In this update:

new data website environmental management fraud control NGO compliance government ICT rural families migrant statistics informed consent in contracts resilience forums staff led enterprises hospital funding

elective surgery productive ward arthritis fast food display food protection community nursing GP training mental health tribunals mental health & economy environmental noise drug treatment services early years

child assessment family justice sexual offender disclosure social media & children guardianship disability allowances family violence LGBT domestic violence counting homelessness reverse mortgage housing & health loneliness

	New websiteData.gov.au provides an easy way to find, access and reuse public datasets from the Australian Government and state and territory governments. Structures for sustainability - Environmental management systems in the Victorian Government 2011 in DHS the environmental management system is driven from the Corporate Services area. This promotes connectedness across the high resource use divisions of Regional Disability Services Housing and Community Services, Youth Justice and Bushfire Recovery Services. The environmental management work of the Department of Health is also incorporated... This blending of departmental interests and aspirations is in the best traditions of attaining triple-bottom-line objectives and associated co-benefits, as it will reduce unnecessary replication of processes. Vic Commissioner Environmental Sustainability (Mar 2011) Fraud Control in Australian Government Entities The risk of fraud can come from inside an organisation, that is, from its employees or contractors, or from outside an organisation, that is, external parties such as clients, consultants, service providers or other members of the public. Aus Audit (Mar 2011) Impact of quality standards requirements - How much is compliance costing NGOs? survey being conducted by MSO NGO Services MSO (Mar 2011) UK Government ICT Strategy Resources  will deliver better public services for less cost.  Through reuse and sharing of our ICT assets, we will improve productivity and efficiency, reduce waste and the likelihood of project failure. ..The strategy will improve and open up public service delivery by supporting online transactional services for citizens and businesses, and create channels for collaboration and policy debate...To ensure that we continue to improve our ICT delivery, we will move away from very large programmes to a greater number of smaller and more agile projects UK Cabinet Office (Mar 2011) Families in regional, rural and remote Australia Australian children growing up in major cities do better in terms of their physical development and educational outcomes than children living in regional and remote areas media release AIFS (Mar 2011) Guide to Migrant Statistical Sources, 2011 contains Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) collections and non ABS collections which include government, academic and private sources. ABS (mar 2011) Community research on informed consent   Australian consumers can find it difficult to provide what they consider to be fully informed consent when signing up to telecommunications contracts...examines consumer awareness and attitudes towards how personal information is used by third parties; consenting online; consenting over the phone and face to face; consent involving minors; and the length of time consent is valid for. Aus Communications and Media Authority (Mar 2011) The role of Local Resilience Forums ‘The purpose of the LRF process is to ensure effective delivery of those duties under the Act that need to be developed in a multi-agency environment [and individually as a Category 1 responder]. In particular the LRF process should deliver: the compilation of agreed risk profiles for the area... UK Home Office (Mar 2011) Making Quality Your Business: A guide to the right to provide sets out a process for people working in NHS Trusts who have the right to propose the development of a staff-led enterprise... also encourages staff working in social care who are thinking about the right to provide, UK Health (Mar 2011) Hospital payment policy in Canada: Options for the future  recommends adopting population-based funding at the regional level to reduce historical funding inequities by recognizing differences in need across populations, regions and over time...blending Activity Based Funding and global budgets to create incentives for hospitals to improve hospital efficiency and access. also Physician payment mechanisms: overview and options for Canada Can CHRF (Mar 2011)
	Targeting More Elective Operations Improved Access to Elective Surgery New Zealand case studies: The volume of elective surgery will be increased by an average 4000 discharges per year (compared with the previous average increase of 1400 per year). NZ health (Mar 2011) Rapid Impact Assessment of The Productive Ward: Releasing time to care™ focuses on improving ward processes and environments to help nurses and therapists spend more time on patient care thereby improving safety and efficiency. UK NHS (Mar 2011) The Ignored Majority - The Voice of Arthritis 2011  estimates there are two million six hundred thousand (2.6 million) Australians with inadequate care, who are needlessly suffering pain, have difficulty getting about and are being disadvantaged at work. Arthritis Aus (Mar 2011) Fast Food –Display of Nutrition Information