4.3: Australian Institute of Family Studies

The 1997-1998 Portfolio Budget Statements, informs Senators and Members of Parliament of the proposed allocation of resources to portfolios outcomes and their objectives and targets including the agencies within the Health and Family Services portfolio.

In this section:

Budget Measures

Objective

Promote, conduct and disseminate fundamental and applied research on factors influencing the capacity of Australian families to function effectively.

Priority outcomes

Research on factors influencing family well-being is policy relevant.
Government and other relevant bodies concerned with family well-being are aware of the outcomes of Institute and other research findings and their implications for the development of family policy and the design of programs and services to promote family well-being.
Promote public understanding and inform the policy process about factors affecting marital and family well-being.

Strategies

Develop and implement a research program to address the areas of family functioning.
The timely documentation of Institute and other research findings in widely accessible and professionally produced publications.
The provision of a comprehensive national information resource on family related matters.

Performance assessment: indicators and targets

Effectiveness

Indicator	Target	Information source and reporting frequency
The Institute is recognised as a leader in the provision of family related research (Priority Outcome 2; Strategy 3)	Institute research is assessed as high quality	Feedback from agencies and other customers
Amount of press coverage of Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) outputs (Priority Outcome 3; Strategy 2)	Institute work is often referred to in the media	Number of reports in the media
Extent to which AIFS services are utilised by relevant Government agencies and service providers (Priority Outcome 1; Strategy 1)	That all relevant governments, associated agencies and service providers utilise the Institute's services	Internal monitoring systems

Efficiency

Indicator	Target	Information source and reporting frequency
Costs of overheads as a proportion of budget (Priority Outcomes 1, 2, 3; Strategies1, 2, 3)	Reduction in proportion allocated to overheads	Annual Financial Statements

Quality

Indicator	Target	Information source and reporting frequency
Standard of research as assessed by Ministers, clients and peers (Priority Outcome 1; Strategy 1)	Standard rated as high by all	Solicited or ad hoc feedback from client groups and frequency of repeat business
Standard of information as assessed by Ministers and clients including service providers (Priority Outcome 2; Strategy 2)	Standard rated as high by all	Solicited or ad hoc feedback from client groups and frequency of repeat business

Performance assessment: evaluation

No major evaluations are planned for this Sub-program in 1997-98.

How the program is resourced: reconciliation of appropriations to the program and summary of portfolio outlays (Excel 57 KB)

Variations to Program Outlays 1996-97 to 1997-98 (Excel 21 KB)