Linked Administrative Data’s Role in Victoria’s First Social Impact Investment – Journey to Social Inclusion – Working to End Chronic Homelessness

• Main Authors: Sharon Williams, Mark Sidthorp, Paul Flatau, Kaylene Zaretsky, Zoe Callis, Suzanne Findlay
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Swansea University 2020-12-01
• Series: International Journal of Population Data Science
• Online Access: https://ijpds.org/article/view/1516

The Journey to Social Inclusion (J2SI) Social Impact Investment (SII) is Victoria’s first social impact investment. It has two outcome payments, for stable housing and reduction in hospital bed days. Linked administrative data is being used to calculate the performance levels and outcome payments from the Victorian Government to J2SI. This paper discusses the methodologies and challenges encountered in the use of the linked administrative data for the calculation of the outcome payments for the J2SI SII. Introduction J2SI will receive half of the program costs for service delivery based on the level of performance of two outcome payments. The outcome payments are the difference between the results for the Intervention Group and the Control Group. The results are being calculated using linked administrative datasets for health, housing and justice, by the Centre for Victorian Data Linkage (CVDL) and the Centre for Social Impact, University of Western Australia (CSI UWA) respectively. Objectives and Approach The paper will outline the approach taken to calculate the results for the Intervention Group and the Control Group, explore the benefits and challenges of arising from different parties being involved in the calculations and present the lessons learned for future social impact bonds in Victoria and other States/Territories. Results The work has highlighted the importance of clearly understanding and documenting all of the datasets and how they are to be used prior to the commencement of the calculations. High level descriptions are not adequate preparation for the precision required for the actual calculations. The work has also highlighted the differences is using linked data for research and service implementation. Conclusion / Implications Linked administrative data is a robust source of data for the calculation of outcome payments for social impact investments. However, with the timeliness of payments important for service delivery and financing, thorough preparation for the calculation of the results and outcome payments is essential.