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Social Impact Consulting

Delivering the best outcomes for Australia’s most vulnerable communities

Deloitte Australia’s Social Impact Consulting Practice is a dedicated practice that supports social sector organisations and government agencies to deliver greater social impact aligned to their vision and mission.

Our Purpose

Our team is passionate about bringing the latest trends in strategy, technology and innovation from adjacent industries and global players to support social sector organisations and government agencies to be ‘future fit’ in an increasingly complex, disrupted and competitive market.

We have worked with organisations from across the social sector, and of varying size and geographic dispersion - including, disability, homelessness, family and children, aged care, indigenous and community services providers. Combining our knowledge of the social sector, with our breadth of expertise in strategy, transformation, business model innovation, operating model design, operational excellence, organisational capacity building, technology, human capital and impact measurement, we partner with organisations on their transformation journeys - from strategy design through to implementation.

Recognising that complex social issues cannot be addressed by any sector in isolation, Deloitte’s Social Impact Consulting practice focuses on strengthening the linkages between the NGO, government and business sectors to deliver greater social impact and system change.

What we do

We work collaboratively with government, business and the social sector to improve outcomes for Australia’s most vulnerable communities. With expertise across community services, disability, aged care and international aid, we are passionate about creating a more inclusive society.

The Salvation Army

Since the 1920s, the Salvation Army has operated as two separate and independent Territories in Australia. Recognising the opportunity for increased impact, The Salvation Army announced the unification of the two Territories to form one national organisation to align its vision and release more of its finite resources to front-line mission delivery.

Deloitte partnered with the Salvation Army on a three-year transformation to form a national organisation, with one vision, one operating model, and one culture in one of the largest social sector transformations in the country. In supporting the Salvation Army with its transformation, we took a collaborative and consultative partnership approach to engage its people on the journey. This included:


Designing and supporting the implementation of a national operating model that was approved by the National Cabinet and international headquarters in London.

  • Designing a detailed front-line model involving two 'proof of concept' trials being run across Australia to test the implementation and incorporate learnings for the national roll out;
  • Delivering implementation and leadership coaching which enabled the successful roll out of the new front-line model in the first four States.

With our support, implementation of this collaboratively-designed operating model has been smooth, and has brought to life the Salvation Army's vision for meeting the needs of the community in a holistic and unified way.

Australian Unity


Australian Unity's Aboriginal Home Care (AHC) is the largest provider of Home and Community Care Services to Aboriginal peoples in NSW, providing culturally appropriate services, with staff who are predominantly of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent. After ~18 months since the transition from the Department of Family and Community Services (FACS), the Australian Unity Leadership team was keen to expand this business and serve the needs of Aboriginal people nationally.

To help Australian Unity achieve its aspirations, Deloitte was engaged to conduct a market scan to identify opportunities and subsequently support the development of a 3 year growth strategy, a high-level target operating model, and implementation roadmap. We worked with the AHC team to undertake:

  • Extensive customer engagement to understand the needs of customers and keep this front of mind in the design of a national business,
  • Detailed market analysis to quantify and validate the financial opportunity, and,
  • Internal stakeholder engagement to co-design a business proposition with executive buy-in.

This work has enabled Australian Unity to establish an Aboriginal services business unit to better serve the communities in which it operates.

Department of Social Services (DSS)

In the 2016 budget, the Commonwealth Government announced the launch of the Trial Test and Learn (TTL) fund, a $96.1 million fund to finance innovative policy interventions that reduce the risk of long-term welfare dependence.

The fund leverages actuarial analysis of the social security system to identify groups at elevated risk of long-term welfare dependency.

The Department of Social Services (DSS) engaged Deloitte as a trusted partner for Tranche 1 of the TTL Fund. We brought together a cross-functional Deloitte team that included social sector expertise, human centred designers and economists to work with the Department of Social Services and idea proponents. Together, we co-developed and prototyped three project proposals that aimed to reduce the risk of long-term welfare dependency amongst young carers and young parents.

These were submitted to the Minister for Social Services for funding approval and were among the first set of ideas to receive funding from the TTL fund.

Strengthening quality and safety in the disability sector

When it comes to quality, all organisations are now under the spotlight, being judged by the 1% of what goes wrong, not the 99% of what goes right. Organisations need to invest in ways to uncover the 1% – by looking and listening carefully and proactively responding – in order to quickly and effectively take control. Following the revelations of poor quality care and abuse during the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, the spotlight now turns to the disability sector with a focus on Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with a Disability.

Deloitte’s Social Impact Consulting practice has a tried and tested approach to enhance the governance and operational capabilities of disability service providers in relation to the quality and safety of services for NDIS participants and other clients. Our approach includes an initial diagnostic assessment followed by a transformation stage, which engages our specialists to support you to address risks and deliver improvement initiatives. To read more about how we can help your organisation – refer here.

Transformation & Operations case study – Westhaven

In 2019, Deloitte’s Social Impact Consulting team worked with Westhaven, a NSW-based disability service provider, to transform its organisation to be ‘future fit’ and prepared for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).