be encouraged to identify as Indigenous to enable accurate reporting