CSI CEO to Move on but NFP Future Still in Focus

Australia must re-imagine its health, education and welfare systems to deliver continuously improving productivity, the CEO of the Centre for Social Impact, Andrew Young, has warned on the day of the federal budget.

Young, who has told the board of CSI that he won’t be seeking a renewal of his five-year contract when it expires at the end of 2016, said the federal budget had given him cause to reflect on the future of the Not for Profit sector.

“[Australia] needs to move beyond the binary debate about raising more taxes versus cutting services. In this week’s federal budget context in particular there will be a lot of focus on winners and losers,” Young said.

“In the big picture… there is a lot of money in the social purpose system, and we will not see the rapid per-capita growth in these expenditures in the next few decades that we have seen in the past.”

In April CSI published, with PwC, a report quantifying the social purpose market in Australia, estimating total expenditures on health, welfare, education and housing/development across government, Not for Profit and for-profit sectors.

The report found that Australia spends more than half a trillion dollars annually on social purpose goods and services directed at health, welfare and education, including more than $78 billion within the Not for Profit sector.

“Looking forward, the key question is how to maximise the use of the resources we have, to deliver the best social, education and health outcomes we can. Or how can we double the productivity (the outcomes per dollar spent) of our social purpose expenditures in the next 30 years?” Young said.

“We must re-imagine our health, education and welfare systems to deliver continuously improving productivity. This is a systemic challenge and it will never be addressed with more-vs-less arguments, debates about short-term funding priorities or price-based competitive tendering processes.

“In one respect the answer is very simple: if we can improve the outcomes we deliver per dollar spent at just the rate of 2.3 per cent per annum, we will double the outcomes we deliver per dollar spent in 30 years,” he said.

On his resignation, Andrew Young said that after a lot of consideration he had decided not to seek renewal of his contract in favour of exploring new opportunities from 2017.

The Centre for Social Impact is a collaboration of three universities: UNSW Australia, Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Western Australia. It was established through funds from the federal government, four founding corporate supporters and four philanthropic contributions.

CSI board chair Richard Henry said Young had built upon the platform created by CSI’s first CEO, Professor Peter Shergold.

“Since taking up the role early in 2012, Andrew has developed and implemented a five-year strategic plan greatly increasing CSI’s reach and impact and establishing CSI’s financial sustainability,” Henry said.

“Under Andrew’s leadership the CSI nodes at UNSW Australia, University of Western Australia and Swinburne University of Technology have achieved critical mass, with CSI now employing 60 people nationally.”

He said CSI had played a key leadership role in social impact research across Australia.

“In the last 12 months CSI staff produced over 60 quality academic publications as well as a variety of reports and resources reports for the community, and its academic staff won multiple awards and promotions. CSI has a strong profile in industry-relevant projects including critical work with the ACNC and a wide range of government departments, Not for Profit sector and corporate sector collaborations,” Henry said.

Andrew Young told Pro Bono Australia News that his decision not to seek renewal of his contract marked the start of a search for his next role.

“I hope to practice what I have preached as CSI’s leader – about the keys to increasing impact. I am excited at the prospect of taking on a new challenge and know that I take a wealth of CSI experience with me to do so,” he said.

The CSI board and the university partners said they were planning a recruitment process for his successor.