FY23 marked our first full year of investing in businesses and projects from our Social Impact Fund I.
Our inaugural Impact Report presents our portfolio as at 30 June 2023 and explains how we are structured for impact and our methodology. This is brought to light in detailed case studies of our contribution and real-life stories of people supported at each of our portfolio companies. The report aims to demonstrate not only the impact our investments achieved, but also where there is opportunity for improvement in coming years.
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Able Foods makes it easier for Australians living with disability to access a nutritious diet to support a healthier and happier life. It is Australia’s leading specialist meal delivery service for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants, providing a high-quality service tailored to customer needs.
Able Foods delivers over 80 menu items developed by nutritionists and chefs. These meals are healthy, well proportioned, and delicious. Importantly, Able Foods also ensures that the meals are more affordable under the NDIS.
Able Foods is a certified B Corporation, meaning that both their product and internal company operations are directly driving positive social impact across their work in Australia.
Achieving a healthy diet and food security are a significant challenge for individuals living with disability. This leads to disparities in health outcomes when compared to individuals without disability.
44% of Australian households that report food insecurity receive Disability and Carer payments. People with severe or profound disability are 1.7 times more likely to be obese than those without disability.
Therefore, affordable access to high-quality and nutritious food is critical to reducing health inequalities for Australians living with disability.
We invested in Able Foods to ensure that Australians living with disability can have greater access to delicious and nutritious food. As a built-for-disability meal provider, we believe that Able Foods delivers a high-quality service that generates high-impact outcomes for their customers whilst also being a thoughtful employer for those living with disability.
Able Foods approaches product development, customer service, and logistics from a disability-centric approach, ensuring that both the product and experience caters to customer needs. We believe this customer centricity will be a powerful driver of Able Foods’ success into the future.
BlueCHP Housing Limited is a specialist disability accommodation (SDA) partnership between Tier 1 Community Housing Provider BlueCHP Limited, FPIP and government financier the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC).
BlueCHP Limited is a registered not-for-profit entity in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia, with its mission to ensure that all Australians can live in an affordable and accessible home, regardless of their physical abilities. Since its inception BlueCHP Ltd has delivered more than 1,900 affordable homes across the country. They initially focused on developing affordable homes. Since 2015 BlueCHP has expanded its offerings to develop quality, cost-effective SDA.
SDA in Australia is facing a significant supply shortfall. Historically, SDA payments from the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) have not stimulated sufficient development for specific SDA categories, including Robust housing. Instead, most SDA financing went to High Physical Support (HPS) apartments because the category of building generated higher returns for investors.
Robust housing caters to individuals living with complex behavioural disabilities such as high-needs autism, and as a result, the requirements of the housing product are greater than most other SDA categories. In total, 19,000 new SDA dwellings are required to meet the needs of eligible participants and replace legacy stock.
We invested in BlueCHP Housing to increase the supply of fit-for-purpose SDA for Australians living with disability. BlueCHP’s participant-led approach is unique in the market, and we believe results in greater impact than traditional standardised SDA development. They specifically aim to increase the supply of Robust homes given their undersupply.
The profile of supply shortages differs regionally, depending on state and local government area. A clear area of need is Robust SDA in metropolitan areas, where land costs are higher and therefore make these more costly projects less viable.
Luson Aged Care (Luson) exists to deliver a better version of aged care for Australians. Their mission is to provide an aged care experience that consistently involves joyful interaction, meaningful relationships, a genuine sense of fun for staff and residents, and to provide access to this experience for all Australians, regardless of socio-economic background.
Luson operates 305 beds across three homes in Geelong and Clyde North, Victoria. It also has development approval for another aged care site in Rowville, Victoria. Led by CEO Nick Yannopoulos, Luson has demonstrated an outstanding track record of performance by maintaining average occupancy of >95% across FY21 and FY22 at its mature facilities, during the height of the pandemic.
Australia’s ageing population is growing rapidly, and this means that the aged care sector is ripe for innovation and impact. Roughly 17.2% of the Australian population (4.6m) are aged 65 and over, and this is projected to grow to 23% over the next 40 years. However, in late 2021, only 3.8% of residential aged care facilities met incoming minimum staffing requirements. Furthermore, government data shows that over 50% of aged care homes are loss-making even after the introduction of its new AN-ACC funding model.
Luson’s aim is to raise the quality of aged care services to deliver excellent health and wellbeing outcomes for all Australians. We firmly believe that access to quality care should not be determined by income status, and aim to provide high quality service to all regardless of means.
We further believe that aged care staff are critical to addressing this social challenge. To transform the sector, aged care staff must be empowered, appropriately remunerated, and professionally supported to realise a meaningful, long-term career in the sector.
We believe that a scalable, social purpose organisation run with business discipline can transform the aged care sector and lead to widely improved resident outcomes. Our investment in Luson is the beginning of our journey in aged care with the ambition of creating a Goodstart-equivalent for the sector.
“For my mother to move into Aged Care was [a decision] which she had many different thoughts about. The decision was made easier for her, when her friend Rosy* told her she had agreed to move into The Vue. While inspecting the building Mum mentioned that her friend Rosy was moving in soon. When your staff heard this, they took us to [the room next to] where Rosy would be staying and from there, their great friendship continued.
In the last 6 years my mother came to love the facility. She enjoyed talking with Rosy, and others. Mum spoke highly of the nursing staff. Mum also loved dropping by the kitchen to have [the staff] spoil her with a dixie ice cream. I have great memories of Mum from the last 6 years, thank you."
“The recent event of Mum achieving the age of 100 really highlighted
the aspects that have always been part of the special care available to all at the Vue. It was the little things that showed the staff and carers really did care and made absolutely every effort to have an event to be remembered. Mum’s smiles and interaction on the day with the well over twenty family members, from far and wide and different generations, provided memories that will last decades for all.
Again, it’s the little things that make the difference; Mum was dressed to the nines and her day was celebrated by all carers with warmth and enthusiasm above and beyond. The gathering of fellow residents with the Life Style Team was a great happening. The catering and availability of the function room added to the special day.”
Catalyst Education (Catalyst) equips students with the skills and opportunities to make a difference through their career in the care sector. They are a leading provider of vocational education and training (VET) focused on early childhood, and aged care.
Compared to the traditional classroom or online-only models, Catalyst is distinct in its workplace-based learning focus and in its B2B approach to business development, where they work with employers to support staff upskilling.
Catalyst Education is a leader in early childhood training in Victoria. 40% of Victorian early learning centres (ELCs) employ a Catalyst trainee in ‘earn while you learn’ programs, and over 70% of ELCs across the state have hosted a Catalyst learner for their placement.
Catalyst operates two registered training organisations, Selmar Institute of Education and Practical Outcomes.
Australia faces a sizeable undersupply of staffing in the care sector. This is true across both aged care and early childhood. We believe that failing to address this need will lead to inadequate and low-quality care within these sectors, which is likely to have the most significant impact on Australians with highest need.
To fill this gap, Australia requires 17,000 new aged care workers annually over the next decade just to meet the basic standard of care. Within the early childhood sector, we require roughly 10,000 new educators to fill current vacancies.
We invested in Catalyst Education to build a transformational leader in VET with a focus on the care sectors. With Catalyst’s strong reputation, values-aligned management, and market-leading position in the Victorian early childhood sector, we believe Catalyst Education is the perfect entry-point to achieving sector-wide impact. We intend to broaden their contribution across the country to train high-quality care professionals for Australia.