and Traffic Light Labelling discusses two measures being considered by Australian governments to help reduce Australians’ intake of sugar, salt and fat from fast food – the display of nutrition information (such as kilojoule counts and detail about the levels of salt, sugar and fat in the food) on fast food menu boards and traffic light labelling of fast food. Qld Parliamentary Library (Mar 2011) UK Food Standards Agency's Strategy to 2015 aims to ensure regulation is effective, risk-based and proportionate, is clear about the responsibilities of food business operators, and protects consumers and their interests from fraud and other risks UK FSA (Mar 2011) NHS at home: children's community nursing services review of the contribution community children's nursing services, as a key component of community children's services, can make to the future outcomes of integrated children's services...children with acute and short-term conditions; long-term conditions; with disabilities and complex conditions, including those requiring continuing care and neonates; and children with life-limiting and life-threatening illness, including those requiring palliative and end-of-life care UK Health (Mar 2011) Needle and Syringe Program General Practice Education and Training General Practice Education and Training Limited (GPET) is a relatively small public sector organisation in terms of expenditure and staffing, with expenditure of $106.7 million and an average staffing level of 35 people in 2009–10. However, its responsibility for managing the delivery of general practice training and education across Australia is of growing significance. Aus Audit (Mar 2011) Patients' experiences of the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health) breaks new ground in accessing and communicating patients’ direct views on the tribunal system... It is both possible and worthwhile collecting user feedback from detained patients about tribunals. UK CQC (Mar 2011) Impact of economic crises on mental health Family support programmes contribute to counteracting the mental health effects of the crisis. Increasing alcohol prices and restricting alcohol availability reduce the harmful effects on mental health and save lives. WHO Europe (Mar 2011) Burden of disease from environmental noise. Quantification of healthy life years lost in Europe At least one million healthy life years are lost every year from traffic-related noise in the western part of Europe...International, national and local authorities can use the procedure for estimating burdens presented here to prioritize and plan environmental and public health policies. WHO Europe (Mar 2011) Treatment service users (TSU) project: phase two This project implemented consumer participation demonstration projects in a variety of drug treatment settings in Australia. Aus health (Mar 2011) The Early Years: Foundations for life, health and learning report to UK Parliament by Dame Clare Tickell...Keeping children safe ... A professional, well-supported workforce. also Europe: Early Childhood Education and Care: Providing All Our Children with the Best Start for the World of Tomorrow UK Education (Mar 2011)
	Social Work Assessment of Children in Need: What do we know? Messages from research  gaining a better understanding of the relationship between the quality of assessments and outcomes for children in contact with children’s social care services...identifies the increasing range of knowledge and skills needed when undertaking assessments, and highlights factors that contribute to or inhibit effective practice and the production of high quality assessments. UK Education (Mar 2011) UK Family justice review: interim report In a significant number of these cases, serious child welfare and safeguarding concerns are raised, to a level that may well trigger investigation by local authorities...There is an almost unbelievable lack of management information at a system-wide level, with little data on performance, flows, costs or efficiency available to support the operation of the system. UK Justice (mar 2011) Keeping Children Safe: Information disclosure about child sexual offenders The vast majority of sex offenders are known to the victim and often they are an acquaintance or family member. In 86% of child protection referrals, where action was required, the primary known or suspected abuser was the child’s natural parent. In only 1% of cases was the abuser unknown to the child or their family. Scotland (Mar 2011) Clinical Report The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and families it is important that parents become aware of the nature of social media sites, given that not all of them are healthy environments for children and adolescents. US Pediatrics (Mar 2011) Guardianship: consultation paper describes how Victoria's guardianship and administration laws currently operate, outlines problems with the current laws, discusses laws in other jurisdictions, and outlines options for reform...These laws deal with the formal arrangements that are available when a person is unable to make their own decisions about important matters because of a disability. Vic LRC (Mar 2011) Assessing the impact of receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA)  seeks to identify any impact of receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA) on recipients’ care and mobility arrangements, their standard of living and measures of social inclusion/exclusion ...also focuses on whether the approach to estimating impact is robust and how it may be improved UK DWP (Mar 2011) AVERT Family Violence training package has been developed to provide a multi-disciplinary training package in family violence that encourages collaboration between professionals who are working in the family law system. AVERT (Mar 2011) One Size Does Not Fit All Gap analysis of NSW domestic violence support services in relation to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities’ needs Executive Summary and Recommendations more and  more NSW ACON (Mar 2011) Methodological Review of Counting the Homeless, 2006   proposes a  consistent methodology   download paper ABS (Apr 2011) Reverse mortgages and older people: growth factors and implications for retirement decisions Reverse mortgages can provide a viable option for older and often, more vulnerable Australians, to age in place...The biggest issue currently facing consumers is the imbalance of information in the market for reverse mortgage products. AHURI (Mar 2011) Invest in housing, invest in health the contribution housing associations can make to the health agenda... demonstrates: the cost savings that projects carried out in partnership with housing associations can make to the NHS, how services improve the health outcomes for individuals and communities, how services reduce health inequalities in deprived areas and cuts the costs of acute services. UK Housing Federation (Mar 2011) Loneliness compendium: Examples from research and practice 'Neighbourhood Approaches to Loneliness' program looks at how a neighbourhood as a whole can support those who live with loneliness. UK Joseph Rowntree (Mar 2011)

social trends public sector reforms information sharing non-profit evaluation program scaling community transport migrant disadvantage medical research returns national health reform health quality improvement Medicare German healthcare system change implementation nurse staffing numbers ATSI identification

residential care costs aged preventive services depression - perinatal & youth drug courts alcohol pricing alcohol harm reduction obesity interventions immunisation pandemic strategy disasters & child care disability strategy launch foster carer's charter leaving foster care looked after children

vulnerable families at risk youth teenage mentoring worksite parenting program residential worker allegations gangs housing & disability social housing pathways squatters social tenant evictions private rental housing homelessness services homelessness & domestic violence homeless youth

	Australian Social Trends, Mar 2011  includes life expectancy trends, health outside the major cities, education and indigenous wellbeing, and health services: use and patient experience ABS (Mar 2011) The Future Course of Modern Government The next wave of public sector reforms will be formed around distributed systems, rather than centralised structures. The challenge for governments is to deal with complexity not by standardisation and simplification imposed from the centre, but by distributing complexity to the margins. IPAA (Mar 2011) Towards Mutual Recognition: Information Sharing Protocol For Human Services Agencies designed to minimise duplicate requests for reporting information for organisations funded by more than one DHS agency, and enable joint intervention when required...part of NSW Non-Government Organisation Red Tape Reduction plan NSW DADHC (Mar 2011) Priorities for a New Decade: Making (More) Social Programs Work (Better) proposes a comprehensive and bold re-thinking of how nonprofits are evaluated. .. Rejecting a rigid, one-size-fits-all model that focuses narrowly on determining a program's success or failure, ...proposes an approach that fully engages nonprofit practitioners as partners in evaluation efforts, reflects a deep understanding of local circumstances and constraints, and suggests guidelines for evaluation and scaling that actually support on-the-ground program quality and performance. US Public/PrivateVentures (Feb 2011) What Do We Mean by Scale? While there is great virtue in helping successful nonprofit organizations and effective programs expand, it is not the only way grantmakers can achieve impact — and it is often not the most effective way to do so....Growing impact doesn’t necessarily require organizational growth or the wholesale replication of programs— it may instead require expanding an idea or innovation, technology or skill, advocacy or policy change. US GEO (Feb 2011) Local Community Transport Services: the Transport Connections program there is little evidence to demonstrate the extent to which access to local transport has improved because of weaknesses in governance, oversight and monitoring. Vic Audit (Mar 2011) Taking Advantage of Disadvantage: Case studies of refugee and new migrant experiences in the communications market The Footscray Legal Community Centre (FCLC) together with ACCAN has released a damning report that documents the experiences of 16 new Australian migrants and finds that in many cases telcos are taking advantage of this already disadvantaged and highly vulnerable group. ACCAN (Mar 2011) Project Retrosight: Understanding the returns from cardiovascular and stroke research: The Policy Report explores the impacts arising from cardiovascular and stroke research funded 15-20 years ago and attempts to draw out aspects of the research, researcher or environment