Project Performance and Assurance Framework Guideline

Document change history

Version / Start date / Effective date / End date / Change and location /
1.0 / 04 04 16 / 04 04 16 / Original version of document

Explanatory Note

All capitalised terms have the same meaning as in the ParentsNext Deed (the Deed). In this document, ‘must’ means that compliance is mandatory and ‘should’ means that this represents preferred practice.

Disclaimer

This Guideline is not a stand-alone document and does not contain the entirety of ParentsNext Project providers’ obligations.

It must be read in conjunction with the Deed and any relevant Guidelines or reference Material issued by Department of Employment under or in connection with the Deed.

Summary

The Project Performance and Assurance Framework (the Framework) is designed to ensure that Project providers deliver quality assistance to Participants and value to Government.

Policy Intent

The Department is committed to ensuring that Project providers deliver assistance that achieves the ParentsNext objectives, to:

· target early intervention assistance to parents at risk of long-term welfare dependency

· help parents identify their education and employment related goals and participate in activities that help them achieve their goals

· connect parents to local services that can help them address their barriers to employment.

This Framework sets out how the Department will monitor and assess the performance of Projects and obtain assurance that Project providers are complying with the ParentsNext Project Guarantee, Project Delivery Plans and Deed.

Performance assessment and programme assurance will be the basis for any action taken to achieve continuous improvement and will inform the Department’s decisions to offer Project extensions beyond 30 June 2018.

The Project Performance and Assurance Framework comprises three elements:

· ongoing monitoring

· Project Reporting and formal performance assessments

· Project assurance.

Relevant Deed clause/s

The relevant clauses in the Deed include:

· Clause 1—Definitions and Interpretation

· Clause 4—General Requirements

· Clause 6—Funding Recipient’s conduct

· Clause 9—Funding Recipient’s responsibility

· Clause 14—The Department may vary certain terms

· Clause 16—Evidence to support entitlement to payments

· Clause 24—General Reporting

· Clause 25—Financial statements and guarantees

· Clause 26—Evaluation activities

· Clause 27—Programme Assurance Activities

· Clause 28—Performance assessments

· Clause 29—Customer feedback process and Customer feedback register

· Clause 39—Access to premises and Records

· Clause 45—Funding Recipient’s Personnel

· Clause 49—Dispute Resolution

· Clause 50—Funding Recipient suspension

· Clause 51—Remedies

· Clause 54—Termination or reduction in scope with costs

· Clause 55—Termination for default

· Clause 69—The Project

· Clause 70—ParentsNext Project Guarantee and Project Delivery Plan

· Clause 81—Performance Indicators

· Clause 82—Action about performance

· Clause 84—Services in the Local Government Area and excluded Referrals

· Clause 91—Monitoring

· Clause 93—Obligations in relation to Participation Plan Officers

· Annexure B1—ParentsNext Project Guarantee

· Schedule B1—Deed and Project details

· Schedule B2—Project Delivery Plan

Relevant references

Reference documents relevant to this Guideline include:

· Grant Guidelines for ParentsNext

· ParentsNext Project Guarantee

· Project Delivery Plan

· Project Reporting Guideline

· Work Readiness Assessment Guideline

Project Performance and Assurance Framework

Process

Details

Project Performance and Assurance Framework

Deed clause references:

· Clause 6

· Clause 16

· Clause 25

· Clause 26

· Clause 27

· Clause 28

· Clause 29

· Clause 49

· Clause 50

· Clause 51

/ ParentsNext Projects are subject to a Performance and Assurance Framework that will assess each Project’s performance to ensure that the Project delivers quality assistance to Participants, fulfils the conditions of ParentsNext Funding and achieves the ParentsNext objectives.
The Project Delivery Plan, Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and ParentsNext Project Guarantee are the standards against which performance is assessed.
Performance assessment is an ongoing and iterative process that supports continuous improvement. It draws on information from a range of sources, including ongoing monitoring, formal performance assessment, and assurance activities.

Performance Periods

Deed clause reference:

· Annexure A1-Definitions / There are five Performance Periods during the Term of the Deed:
1. Performance Period 1—April 2016 to June 2016, inclusive;
2. Performance Period 2—July 2016 to December 2016, inclusive;
3. Performance Period 3— January 2017 to June 2017, inclusive;
4. Performance Period 4— July 2017 to December 2017, inclusive; and
5. Overall Performance Period—4 April 2016 to 31 March 2018, inclusive.

