Newpin

Newpin was Australia’s first social impact bond and aims to restore children in out-of-home care to the care of their parents, by creating a safe and supportive family environment.

Parents outside home watching child on scooter
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About the program

Newpin is an intensive, centre-based family restoration program that helps parents build positive relationships with their children through a therapeutic approach.  

The program is delivered by Uniting and draws on key elements of formal and informal group work, peer support and attachment-based relationship building to deliver parent education supports within a welcoming, safe and home-like environment. 

Key features

Investment type: Social impact bond

Private investor capital: $7 million

Expected government payments: up to $47 million 

Contract length: 7 years 3 months (starting 2013) 

Partners: 

Outcome payment metrics: Restoration rate, the proportion of children in out-of-home care attending Newpin who are restored to the care of their families, measured in comparison to a counterfactual restoration rate of 20%. 

More information on the structure and details of the bond can be found in the Newpin information memorandum (PDF 2.72MB).

Where we are now

In 2020, the Newpin social impact bond reached maturity after 7 years of operation. Over its term, Newpin restored 391 children to the care of their families, representing an overall restoration rate of 60.9%.  This delivered a financial return to investors of 10.0% per annum.

Further details on the final results can be found in the Newpin Final Evaluation Report (PDF 3.3MB) and 2020 Annual Investor Report (PDF 3.17MB). 

Newpin continues to be funded by the Department of Communities and Justice as a payment-by-results contract.

Key learnings

Programs need to adapt to the policy environment and changing needs of participants to ensure effectiveness. 

The evaluation found that the Newpin model continued to be strengthened by evolving and responding to changing needs over time. This included responding to broader policy changes with the introduction of the Permanency Support Program (PSP). PSP focused on reducing the number of children entering out-of-home care and increased the number of services working with families, in turn reducing the need for the planned Newpin expansion.  

With PSP impacting demand for Newpin, particularly preservation services, the program shifted at the end of the social impact bond to focus only on families seeking restoration. The Department of Communities and Justice and Uniting actively work to raise awareness of the program with caseworkers to support referrals. 

Newpin also adapted its model to a non-gendered approach to work with both mothers and fathers in each centre. This change recognised the increasing number of fathers and couples seeking restoration and provided the opportunity to model healthy and respectful relationships. 

Evaluations

Newpin story

2:02

Newpin - Family and Community Services NSW

Newpin empowers families to break the cycle of child neglect and abuse and to provide safe, nurturing environments for children.

Read transcript
Video transcript

Newpin - Family and Community Services NSW

[On-screen text]

Newpin empowers families to break the cycle of child neglect and abuse and to provide safe, nurturing environments for children.

[Woman]

Our daughter was two and a half, three when she was removed.

[Man]

We were way down the rabbit hole. Our lives was going completely to pieces. We had no choice but to get her back, we couldn't let her think that we didn't at least try.

[Woman]

I was very emotional because I had three other kids taken off me a year before and I was ready to give up. Newpin came and the workers gave me a lot of hope.

[Jen Spaleta - Family Worker, Uniting Newpin]

Newpin lends itself to families that are really ready to make that change. The end goal is restoration, so putting families back together and staying together.

[Vivian Alarcon - Coordinator, Uniting Newpin Ingleburn]

Newpin works under core values of safety, empathy, equality, respect and self-determination and that's how we run every day and the families use that to start establishing their own values for home life.

[Phil York - Coordinatior, Uniting Port Kembla]

The difference in Uniting's Newpin program is our therapeutic approach. We want lifelong restorations and we do that working through our attachment-based theory and trauma-informed process.

[Jen Spaleta - Family Worker, Uniting Newpin]

Families attend twice a week, they attend the therapeutic support group on one day and they attend another day for their personal development program and then there's also opportunity for contact with their children.

[Vivian Alarcon - Coordinator, Uniting Newpin Ingleburn]

The relationships that they make here is a basis for them recognising how positive relationships could look like because for most of them they haven't had that.

[Woman]

All my relationships have been domestic violence. I thought I was doing that by myself but when I started here, I met a lot of parents and they were on the same journey as I was. It gave me a sense of control over everything.

[Woman 2]

I'd like to become the best mother that I can be for my two little girls so they don't go down the same road I went down.

[Man]

If you've got kids, you've an excuse straight out of the gate. You've got no choice. The advantages are there if you just put your head down and go for it.

To find out more go to www.facs.nsw.gov.au/protecting-our-kids

 

 

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