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Paper short abstract

This presentation demonstrates how developmental evaluation and a novel, complexity-aware VFI were combined to accommodate uncertainty, diverse forms of value, and evidence to enhance learning and adaptation in a complex, rapidly changing public-sector systems change initiative.

Paper long abstract

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing in Australia is comprehensively reforming the aged care system, including investing $77 million in a networked stewardship approach. Such a dynamic and complex policy initiative creates challenges for evaluation that many evaluators and commissioners will be similarly grappling with. Recognising the need for an innovative and adaptive approach, the Australian Government commissioned a three-year developmental evaluation that included a Value for Money/Investment (VFI) component.

We will present how we combined developmental evaluation and complexity-aware VFI to bridge the gap between operational learning and adaptation and future policy decision-making. We will share how our approach accommodated uncertainty, integrated diverse forms of evidence and stakeholder views, and enhanced the capacity for learning and adaptation in complex and rapidly changing systems-change initiatives. This supports the conference sub-themes of ‘influencing policy and programme change through evaluation’ and ‘building evaluation cultures’ by demonstrating how iterative and deliberative evaluation cycles supported decision-making, learning, and the delivery of a complex and dynamic initiative.

We will pay particular attention to how we used participatory and user-centred methods to support reflection and learning, including in our rubric-based VFI approach, which was grounded in democratic deliberation. Our VFI evaluation used a novel approach to considering the diverse types of value created through complex and systems-change initiatives, including the potential value to create future systems change, which is often overlooked. We will also share the challenges and practical strategies we used to manage the resource and time demands of iterative cycles and deliberative processes, as well as the need for evaluator competencies in systems thinking, facilitation, and relational awareness. This will be a highly practical session, as well as presenting some new thinking and lessons learned about combining developmental and VFI approaches.