Ongoing monitoring

Deed clause references:

· Clause 4

· Clause 6

· Clause 26

· Clause 27

· Clause 39

The Department will monitor each Project’s performance on an ongoing basis using data in the Department’s IT Systems, including but not limited to the KPI. The Department’s contract manager may contact a Project provider to discuss performance at any time.

Project providers must agree to any reasonable request by the Department to meet to discuss Project performance, access Project premises, Personnel or Material as part of the ongoing monitoring of Project performance.

Performance assessments

Deed clause references:

· Clause 4

· Clause 16

· Clause 28

A formal performance assessment will be conducted for each Performance Period. The assessment will commence shortly after the end of the Performance Period when the Department receives the Project Activity Report. The final performance assessment will occur in May-June2018 when the Department receives the Project Final Report. Refer to the Project Reporting Guideline for the dates that reports are due.

Performance assessment will examine:

· evidence in Project reports and KPI that the Project is being delivered in accordance with the Project Delivery Plan, ParentsNext Project Guarantee and Deed;
· information in the Department’s IT Systems;
· information obtained through Programme Assurance Activities;
· Customer feedback; and
· the timeliness and quality of Project reports.
In assessing performance the Department will consider factors that may be outside the control of the Project provider.

Performance feedback

Deed clause references:

· Clause 4

· Clause 28

· Clause 51

On the completion of a performance assessment the Project provider will receive written advice from the Department of the performance assessment result.

For Performance Periods 1, 2, 3, and 4 the result will be either:
· the Department’s acceptance of the Project Activity Report; or
· a request from the Department for the Project provider to resubmit the Project Activity Report with amendment and provide further information and/or underperformance actions to be taken.
For the Overall Performance Period the result will be either:
· the Department’s acceptance of the Project Final Report; or
· a request from the Department for the Project provider to resubmit the Project Final Report with amendment and provide further information and/or underperformance actions to be taken.

A Project provider or the Department may request to meet to discuss the assessment result.

If the Department assesses that a Project is underperforming, the Department will work with the Project provider to determine ways to address the issues and improve performance.

Where appropriate, feedback will involve discussions with the Project provider in relation to matters including underperformance actions, deed variations and amendments to KPI targets.

The Department may publish information about a Project provider’s performance.

Key Performance Indicators

Process

Details

Key Performance Indicators

Deed clause references:

· Clause 4

· Clause 81

/ The KPI are:
(a) The proportion of Participants who attended their Scheduled Appointments.
(b) The proportion of Participants who have entered into a Participation Plan.
(c) The proportion of Participants with an updated Participation Plan.
(d) The proportion of Compulsory Participants referred by the Project provider to at least one Compulsory Activity.
(e) The proportion of Participants referred by the Project provider to Activities.
(f) The number of Compulsory Participants and Voluntary Participants in the Project.

How are Key Performance Indicators calculated?

Deed clause reference:

· Clause 4

/ The Department’s IT Systems will calculate the KPI using administrative data, based on the rules below. Project providers can view their own KPI in the ParentsNext KPI Report available in the Department’s IT Systems.
For a given Performance Period:
KPI (a) equals the number of Participants who attended an Appointment, Initial or Scheduled, in the Performance Period, divided by the total number of Participants for that period expressed as a percentage. A Participant will be included in this KPI from the date their Initial Appointment is booked. Participants will be excluded from the report where they have been Transferred or Exited in the period.
KPI (b) equals the number of Participants who signed a Participation Plan within four weeks of their Initial Appointment (20BusinessDays) in the Performance Period, expressed as a percentage. As Participants should have an approved Participation Plan in place four weeks from their Initial Appointment, the KPI will measure the Participation Plan status of the Participant four weeks from their Initial Appointment.
KPI (c) equals the number of Participants whose Participation Plan was updated in the Performance Period within four weeks of attending a scheduled appointment, divided by the number of Participants who attended a Scheduled Appointment in the Performance Period, expressed as a percentage.
KPI (d) equals the number of Compulsory Participants with a current referral to a Compulsory Activity divided by the number of Compulsory Participants with a signed (current) Participation Plan, expressed as a percentage. Current referral statuses included are ‘Expected To Start’ and ‘Placement Confirmed'. The activity referral must be linked to a relevant compulsory activity in the Participation Plan to meet the KPI.
KPI (e) equals the number of Participants (Compulsory and Voluntary) referred by the Project provider to one or more Activities divided by the number of Participants with a signed (current) Participation Plan, expressed as a percentage.
KPI (f)-1 equals the number of Compulsory Participants in the Project.
KPI (f)-2 equals the number of Voluntary Participants in the Project.
Note: For Performance Period1 only a subset of the KPI are relevant, as specified in the template for Project Activity Report1.

