The budget department of the government of Victoria State in the southeast of Australia has created the Early Intervention Investment Framework (EIIF) with the aim to guide early intervention policy and budget proposals that focus to improve lives of inhabitants by linking government’s funding to quantifiable impacts.
Victoria State Government’s Early Intervention Investment Framework
Abstract
The Victorian Government introduced the Early Intervention Investment Framework (EIIF) in 2021 with the aim of improving outcomes for Victorian service users through timely and effective assistance and to reduce the growth of acute services expenditures of the government, which had been on the rise since 2010. The framework has since then been embedded in the annual budget process and is applied to government funding through this process. The EIIF now aims to provide a basis for trialling innovative early intervention initiatives, ensuring that evidence on the effectiveness of initiatives is collected and reported, and allowing for successful initiatives to be scaled up.
The EIIF is a policy framework developed to promote evidence-based, data-driven early intervention initiatives. Its primary aim is to help line departments create well-supported policy proposals by focusing on early intervention, addressing challenges such as long-term benefits that may take years to materialise, and costs and benefits spread across different portfolios. The Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) leads the process, assisting departments in gathering data and conducting analyses to assess the future impact of proposed policies.
It operates in phases throughout the budget cycle. Once a new budget is announced, departments begin formulating new policy initiatives by identifying potential outcome measures and estimating avoided costs. These proposals must detail the expected outcomes and outline cost-saving estimates in their business cases. The DTF plays a central role in reviewing these submissions to ensure that outcome measures and cost estimates are robust and consistent across departments. By collaborating with line departments, the DTF ensures that any issues are addressed, creating a standardized approach for evaluating avoided costs and developing outcome expectations. This data-driven policy design and ongoing evaluation approach is a key focus of the EIIF. Initiatives funded under the EIIF are required to include measurable outcome indicators, which are used to track their success. These indicators, reviewed annually, may cover improvements in well-being, such as health or safety, or reflect cost savings through avoided crisis spending, such as reduced hospital admissions or homelessness prevention. This data-based evaluation helps fine-tune programs, ensuring that early intervention strategies are continuously improving.
Since its launch, the Victorian Government has invested 2.7 billion Australian dollars through the EIIF, with 1.1 billion allocated in the 2024-2025 budget for early intervention initiatives. These investments focus on addressing complex social challenges like family violence, homelessness, and youth justice, aiming to provide long-term societal benefits while reducing immediate costs to acute services. EIIF investments are publicly available on the government’s website, with the aim of offering transparency and outlining the intended outcomes of each funded initiative.
Victoria State Government Department of Treasury and Finance (2024), The Early Intervention Investment Framework (web page), https://www.dtf.vic.gov.au/early-intervention-investment-framework#:~:text=The%20Victorian%20Government's%20Early%20Intervention,outcomes%20across%20the%20service%20system
Victoria State Government Department of Treasury and Finance (2024), EEIF Presentation and Toolkit for 7th OECD World Forum on Well-being, https://www.dtf.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-11/OECD-Wellbeing-Forum_-EIIF-Presentation-and-Toolkit.pptx
Victoria State Government Department of Treasury and Finance (2024), The Early Intervention Investment Framework: Tools and Resources (web page), https://www.dtf.vic.gov.au/eiif-tools-and-resources
Victoria State Government Department of Treasury and Finance (202), EIIF Initiatives funded in 2024-2025 budget, https://www.dtf.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-11/2024-25-BP3-Appendix-B.docx
Victoria State Government Department of Treasury and Finance (2023), EIIF Initiatives funded in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 budgets, https://www.dtf.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-10/2021-22-and-2022-23-early-intervention-initiatives.pdf
Victoria State Government Department of Treasury and Finance (2023), The Early Intervention Investment Framework: A Considered and Collaborative Approach, https://www.dtf.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-10/Early-Intervention-Investment-Framework-A-considered-and-collaborative-approach-FINAL-PDF.PDF
OECD (2024), How’s Life in your country? Country notes, Australia, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/how-s-life-2024-country-notes_2603b12c-en/australia_a7123970-en.html
