F11 funding - more information
All about Practice Guidelines
Government is reshaping the way it delivers social services to families to ensure that the things it funds deliver real help to families.
The new approach to contracting between Government and the community social services sector enables community organisations to focus more on the families they serve and less on ticking boxes, complex paperwork and reporting.
Service specifications, which used to be part of the contract, have now been repackaged into easy to read guidelines. These are to be read alongside contracts as best practice ways to deliver each service.
What are Practice Guidelines?
Practice Guidelines provide a guide for the delivery of a particular Service funded by Family and Community Services. Practice Guidelines assist those who deliver specific social services by providing:
- detailed information about service delivery and practice in a more easy to read format than is possible to include in a contract document
- a tool to help you deliver services consistently and in line with the agreed outcomes for the service
- a way for us to improve our responsiveness to feedback regarding changes to the Service Delivery component of the agreement.
Why do we have Practice Guidelines?
Practice Guidelines effectively replace the Family and Community Services long form contracts where highly specified services were incorporated into the body of the contract.
Who are the Practice Guidelines for?
Practice Guidelines are for all providers of the specified services contracted by Family and Community Services.
What services Family and Community Services fund have Practice Guidelines?
The following services have current Practice Guidelines in place:
- Family Service Centres
- Family Violence Education
- Heartland Services
- Strengthening Families
- Child Advocates
- Information and Advice
- Teenage Parent Intensive Case Workers
- Elder Abuse and Neglect Prevention
- Early Years Service Hubs
- SAGES (Elders as Mentors)
- Te Rito
-
Budget Services.
What other services will have Practice Guidelines?
The following services funded by Family and Community Services are under development and will move toward Practice Guidelines in time for next years contracting cycle:
- Youth Services
- Family Services
- Youth Gangs.
Can I make comments/ changes to the Practice Guidelines?
We welcome feedback on the guidelines. A feedback form is included at the back of the Practice Guidelines.
When do Practice Guidelines become effective?
For providers with new contracts, the Practice Guidelines are effective as of 1 July 2010. These will be included in your contract (except for those currently under development).
What if I have a current multiyear contract in place?
For providers that hold an existing multiyear contract you will be required to continue delivering services in accordance with your current contract obligations.
What if I have a current Integrated or High Trust Contract?
You will be required to continue to deliver your services in accordance with your current contract/agreement obligations.
Results based contracting
Government has moved over the last few years towards reporting structures that have meaning for both you the provider,
and we as funders by moving the focus beyond outputs to outcomes.
This means reporting on what is actually achieved rather than just what you deliver.
Shifting from measuring outputs to measuring outcomes can also help organisations - and communities - create
a picture of what success will look like, and how much progress they've made towards this.
By 2010 the Ministry of Social Development will have all contracts expressed in terms of outcomes.
What is Results Based Accountability Reporting?
Results Based Accountability (RBA) is the model used by the Ministry of Social Development to develop and measure
outcomes. A key attraction is that it's easy to use. It provides a clear, common language for assessing outcomes, indicators and performance measures. It also encourages people to think about who they can work with and how, together, they can work differently to achieve shared outcomes.
Another benefit: Results Based Accountability gets participants from talk to action quickly, and helps them make a real
difference in peoples' lives.
Results Based reporting encourages reporting based on a results and outcomes based framework. This will put the focus
on what really counts; are we making a difference for families and their children?
What about previous reporting measures?
We have taken a fresh look at reporting requirements and now have introduced results based measures.
We have retained narrative reporting as this provides the place where providers can tell the story about their clients and the results their organisation achieves.
What does the Results Based Measures Framework look like?
There are essentially three key questions that the Results Based Accountability framework asks:
- How much did we do?
- How well did we do it?
- Is anyone any better off?
What if these measures are new to us and we have not seen these or reported on these before?
Over the last three years Government has been engaged with provider groups and stakeholders discussing the value of Results Based Accountability.
If you have not had the opportunity to see the Results Based Accountability framework please contact your Contracts Manager who will identify Results Based Accountability training opportunities and help you to transition into reporting to us this way.
We acknowledge that this will be a learning experience over time for many providers, as well as Family and Community Services.
Do we get any additional funding for reporting in this way?
No, Results Based reporting effectively replaces your previous reporting schedules. The change is about the things that count for both you the provider and us the funder.
What if I am not set up to report in this way yet?
Please contact your Contracts Manager who can work with you on how you can transition to reporting in this manner.
Where can I get more information on Results Based Accountability Reporting?
There is more information on the Family Services website
And on the following websites:
