2024 Year in Review
As we approach the end of the year, The NSW Office of Social Impact Investment (OSII) would like to take the opportunity to reflect on our learnings and actions this year, particularly as we, together with dedicated partners, progress on our priorities under the Social Impact Investment Policy 2022-2025 (SII Policy).
Our commitment to growing social impact through innovative, outcome focused partnerships has led to several key milestones.
1. Advancing education outcomes for First Nations girls
OSII released the second stage of the tender opportunity seeking to advance the education outcomes for First Nations girls. We continued to adapt our tender processes to be more accessible for Stage 2 applicants, offering joint briefings and one-on-one workshop sessions. We are excited to have started Joint Development Phase with the Department of Communities and Justice and the Aboriginal organisations selected by a cross-agency panel.
2. Health outcomes social impact investments
Our two health social impact investments finished service delivery after seven years. These outcome-focused partnerships delivered community-based mental health (Resolve) and palliative care (Silverchain) programs, supporting over 6,600 people.
Alongside our partners on this journey, we adapted our service delivery, measurement and partnership approaches to better support program participants in response to changes in the sector and our learnings along the way. We look forward to sharing the final evaluation reports when complete.
3. Commonwealth-State partnerships
We continued our collaboration with service providers, the Commonwealth, the NSW Department of Communities and Justice and Homes NSW to deliver initiatives including Foyer Central and Opportunity Pathways, aiming to share data and streamline outcome measurement to remain relevant and practical.
We worked closely with NSW agencies to identify suitable programs for social impact investment and supported the preparation of proposals for the Commonwealth Outcomes Fund’s first Expression of Interest. This collaboration aims to foster an outcomes-focused approach across NSW.
4. Supporting women focused social enterprises
Five job-focused social enterprises to advance the economic wellbeing of women have supported over 300 women in their first year. The social enterprises are also collaborating and sharing insights on how best to support women facing barriers to employment and service delivery under a SII framework.
In partnership with Social Enterprise Finance Australia (Sefa) and Social Impact Hub, our Social Enterprise Capability Building Program continued to provide tailored capability building support to help women-focused social enterprises develop, grow and maximise their social impact for women facing disadvantage in NSW. This included supporting social enterprises in the Northern Rivers and Riverina/Murray regions together with local partners in these communities.
5. Knowledge sharing in the community of practice
OSII continued our knowledge sharing partnerships with the Commonwealth, States and Territories by contributing to the co-design of the Commonwealth’s $100 million Outcomes Fund with Commonwealth Treasury, the Department of Social Services, and other States and Territories.
We also presented at the University of Oxford Government Outcomes Lab’s annual Social Outcomes Conference, sharing our experiences in reaching marginalised communities and enhancing inclusion in outcome-based service provision.
6. Growing the NSW Sustainability Bond Programme
In collaboration with TCorp and the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water, we expanded the NSW Sustainability Bond Programme asset pool by $450 million in FY24. This included a new tranche of social housing capital maintenance. A new green project, Sydney Metro City and Southwest, was added to the asset pool in July 2024, with the first tranche of the project confirmed shortly after the 30 June 2024 reporting date.
Looking Ahead
As we move into 2025, OSII remains committed to driving social impact through outcome focused partnerships. For more information on the actions we have taken to progress the SII policy, please see
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SII Policy 2.0 actions delivered 2024 (PDF 228.45KB)We extend our thanks to all our partners, stakeholders, and community members who we are on this journey with. We look forward to building new partnerships and continuing to work together to create positive change for the people of NSW.
Wishing you a happy and healthy new year,
The OSII team