Value for money and impact

Background

The evaluation of value for money and impacts of the Treatment and Recovery portfolio will compare the costs of funding the programme with the monetised societal benefits, such as improved health outcomes, reduced mortality, increased productivity and reduced criminal activity. It will use cost-benefit analysis and model different scenarios to explore how cost-benefit ratio changes under different assumptions. The evaluation of the impacts will also assess how key outcomes, such as number of people receiving or finishing treatment, have changed since the portfolio has been implemented.

This study is divided into two phases. The first phase, concluded in 2024, examined changes in outcomes descriptively, without making causal inferences. The second phase, pending confirmation, is designed to apply causal inference methods to assess the impact on outcomes of interest.

Evaluation Questions

This evaluation will seek to answer the following questions:

  • What is the overall impact of the portfolio on key outcomes?
  • What is the impact of funding tranches on key outcomes?
  • What was the value for money of the overall Treatment and Recovery Portfolio?