Side by Side Social Impact Bond     

Dear investor,

As the first year of the Side by Side program draws to a close, it is timely to provide an update on progress, and in particular the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and changes that have been agreed to mitigate that impact. More detail will be provided in the Side by Side SIB Annual Report, which we expect to provide to investors around March 2022.

Program update

The Side by Side team is currently working with participating schools to enrol the second cohort of children. Three schools in the Gippsland region have joined the program and will commence their ‘whole school transformation’ engagement early next year.

The team has experienced some turnover in the family support roles, but most other positions are now filled, including in the new region. The two remaining family support roles will be filled by Berry Street and VACCA once enrolments for the 2022 cohort are finalised early next year.

Covid-19 impact on service delivery

While the Side by Side team have adapted their services to adjust to periods of lockdown and remote learning through 2021, support to this year’s cohort of students has been unavoidably impacted. Access to classroom teachers for goal setting, planning and collaboration was limited, as was face to face engagement with families.

It is expected that this year’s cohort will require a greater intensity of support during 2022 than originally planned. It is also expected that Covid-19 has generated new or heightened existing complexities and challenges for students and families enrolling in the Side by Side program in the future. Berry Street and VACCA will work with schools and families to understand what additional support is needed and will focus on developing strong links with other relevant services.

Despite the challenges, the program had many successes, developing trusting relationships with families and helping some students achieve excellent literacy improvements.

“Before Side by Side, I wasn't even good, I was bad.
Now I'm better at learning and listening.”

Side by Side student

Above all else, the Victorian Government, Berry Street, VACCA and Social Ventures Australia agree that the Side by Side program is now more relevant than ever to re-engage students experiencing disadvantage, following the significant disruption to the education setting in Victoria over the past 18 months.

“The program has helped my child be more interested in doing schoolwork and the help that he gets from the workers in the program pushes him to be better and love the school. He was hating school before he started the program.”

Side by Side parent

Covid-19 impact on outcome measurement

As outlined in the Side by Side SIB Information Memorandum, the core outcome metric for the program is school attendance. For the first cohort of students, the impact of Covid-19 was anticipated. As such, the Referral Year Days Absent in 2020 were deemed to be at a level such that the Attendance Improvement (Intervention Year) was equal to the ‘Target’ level of improvement of 22%. Once the final actual attendance figures for 2021 are determined, the Referral Year Days Absent will be calculated.

For the second cohort of students, Covid-19 has had a greater impact than was originally anticipated, with a material impact on student attendance in 2021 (the ‘referral year’). All of the parties to the Side by Side contracts acknowledge that attendance improvement data is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of underlying engagement and the impact of the Side by Side program next year.

Over the past few months, the parties have collaboratively engaged in discussions to work through the impact of Covid-19 and determine the most appropriate path forward, with an objective of providing certainty and a fair outcome for all parties in a timely manner.

It has been agreed that the fairest and most straightforward approach is to extend the ‘deeming’ of the Referral Year Days Absent for an additional year. The same approach will be taken for the 2022 cohort as for the 2021 cohort to mitigate the impact of Covid-19.

While the Attendance Improvement (Intervention Year) will effectively be fixed at the Target level of 22% for the 2022 cohort, the actual impact of Covid-19 on attendance and engagement will be explored as part of the Annual Review process.

Details on the outcomes for the 2021 cohort and the make-up of the 2022 cohort, along with further information about the program’s progress, will be shared in the 2022 Side by Side SIB Annual Report.

Kind regards,

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