Womens Health Business Case Report

Together, these groups are the most prevalent service users and are provided with preferential access to Women’s Health services. As government cost savings do not distinguish the profile of service users, it is important to note that the non-valued benefits described above are distributed more heavily towards disadvantaged groups within the community. Therefore, Women’s Health Centre service users deliver a more significant relative value impact from these services, compared with the general population. 3.4.7 Recurrent Funding As this proposal supports a business case for annual recurrent funding, we have identified single year benefit rather than a series of funding contract year benefits. Our assumption is that the positive annual benefit return relative to the proposed annual funding costs remains consistent throughout the life of the funding contract. Given the stability of service delivery and strong outcomes against the existing NSW Health KPI measures, this is a valid assumption for the benefit/cost assessment. This benefit/cost analysis has been prepared with reference to the guidance contained in NSW Government TPP17-03 (Guide to Cost-Benefit Analysis) and TPP18-06 (Business Case Guidelines). 3.4.8 Future Client Volume Any future annual rate of increase in client volumes (and therefore a corresponding increase in the value of client and government benefits) that exceeds the annual rate of funding increase agreed within the future funding contract, will result in the benefit to cost ratio continuing to rise and generate further net benefit to government. Options for future client volume management are potentially to: 1. Cap client numbers and/or occasions of service at a growth rate that does not exceed any annual real funding rate increase. 2. Build into the contract an annual real funding increase metric based on the increased rate of clients or target occasions of service. 3.5 Financial Health & Support Proposed levels of investment will enable each Women’s Health Centre to deliver the Women’s Health Program sustainably over the next 3 years.

3.4.5 Non-Valued Benefits Our approach to valuing the benefits of Women’s Health services only recognises a part of the full benefits of the services. It specifically considers costs borne directly by the NSW Government. The presented benefits are a significant under-assessment of the total avoided costs achieved through primary health services because the value calculation generally excludes the substantial and well-evidenced costs borne by individuals (women and children), communities, employers, and intergenerational impacts on children/family. The exclusion of these non-valued benefits adds further to the conservative nature of the benefits value estimated. Best practice valuation of social benefits would ideally measure both avoided costs for governments and the value of improved subjective well-being for individual clients. As part of this proposal for sustainable investment, Women’s Health NSW is proposing an outcomes framework and approach to outcomes measurement that would enable more comprehensive measurement and reporting of well-being values going forward. 3.4.6 Benefit Distribution The network of 20 Women’s Health Centres across NSW provides direct support to address the health needs of over 50,000 women of all ages each year. Women’s Health Centres have a client base representing more highly disadvantaged groups in the community. This includes women and children from lower socio- economic backgrounds, as well as those experiencing further levels of disadvantage including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and women from CALD backgrounds.

Appendix B (Supplementary Publication) provides links to financial statements and annual information statements for eachWomen’s Health organisation.

55

Women’s Health NSW – October 2022