Independent recognition of the Our Place approach increases
Recognition of the impact and value of the Our Place approach and the importance of supporting children and families in holistic, school-centred approaches is increasing. This has been highlighted in a number of recent public reports and events.
The impact of Our Place was recognised by Professor Glyn Davis AC, Secretary – Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, in his recent Kenneth Myer Lecture.
While discussing how government and philanthropy can work together to break cycles of disadvantage, Professor Davis profiled Our Place as a leading example of a place-based program that emphasises partnerships and community collaboration.
“Little-by-little, community-by-community, these partnerships create social capital, and shape how policy is made and services are delivered.”
An independent in-principle impact assessment by Dandolo Partners has confirmed that the Our Place approach is consistent with best practice and is on track to achieve education outcomes
The assessment concluded that “the implementation process of an Our Place site is consistent with best practice, which includes developing collaborative relationships with the community and services, establishing shared governance, and articulating a defined vision. Our Place measures progress of implementation against actions that can be monitored, called implementation markers.”
“Our Place sites have been designed and implemented in line with the current evidence base, therefore we can reasonably expect Our Place sites will contribute to improved outcomes for disadvantage communities in the future.”
The National Child and Family Hubs Network developed a video to profile the work of Our Place.
The video featured site partners and community members at Our Place Frankston North to demonstrate the value of integrated child and family hubs located at schools. Our Place was chosen as an example of a best-practice school-based community hub.
A Commonwealth Government review has recommended greater adoption of full-service school models.
Improving Outcomes for All, the report of the Independent Expert Panel’s Review to Inform a Better and Fairer Education System, recommends the full-service school model to be more widely implemented to better meet the needs of students experiencing disadvantage and a review of how services and education interact to improve effectiveness.
The report also stressed that successful full-service schools were locally driven and had cross-sector collaboration with support for partnership development such as a “partnership broker”, which aligns with Our Place’s role that we refer to as The Glue.
Our Place was consulted as part of the review process by The Independent Expert Panel, who visited the Our Place Frankston North site in 2023. A total of seven reform directions were recommended with Recommendation 2B focused on full-service school models.
Social Ventures Australia’s Impact at Scale paper features a case study on Our Place, profiling the expansion from our lighthouse site at Doveton College to ten communities across Victoria.
The paper explores the topic of impact at scale within the Australian social sector, convening over 100 leaders from across the public, private, philanthropic and non-government sectors to test and share emerging insights and perspectives.
The case study focuses on the ways that Our Place has effectively partnered with government and philanthropy through shared governance and vision, leading to a strong authorising environment for local service systems to operate in new ways.