A major thrust of policy and practice within human services in recent years has been the implementation of evidence-based practices. However, despite the wide-spread use of such evidence-based programs and strategies, we are not always getting the kind of results we would expect when we try to apply these strategies in real world settings. In...

In December 2013 the Australian Government established the Royal Commission into the Home Insulation Program, led by Mr Ian Hanger AM QC, which reported to the government in September 2014. The Government asked Professor Peter Shergold AC to lead an independent review of government processes for the development and implementation of large public programmes and...

The Parenting Research Centre was commissioned by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to evaluate the extent to which 288 recommendations from 67 inquiries selected by the Royal Commission had been implemented, and the possible factors that determined, contributed to, or were barriers to successful implementation. The report found that 64%...

This toolkit helps development professionals discover, adapt and apply proven ideas for better results. It features widely used tools each with references for deeper exploration. Designed for all policy stages, it enables users to choose relevant resources tailored to their project’s needs and phase in the policy cycle.

At the request of the Prime Minister, this report has been designed to explore in greater detail the issues that were brought to light in an earlier discussion paper, Towards better use of evidence in policy formation (2011). This paper extends that discussion and makes some specific suggestions as to how to improve the use...