Scenario planning for times of great uncertainty – audio

Covid-19 has had a massive impact on the social sector, not least in making planning for future demand extremely challenging. Using scenarios proved a valuable way to understand potential impacts on demand in the Victorian child and family services sector, given the many uncertainties.

Summary
  • SVA partnered with Berry Street, Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare and Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency to understand the emerging and future impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable families and children so that the sector could get a clearer sense of the potential increase in demand for child protection and out-of-home care in Victoria.
  • This work built on an earlier report which demonstrated the economic case for additional government investment into targeted, early intervention programs to support more Victorian children to avoid out-of-home care.
  • The team used scenario planning to demonstrate that under all scenarios more families will be in need of support due to Covid-19. Based on these scenarios, SVA was also able to quantify the additional social and economic benefits of investment in early intervention programs.
  • Scenarios can be a useful tool to provide some certainty in a time of great uncertainty which could include contributing to a better understanding of demand for services or providing an evidence base for advocacy for additional funding.

Authors Nancy Tran and Susie King; read by Nancy Tran.

Read the article
Hosted by
Nancy Tran
Nancy Tran
Copied to clipboard

Related information

  • Page
Consulting

From helping grow an idea, to measuring long-term impact, we provide specialist consulting services to support organisations increase their social purpose and impact.
  • First Nations
  • Quarterly Article
Modelling First Nations workforce demand in Victoria

Our workforce demand model for VACCHO forecast that Victorian ACCOs will need to grow their workforce by an average 120% by 2037.
  • Early Years
  • Quarterly Article
Mapping child and family hardship across Australia

Around 107,000 Australian children from 0-6 years are experiencing significant socioeconomic disadvantage. Understanding where these children are helps us better advocate for the services they need.