This report explores how governments can overcome barriers to deliver high-quality impact evaluations to contribute to policy development. It sets out the main evaluation methods available, ranging from randomised trials to quasi-experimental approaches, and highlights the conditions under which each can be applied.

The Excluded Initiative was a campaign to reduce school exclusions, that is, to help schools build their own inclusion capacity and tackle the root causes of suspensions and exclusions. The initiative reached over 500 young people, over half of whom were eligible for free school meals and a third had special educational needs or disabilities...

Transition to Work aims to provide intensive pre-employment support to improve the work readiness of young people at risk of long-term unemployment and help them into work or education. This evaluation focused on the program's impact on participants’ human capabilities, recidivism, longer-term impacts and the extension of the maximum duration of service.

This paper estimates the employment effects of the first six months of the JobKeeper program over the following year, which includes the height of the COVID‑19 recession in Australia and subsequent rapid recovery.

This report provides a final comprehensive evaluation of the jobactive employment services model. The program followed a 'work first' approach framework aimed at moving job seekers into employment rapidly, reducing welfare dependence, introducing stronger mutual obligations, and optimising service flexibility for providers.