KPI targets

Deed clause references:

· Clause 4

· Clause 6

/ For each of KPI (a) to (e) the target is 90percent.
There is no target for KPI (f). The Department will monitor numbers of Compulsory Participants to ensure that referrals are spread evenly across the Projects in each Local Government Area. The Department will monitor the number of Direct Registrations (Voluntary Participants) and the retention of Voluntary Participants in each Project.

ParentsNext Project Guarantee and Project Delivery Plan

Process

Details

ParentsNext Project Guarantee

Deed clause references:

· Clause 70

· Annexure A1 – Definitions

· Annexure B1 – ParentsNext Project Guarantee

/ The ParentsNext Project Guarantee outlines the expectations of both Project providers and Participants. It requires Project providers to deliver assistance in a manner that is sensitive to each Participant’s culture, circumstance and is tailored to their individual needs.
ParentsNext Project providers must adhere to the minimum standards outlined in the ParentsNext Project Guarantee.
A copy of the ParentsNext Project Guarantee must be provided to all Participants at their initial appointment and must be prominently displayed at all ParentsNext Project provider Sites.
The ParentsNext Project Guarantee can be found on the Provider Portal.

Project Delivery Plan

Deed clause references:

· Clause 24
· Clause 28
· Clause 70
· Clause 84
· Clause 91

· Annexure A1 – Definitions

· Schedule 2 – Project Delivery Plan

/ Project providers are expected to deliver high quality assistance to help Participants plan and prepare for employment.
Each ParentsNext Project must have a Project Delivery Plan that is agreed by the Department. The Project Delivery Plan is written for Participants and outlines the assistance and Activities they can expect the ParentsNext Project to deliver.
The ParentsNext Project must be delivered as specified in the Project Delivery Plan.
A copy of the Project Delivery Plan must be provided to all Participants at their Initial Appointment and must be prominently displayed at all Project provider Sites. Project providers must inform Participants about the feedback process available to them if they feel claims made in the Project Delivery Plan are not being met.
Project providers must report (in Project Activity Reports and the Project Final Report) on delivery against their Project Delivery Plans.
Project Delivery Plans for each ParentsNext Project are located on the Connections for Quality page on the jobactive powered by JobSearch website (jobsearch.gov.au).

Assessment of Project Activity Reports and Project Final Report

Process

Details

Assessment

Deed clause references:

· Clause 24

· Clause 26

· Clause 28

· Schedule 1 (Item 9)

/ Performance assessment will consider the timeliness, style and content of Project Activity Reports and the Project Final Report (Reports).
Reports must be received by the dates specified in item 9 of Schedule 1.
Reports must be written in plain English, free of typographical and grammatical errors.
Each Report must contain the information specified in the report template issued by the Department for the corresponding Performance Period.
Project reports are a main source of evidence that the Project is helping Participants to plan and prepare for employment. The assessment will look for evidence that the Project provider has fulfilled the commitments made in its Application for ParentsNext Funding and Project Delivery Plan.
Reports should include quantitative and qualitative information and draw clear links between the assistance delivered to Participants, the progress or outcomes that Participants achieve and the ParentsNext programme objectives.
The Department will not accept poor quality or incomplete Reports and may request that a Report be resubmitted until it meets an acceptable standard.
The Department’s acceptance of a Report is a pre-condition of Funding for the next Performance Period.
The Department will use Project Reports to inform decisions to extend ParentsNext Projects beyond 30June2018.

Financial statements

Deed clause references:

· Clause 25

· Schedule 1 (Item 9)

/ Project providers must submit an audited detailed statement of Project income and expenditure and an audited statement that the Funding was expended for the Project and in accordance with the Deed.
These statements must be provided to the Department in accordance with Clause25 and Item9 of Schedule1 of the Deed.

Programme Assurance Activities