Appropriateness of Applying an Annual Population Growth Adjustment to Community Sector Contracts
Summary
ACT Government sought expert advice from the University of Western Australia on the appropriateness of applying a population adjustment to community sector contracts. You can access that advice here. The ACT Government position is that applying a population adjustment alongside indexation is one way to amend community sector contracts to adjust for population and increased service demand but isn’t the only or necessarily most appropriate tool available to government to achieve this objective.
The Government recognises that change in overall population may not reliably predict change in need for priority group cohorts. It also notes there would be unintended consequences of such an adjustment, including less flexibility to direct funding to emerging priorities, and advantaging existing contract holders. The ACT Government will not be applying a population adjustment alongside existing indexation, but will be delivering policy, process and practice reform across all of its levers to better respond to change in both demand and cost of service delivery.