This event will be held on Tuesday, 15 September 2015 from 7:30am to 9:30am (AEST)

You can book your spot and find out more details here.
This event will chart the journey at FACS toward valuing the social outcomes of Ability Links – as well as the economic outcomes – and explore the challenges along the way.

Ability Links is a ground-breaking disability program in NSW that has brought social scientists and economists together via the methodologies used to evaluate and measure the social outcomes of the program. Ability Links has dual aims – to link people with disability into mainstream community services, organisations and businesses, and to work with these organisations to raise their knowledge and awareness to change community attitudes and behaviour towards people with disability. It is about linking people into everyday life, not to disability services.

From the very beginning, FACS wanted to ‘do things differently’ – with regard to service design and delivery, evaluation, and measuring outcomes. The evaluation incorporates a traditional process and outcomes evaluation, as well as cost benefit analysis (CBA). It was also one of the first in NSW government to apply Social Return on Investment Analysis (SROI) and was awarded an Impact Measurement Award for ‘Achievements in Best Impact Measurement by a Government, Corporate or Philanthropic Organisation’.

Our speakers are from FACS and Urbis. Craig Layton from FACS will describe the process from the government perspective – focusing on the cultural change underway in the public sector with regard to measuring social outcomes. Nicki Hutley and Sara Hudson from Urbis will describe the process of economists and social researchers working together to capture the economic and social outcomes of a government funded program.

The event will be facilitated by Steven Gal, currently Director of Regional Coordination at Aboriginal Affairs, who was involved in the program setup and implementation while at FACS.

About our speakers

Craig Layton is the Director of Community and Sector Engagement in Ageing, Disability and Home Care. His responsibilities include the Ability Links and Community Care Supports Program, and the development and support of the disability NGO sector. Craig has worked in policy for the NSW Government for over 10 years, and has been involved in developing and managing a number of major social policy reforms, including the Stronger Together 2 and Ready Together disability reforms, the Keep them safe child protection reforms, and the development of social benefit bonds.

Nicki Hutley has more than 25 years of economic, financial market and public policy experience. She has provided advice to public and private sector clients across a broad spectrum of public policy issues. Nicki employs economic expertise to facilitate a better understanding of current trends, risks and opportunities in the public policy arena, to enhance business and investment strategies and government policy outcomes. In particular, Nicki is skilled at undertaking cost benefit analyses that meet the highest levels of government standards and rigour, and at using stakeholder consultations to ensure optimal information gathering and buy in. She also uses true triple bottom line analysis that includes Social Return on Investment.

Sara Hudson has over ten years’ experience in research and evaluation, policy development and implementation and has conducted projects for clients across a broad range of public policy sectors including, disability, health, education, employment, Indigenous and criminal justice. She has expertise in quantitative and qualitative research, as well as in process and outcomes evaluations including designing research tools and undertaking stakeholder consultation with vulnerable populations and people with disability.

About our facilitator

Steven Gal’s role is to provide strategic high level advice to the Head of Aboriginal Affairs, Departmental Secretary and Minister’s Office in relation to building the capacity of Aboriginal communities. He is currently responsible for the Regional Coordination Directorate Aboriginal Affairs, and leads, manages and directs operations across four Regions state wide, to ensure a coordinated and integrated approach to Aboriginal affairs priorities and key initiatives. Steven’s previous experience is working in Government and not for profit sectors of Youth, Disability, Aged Care, Child Protection, Health and Aboriginal affairs.