that are associated with high or low impact....will also be of interest to those involved in research and impact evaluation. US Rand (Mar 2011) National Health Reform Amendment (National Health Performance Authority) Bill 2011 briefing...This Bill has implications for the National Health and Hospitals Network Bill 2010 passed by the House (with Senate amendments) on 21 March 2011; the National Health and Hospitals Network Bill establishes the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality of Health Care (ACSQHC) as a permanent agency more Aus Parliament (Mar 2011) National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care Report to Congress... a strategic plan for improving the delivery of health care services, achieving better patient outcomes, and improving the health of the U.S. population US Health (Mar 2011) How! Not How Much: Medicare Spending and Health Resource Allocation in Australia traces the evolution of Australian health policy and its consequences across half a century. The public hospital ‘crisis,’ a political nightmare for all Australian governments, is a legacy of the health policy upheavals of the 1970s and early 1980s, which culminated with the start of Medicare in 1984. Long waits for hospital treatment in Australia are caused by the structural funding inefficiencies at the heart of Medicare, which is a ‘reverse insurance’ system that provides ‘inverse care’ for Australians. Centre for Independent Studies (Mar 2011) Informing the development of a resource allocation framework in the German healthcare system Germany is looking to develop a national approach that allocates funds according to a unified framework, while taking account of regional characteristics. US Rand (Mar 2011) Implementing and sustaining change in the contemporary NHS it is critical that improvement programmes are implemented quickly, on a large-scale and assimilated and sustained in routine practice... Successful implementing organisations invest energy in programmes by providing visible executive support, allocate resources for programme leadership and facilitation, and build resilience to times of pressure and change – continuity of these factors is essential. UK King's Fund (Mar 2011) Safer Nursing Care Tool (SNCT) –Linking Staffing to Quality Outcomes Senior nurses have developed a simple way of assessing the safe number of nurses needed for a ward, which health workforce experts say can be used to argue against post cutting...Nursing teams can use the Safer Nursing Care Tool to work out safe staffing on hospital wards by putting in information about patients’ conditions...more UK NHS (Mar 2011) Identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australian general practice Practices need to correctly and consistently record the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander status of all patients. RACGP (Mar 2011)
	Impact of changes in length of stay on the demand for residential care services in England highlight the significant level of costs faced by self-payers with prolonged stays in residential care. Finding mechanisms for insuring individuals against such costs is now a policy priority across the political spectrum., also Length of stay in care homes Establishing average length of stay is challenging because it requires data about individual residents over a potentially long period (some residents can live for 20 or more years in a care home). UK PSSRU (Jan 2011) Enhancing Use of Clinical Preventive Services Among Older Adults: Closing the Gap calls attention to the use of potentially lifesaving preventive services by our nation’s growing population of adults aged 65 years and older. US CDC (Mar 2011) Clinical Practice guidelines for depression and related disorders - anxiety, bipolar disorder and puerperal psychosis - in the perinatal period. and Clinical Practice Guidelines: Depression in Adolescents and Young Adults BeyondBlue (mar 2011) Drug Courts Are Not the Answer: Toward a Health-Centered Approach to Drug Use drug courts  don’t reduce incarceration, don’t save money, and don’t improve public safety when compared to the wholly punitive model they seek to replace. Worse, drug courts have made the criminal justice system more punitive toward addiction – not less. The report calls for expanding demonstrated health approaches, including harm reduction and drug treatment, and working toward the removal of criminal penalties for drug use. more Drug courts can needlessly widen the net of criminal justice involvement, and cannot replace the need for improved treatment services in the community. US DPA (Mar 2011) Preliminary assessment of economic impacts of alcohol pricing policy options in the UK research into three particular policies — minimum pricing, ban on below-cost sales, and taxation. US Rand (Mar 2011) Supporting partnerships to reduce alcohol harm:  key findings, recommendations and case studies from the Alcohol Harm Reduction National Support Team UK Health (Mar 2011) Cost effectiveness report of public health interventions to prevent obesity includes A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of 16 Obesity Prevention Interventions NZ Vic Uni Wellington (Mar 2011) Immunisation Audience Research in most cases, parents/caregivers who do not fully immunise their children have not actively opted not to immunise. Rather, for a variety of circumstances or reasons they have not fully immunised their child. NZ health (mar 2011) UK influenza pandemic preparedness strategy 2011: strategy for consultation, and Review of the evidence base underpinning the UK influenza pandemic preparedness strategy includes vaccination, communication, demographic factors, impact of school closures UK Health (Mar 2011) Emergency Preparedness and Response Planning for Child Care children have unique needs in emergency situations and are among our most vulnerable populations. In the event of a major disaster it is critical to ensure children in child care centers and family child care homes are safe and secure and reunited with their parents. In addition, after a disaster, re-opening and rebuilding child care is a key element to recovery efforts and restoring the economic health of communities.  (PDF version).. more US ACF (Mar 2011) National Disability Strategy launched on 18 March FaHCSIA (Mar 2011) The Foster Carers’ Charter sets out clear principles on how foster carers should be treated, recognises their invaluable work and aims to encourage more people to sign up to be foster carers. UK Education (Mar 2011) The Fleecing of Foster Children: How We Confiscate Their Assets and Undermine Their Financial Security identifies and discusses federal and state policies and practices that actually impede the ability of youth to achieve financial stability after leaving foster care US Child Advocacy Institute (Mar 2011) Prospectus for intensive cost effective and evidence based interventions for looked after children and children on the edge of care or custody inviting bids from local authorities and their partners for financial and other support to implement a range of intensive, cost effective and evidence-based interventions for looked after children and children on the edge of care or custody who have complex and challenging behaviours which can result in out of home placements or placement breakdown. UK Education (Mar 2011)
	A Pathway of Care for Vulnerable Families (0-3) seeks to promote a shift from professional intervention for children and families only when a crisis happens to a position where prevention and early intervention are the norm. Scotland (Mar 2011) At risk youth: a transitory state? rather than counting the numbers of young people at risk, we should instead turn our attention to young people who remain detached from work, study or meaningful activities for extended periods. Aus Longitudinal Surveys of Aus Youth (Mar 2011) Teenage Kicks - The Value of Sport in Tackling Youth Crime Sports projects and mentoring are highly effective when it comes to tackling youth crime and antisocial behaviour and can save the government money UK Laureus (Mar 2011) A Worksite Parenting Program That Works Summarizes research on Talking Parents, Healthy Teens, a worksite-based parenting program  that improves communication between parents and their adolescents on sexual health. US Rand (mar 2011) Allegations against Residential Workers: Guidance on How Agencies Should Respond Keeping children safe and treating residential workers fairly, without creating 'hands off', sterile care environments is one of the biggest challenges facing care providers today. Scotland (Mar 2011) Understanding the psychology of gang violence •What is a gang?  •What factors motivate individuals to join a street gang?  •What factors maintain gang membership in prison and the community? UK Justice (Mar 2011) 2009 Worst Case Housing Needs of People with Disabilities People with disabilities face additional burdens to finding safe and affordable housing for several reasons, such as being subjected to housing discrimination and encountering limited availability of accessible housing units. US HUD (Mar 2011) Pathways and choice in a diversifying social housing system seeks to provide a better understanding of how access to social housing and mobility within the Australian social housing system are experienced by tenants, in a time of significant changes to the sector. AHURI (Mar 2011) Advice on dealing with squatters in your home UK advice aimed at homeowners and to make them aware of their rights where their property has been unlawfully occupied. UK Communities (Mar 2011) Eviction of Tenants in the Social Rented Sector: Protection of Tenants with Rent Arrears Scottish Government Response to the Consultation...to consider whether tenants in the social rented sector facing eviction for rent arrears needed extra protection. Scotland (Mar 2011) Making the Most of the Private Rented Housing Sector recommends that the Welsh Government researches the potential effectiveness and feasibility of a mandatory licensing or registration scheme for all managers of private rented sector accommodation (including landlords) UK Wales (Feb 2011) Homelessness Services Country overviews Canada, US, Australia, Europe US NAEH (Mar 2011) Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing for Survivors of Domestic Violence Increasingly domestic violence providers have included two new strategies in their toolbox to serve survivors: homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing. US NAEH (Mar 2011) Improving the Safety of Homeless Young People with Mobile Phones: Values, Form and Function Homeless young people described occurrences of harassment and violence, from police officers and other community members, as well as other homeless people. Documenting such events can empower young people to seek redress and, over time, may deter future harassment. US Uni Washington (Mar 2011)