Driving Sustained Change in Child Protection through Action Learning
Channel: Australian Evaluation Society
Date: 2020-11-19

Presented by Mark Galvin, EY

One of the challenges faced by evaluators is how the evaluation of rapidly evolving action learning models in mid-flight can remain targeted, practical and concise - while yielding findings and actionable recommendations that support program performance imperatives. Mark will speak about the experience of the Adoptions Taskforce, established to transform the NSW foster care adoptions system. Adoption is one of a range of options used to improve stability and permanency outcomes for children who are unable to live with their families. With some 470 children in the adoptions process and taking over 5 years on average to complete, the former NSW Minister for Community Services directed the Department of Families and Community Services to clear accumulated cases and improve the timeliness of the process. The Taskforce employed the principles of an Action Learning Model to carry out fast cycles of build, measure and learn to inform current and future adoptions processes and practices while reducing processing time. Clarity of purpose and performance was key to designing an evaluation approach that best supported the Taskforce model. The Taskforce was the catalyst for record numbers of children adopted from care in NSW between 2016-17 and 2017-18, and embedding practices that have led to sustained performance since the Taskforce concluded on 30 June 2018.

Mark is a Partner in EY’s Government and Public Sector Practice and leads the firm’s Evaluation Practice Network. Mark is an economist and evaluator with nearly 20 years of experience as a professional advisory consultant. He is passionate about the use of traditional economic and evaluation methodologies, to transform systems and achieve better outcomes for the most vulnerable people in our community. Mark has undertaken a number of evaluations and economic appraisals across the human services spectrum, on behalf of government and for-purpose clients. He also led thought leadership on methods for optimising investments in host communities by companies seeking to achieve a social licence to operate. This is an updated presentation Mark gave at the AES Conference in Canberra in 2017 and at the International Conference on Adoption Research (ICAR6) in Montreal in 2018.

This seminar was organised by the Northern Territory Regional Network Committee of the AES.