By Dr Julia Hinsliff, Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government
Image courtesy of iStock
As highlighted in the Independent Review of the Australian Public Service, good evaluation is a cornerstone of evidence-based policy making. With support of the APS Reform Office’s Capability Reinvestment Fund (CRF), four APS agencies are working together to uplift the APS’ evaluation skills.
The Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA, PM&C), Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR), Services Australia and the Australian Centre for Evaluation (Treasury) are collaborating on a project to help APS policy makers understand key evaluation concepts and help them apply them in their work. The goal is not to make every policy officer an expert in policy evaluation, rather, to provide them with tools and knowledge to incorporate evaluation into policy and program design. This will lead to better evidence about what works and why, which enables program officers to know if their programs are achieving their intended outcomes.
An e-learning package of four interactive modules with examples and case studies to help illustrate core concepts is in development. The four modules will cover:
- Introduction to evaluation in the Commonwealth Government. Led by the Australian Centre for Evaluation, this module will explain what evaluation is, introduce key terms and concepts, and set out why evaluation is important for Commonwealth Government employees.
- Program logic. Led by DEWR, this module will introduce policy officers to the discipline of program logic, explain why and how it is useful and how it can be used to support high quality monitoring and evaluation.
- Benefits management. Led by Services Australia, this module will cover the basics of benefits management, how it applies to broader evaluation activities, and how it can be used in investment prioritisation and decision-making.
- Randomisation. Led by BETA, this module will explain why randomisation is a useful and easy to apply process to enable robust evaluation.
The project partners are currently developing the content, interactive elements and supporting tools for the e-learning modules. With an e-learning developer coming on-board in early 2024, the final package will be available to APS staff via APSLearn in July 2024.