About the portal

The purpose of the Evidence Portal is to support the design and delivery of effective human services.

Much of the evidence on the Portal is drawn from systematic reviews commissioned by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) using technical specifications developed by DCJ in partnership with the Centre for Evidence and Implementation.

The high threshold set for evidence in these reviews is necessary, as we don't just want to understand which services and programs have been evaluated and shown to work, but also to understand the critical core components that allow these programs or services to improve the lives of children, young people and families.

Current evidence reviews using these technical specifications are: Preventing Child Maltreatment; Youth Mentoring; Youth Socioemotional Wellbeing; Reducing Child Harm and Maltreatment and Improving School Readiness.

But we also know that an evidence base of purely peer-reviewed literature, and even grey literature, can exclude useful and meaningful evidence about what works with families and communities.  So the Portal will, over time, also include other evidence to help fill the gaps.  The first evidence review on the Portal for this purpose focuses on Aboriginal Cultural Safety and Wellbeing.

In using the Portal to design and implement programs or services, we advocate the integration of the research evidence with practitioner expertise and the voice of clients.  This evidence-informed practice approach is well understood across the human services sector, and an approach that we acknowledge and support.

For further support in using the Evidence Portal, see the following resources:

• The Quick Start Guide to Using Evidence (PDF, 135.8 KB)
• Using evidence to improve our services – A guide to using the Evidence Portal (PDF, 363.5 KB).