SUPPORTED ACCOMMODATION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SAAP) NATIONAL DATA COLLECTION (OVERVIEW)

Brief description

The National Data Collection Agency (NDCA) was established within the Supported Accommodation and Crisis Services Unit (SACS) of the AIHW to administer the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) National Data Collection (NDC). The aim of SAAP is to provide accommodation and support services to help people who are homeless and/or in crisis to achieve the maximum possible degree of self reliance and independence.

Full description

Following a full scale trial, the SAAP National Data Collection began on 1 July 1996. The National Data Collection comprises four main collections which record information on clients; casual clients; the demand for accommodation and saap funded organisations. The client collection is an ongoing census of all clients assisted under the program. The casual client collection is held for a two week period, once per year. The demand for accommodation collection is held for 2 separate weeks each year. The administrative data collection collects information every six months from the State and Territory departments that administer SAAP on agencies being funded under SAAP. In addition to the above collections the NDCA is also contracted to conduct special one-off collections or alternatively to provide further indepth analysis and reports on specific items of interest.The first special collection recorded information on casual clients, the second reported on accompanying children and the third covered the income status of SAAP clients. Customised reports from the collection are provided to over 1,200 SAAP funded agencies on a six-monthly basis. The institute publishes a national report, individual state/territory reports, a report on the demand for SAAP assistance by homeless people and at least one report on a theme of the program on an annual basis. Copies of published reports are available through the AIHW distribution centre or on the AIHW website. More than 180,000 paper and electronic forms are returned each year. The institute has developed a computer package to enable agencies to retain their data and to facilitate data transfer to the NDCA. The package is known as SMART (SAAP Management And Reporting Tool) and is currently used in about half the SAAP agencies.

Notes

Collection Methodology: Official Data