Our Services

The Social Outcomes Lab has two arms that work together to translate evidence into action and catalyse social change. Through our two arms, we provide a complete suite of services to assist you in maximising your social impact.

Economics and Management Consulting

Specialist economics and management consulting services for the health and human services sectors.

Learn more...

Action Lab

In our action lab we design, implement and test the impact of social change projects.

Learn more...

Economics

Economics and Management Consulting

We are experts in the economics of human services and provide a range of services to help to assist in the development and implementation of strategic efforts to achieve social impact. Some of our key offerings are described below.

Operations and implementation support

We provide a broad range of implementation support services that are tailored to the needs of our clients, these include developing project implementation plans, facilitating stakeholder engagement, monitoring and evaluation services, project reviews and assurance, modelling, designing tools and resources, as well as developing outcomes and measures of success.

We are with you every step of the journey because the pursuit and achievement of your social objectives are important to us. Together, we will determine what success looks like for your project.

Strategy, Reform and Policy Design

Strategy and policy design is an essential component of human services delivery, especially in an increasingly complex and reform driven environment. At the Social Outcomes Lab, we thrive on complexity. We work across all levels of the human services sector from caseworkers to policy makers to senior public service executives. We know the importance of strategy that understands how different parts and people in a system interact with and impact each other to drive positive outcomes.

We take an evidence-based approach and work collaboratively with clients to tackle complex challenges and reform such as designing innovative pilot programs, developing communications resources, capturing supply and demand needs to address sector development, strategy and cultural change.

Economic Analysis and Evaluation

We have strong expertise in the economics of human services, monitoring and evaluation. We provide services such as outcomes measurement and review, benefit-cost analysis, resource allocation modelling, return on investment analysis, develop proposals for social impact investment, benefits estimation of interventions, program impact, forecasting and predictive analytics.

Effective analysis, monitoring and evaluation are essential components of human services delivery – both to ensure that services are delivered efficiently but also to ensure that the value of the services that are being delivered can be demonstrated. It is also essential in determining whether or not it is feasible to run an initiative in the first place, as well as assessing the impacts of risk.

Outcomes Framework and Measurement

We provide end to end services in measuring outcomes including developing outcomes frameworks and models, defining measures, developing data collection plans, designing and implementing surveys, analysing results and recommending a course of action based on the analysis.

Measuring outcomes is becoming increasingly important in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of initiatives. Outcomes measurement is not only tied to the ability to receive funding, but also imperative in the mission to achieve positive social outcomes. Understanding how a program is tracking enables the refinement and tailoring of an initiative to ensure that all the hard work and dedication of the people that are running programs and services is going to be worth it.

Action Lab

Our Action Lab focuses on designing, implementing and testing the impact of social change initiatives in addressing complex social issues.

We follow a process that aligns with the notion that tackling social change requires innovation and experimentation with a culture of try, test and learn.

For any social issue, we start by unpacking the issue and really understanding the underlying causes, design a new way of tackling it, prototype the solution and then measure the outcomes.

The lab brings together communities and stakeholders together to design, test and scale initiatives to solve key social issues. We also work with private corporations and public agencies to develop new and innovative ways to create and partner with social enterprises.

We love the work that we do in our lab. As a result of our lab work, we have designed social change initiatives to tackle the following:

Persistent unemployment
Food waste
Domestic and family violence
Economic empowerment for CALD women
Loneliness among older people
Economic outcomes for women returning to work

From our action lab: A social change initiative to tackle unemployment, food security and waste

Action Lab

The Action Lab is where it all happens!

Improving social outcomes is complex and difficult, but not impossible. We look to the vast amount of research and analytical work that is undertaken in the human services space to inform new ways of improving social outcomes.