2023-24 Budget
The 2023-24 Victorian Budget announced funding for two new PADs programs as part of the Maximising outcomes through social investments initiative, which can be found on pages 108 and 109 of Budget Paper 3.
This initiative will also:
- provide for an annual Early Intervention and Social Impact Summit that will foster collaboration and shared learnings
- improve guidance, and information to reduce barriers for future social investment
- invest in grants to support program evaluations and streamline data collection and reporting
- encourage greater public sharing of data insights on client pathways from linked data.
This initiative responds to stakeholder feedback received through the public consultation on the future direction of PADs, as outlined below.
Future Directions in Partnerships Addressing Disadvantage: Consultation paper
Last year, DTF undertook a public consultation to help shape the future direction of the Government’s PADs initiative and social investment strategy. Through this process, DTF received almost 30 written submissions and engaged with many more stakeholders through our open door sessions.
DTF heard through the consultation that there is strong interest in social investment including PADs and the Early Intervention Investment Framework (EIIF). However, organisations face some barriers in participating in EIIF and PADs. Several submissions noted:
- there is limited access to and understanding of government held data when preparing a proposal
- preparing a proposal can be resource and time intensive, and/or require specialist skills that smaller organisations may not currently possess
- clearer parameters for outcome measures at the Request for Proposal stage can reduce ambiguity when preparing proposals and streamline the Joint Development Phase
- uncertainty about when PADs opportunities would be offered made it difficult to plan ahead.
The Government has worked to address this feedback through the new Maximising outcomes through social investments initiative.
Relevant documents
Future partnership opportunities
This page will be updated as work progresses on future PAD partnerships and other opportunities over the next six months and beyond.
If you would like to join our mailing list and receive further updates relating to the PADs initiative, please email pads@dtf.vic.gov.au.