Introduction
The HOME Advice Program has been developed as a response to family crises involving many issues but in all cases accompanied by a financial crisis leading to the risk of homelessness. The policy thinking underpinning the HOME Advice Program initiative was that the prevention of homelessness is better than dealing with homeless families and children. In 2005–06, $323.9m was spent on homelessness services through the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP). Without early intervention and prevention, at risk families will become homeless families – currently some 30 per cent of SAAP clients are families with 54,700 accompanying children.
The HOME Advice Program is an innovative government initiative of ‘early intervention’ and prevention of homelessness between government and the community sector and as a highly effective intervention to support Australian families in need. The precursor to HOME Advice was the Family Homelessness Prevention Pilot (FHPP) and in 2004, on the basis of positive evaluation findings, the pilot program was developed into a more established, albeit small program – HOME Advice.
| Case Type | Families Assisted | Adults | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| FHPP cases | 554 | 874 | 1,146 |
| HOME managed cases | 611 | 897 | 1,316 |
| HOME casual clients | 714 | 933 | 1,423 |
| Additional HOME cases 2007 | 159 | 232 | 329 |
| HOME open cases May 31 2007 | 152 | 241 | 370 |
| Totals for HOME Advice | 1,636 | 2,303 | 3,438 |
| Totals for HOME Advice + FHPP | 2,190 | 3,177 | 4,584 |
In the three years 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2007, the HOME Advice Program has assisted 1,636 families (an average of 545 per year) or 2,303 adults and 3,438 children (counted up to 30 June 2007). Casual clients were families who received support under the program but not full case management. Apart from a shorter support period casual clients were similar to client families. The program currently consists of one agency per state and territory jurisdiction. The past three years have focused on refining the model and by means of a strong evaluation to assess the evidence that would bear on decisions about the future of the initiative.
This report is the final evaluation report of the HOME Advice Program. The report focuses on three core themes:
- establishing the need for a response to family homelessness due predominantly to a multitude of issues leading to a mounting financial crisis and the prospect of homelessness;
- the effectiveness of the HOME Advice Program in preventing at risk families becoming homeless;
- the efficiency with which the program delivers these outcomes for families.
The evaluation was required to examine and measure the effectiveness as well as issues of cost-efficiency and cost effectiveness for the program. Extensive fieldwork at the eight sites gathered a large database of first hand qualitative information from workers and sometimes client families. All these discussions were fully transcribed for analysis. Family case studies were obtained to provide detail on the experiences of working with different families. When individuals are mentioned by name and their circumstances detailed, these are composite cases that have been de-identified by combining the events and features of several real people, but they provide illustrative detail about issues. Where quotes are used they have been de-identified. Program documents were sourced and the evaluation team took charge of processing the client and casual client data forms. This data formed the base quantitative data for the evaluation. However, a follow-up survey of clients in 2005 was done to find out how sustainable the program outcomes were in the 12 months or so after the end of support.
During the evaluation a website was deployed as yet another means of gathering data but at the same time providing for better communication within the program. The HOME Advice Program evaluation website went ‘live’ in late April 2006 and proved to be a good source of information and qualitative data for the evaluation. A number of discussion boards were set up on core topics of the program including: Early Intervention; Casual Clients; and Centrelink/Community Agency Partnership. The discussion forums added value to and complemented the information gathered by the evaluation team during the national site visits in late 2004 and early 2005 and provided opportunities for the evaluators to ask questions about emerging issues and clarify the analysis.
The logic of the evaluation report is to begin with the need and the characteristics of the client families entering the program, followed by a description of the model and how it is implemented in practice. Is the program effective and what are its costs, including the long-term cost-benefit position? Thus, Chapter 2 establishes the need for the program and provides information on the families supported through HOME Advice. In the broadest terms, need is the number of families at-risk of becoming homeless. Another indication of need is the number of families referred to the agencies or who seek assistance. Chapter 3 describes the program model and reflects on the model-in-practice. In Chapter 4, the practical work of the community agency workers and the Centrelink HOME Advice social workers is discussed. Because a developmental approach was followed, there is a good body of practice knowledge and a small but sufficient critical mass of experienced people who could resource new workers and agencies in an expanded program. Chapter 5 discusses program management and raises some points for consideration in moving forward to an expanded program as well some policy issues for further consideration. Chapter 6 lays out the main findings about the effectiveness of the program while Chapter 7 makes the required cost comparisons and works through the complexity of a cost-effectiveness and cost-efficiency analysis. Finally, Chapter 8 summarises the strengths of the program and Chapter 9 proposes two recommendations for consideration.