5.11 Project funding and workforce resources

This section provides a profile of the resources and funding available to the 50 NSPP-funded projects. It provides detail on:

• NSPP funding
• Project workforce

5.11.1 NSPP funding

The following identifies the NSPP funding allocated to the 50 projects, in terms of:

• Year and funding round
• Project funding range
• Suicide prevention approach
• Geographic reach

Funding by year and funding round

Table 5-11 identifies total NSPP funding for the 50 projects, by year and funding round, over the period 2006-07 to 2012-13.

As shown in this table, NSPP funding for the seven-year period totalled $96.8 million. Round 1 funding ($32.3 million) was broadly similar to funding for Round 2 ($30.3 million) and Round 3 ($34.1 million). Annual funding generally rose over the period identified, with funding of $9.7 million in 2006-07 and $16.1 million in 2012-13; however peak funding was in 2011-12 with funding of $18.0 million for these 50 projects.

Table 5-11: NSPP funding by year and round, 2006-07 to 2012-13

For accessibility reasons, table 5-11 is presented as text in this html version. It is a table in the original PDF document.
Funding:

• Round 1
  • 2006-07 - $9,693,265
  • 2007-08 - $9,899,222
  • 2008-09 - $12,728,465
  • Total - $32,320,952
• Round 2
  • 2009-10 - $15,822,454
  • 2010-11 - $14,543,198
  • Total - $30,365,652
• Round 3
  • 2011-12 - $18,020,480
  • 2012-13 - $16,109,317
  • Total - $34,129,797
• Total - $96,816,401 Top of page

Funding by project

Over the seven-year period identified, projects were allocated average funding of $1.94 million per project. Funding ranged from $143,231 for the project which received the least funding to $10,109,980 for the project which received the most. Figure 5-4 provides analysis of the range of project funding.

The most common funding range was between $1 million and $2 million, with half (25) of all projects receiving this level of funding. Few projects received $3 million or more, ie, only 12% (6 of 50), of which one project received funding of $10.1 million.

Figure 5-4: Number of projects, by funding range, 2006-07 to 2012-13

Text version of figure 5-4

Funding	Number of projects
< $1m	11
$1m to $2m	25
$2m to $3m	8
$3m to $4m	3
$4m to $5m	1
$5m to $6m	0
$6m to $7m	1
$7m to $8m	0
$8m to $9m	0
$9m to $10m	0
> $10m	1

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Funding by suicide prevention approach

As indicated previously, NSPP-funded activities spanned the three major suicide prevention approaches, namely:

• Universal
• Selective
• Indicated

Table 5-12 presents an analysis of the number of projects which adopted each suicide prevention approach and the funding associated with these projects.

Note that the sum of number of projects and funding shown above for each approach is greater than the total NSPP projects (50) and funding ($96.8 million). This is because many projects adopted multiple approaches, and these projects have been included (ie, repeated) in the figures shown for each approach.

As indicated in Table 5-12, selective approaches were the most common approach, representing 72% (36) of projects and 67% ($65.2 million) of funding. Universal approaches accounted for 45% ($44.0 million) of funding while indicated approaches represented 38% ($38.2 million) of total funding.

For the universal approach, the share of funding (45%) was greater than the share of projects (42%), indicating higher than average funding for these projects ($2.1 million versus $1.9 million). Projects adopting the selective approach received average funding of $1.8 million, slightly below the overall average; while projects adopting the indicated approach received average funding of $2.0 million, slightly above the overall average.

Table 5-12: NSPP projects and funding by suicide prevention approach

Approach	Projects - no.	Projects - %	Funding - value ($)	Funding - %	Funding per project
Universal	21	42%	$43,989,059	45%	$2,094,717
Selective	36	72%	$65,169,601	67%	$1,810,267
Indicated	19	38%	$38,217,224	39%	$2,011,433
All projects/funding	50	-	$96,816,401	-	$1,936,328

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Funding by geographic reach

The allocation of NSPP funding by the geographic reach of projects (national, state-wide or local) is identified in Table 5-13. The reach of each project was determined based on its response to the NSPP project survey.

Locally oriented projects accounted for the largest proportion of projects (56%) and funding (53%). National projects represented the second largest group with 30% of projects and 38% of funding, while state-wide projects represented 14% of projects and received 9% of total funding.

State-wide projects had the lowest average funding ($1.3 million), considerably lower than the average funding for all projects ($1.9 million). National projects had the highest average funding ($2.5 million), significantly higher than the average for all projects, while local projects received average funding ($1.8 million) broadly in line with the average overall.

Table 5-13: NSPP projects and funding by geographic reach, 2006-07 to 2012-13

Reach	Projects - no.	Projects - %	Funding - $	Funding - %	Funding per project
National	15	30%	$37,091,816	38%	$2,472,788
State-wide	7	14%	$8,817,495	9%	$1,259,642
Local	28	56%	$50,907,090	53%	$1,818,810
Total	50	100%	$96,816,401	100%	$1,936,328

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5.11.2 Project workforce

Project representatives were asked in the survey to identify the number of full time equivalent (FTE) staff and volunteers that worked with their project during each funding period. This information was used to identify the number of staff/volunteers that worked with each project over its duration to date, ie, the typical number of staff/volunteers that worked with the project at a given point in time. This information is summarised in Table 5-14.

As identified in Table 5-14, across all 48 projects that responded, there were a total of 176.9 FTE staff and 221.7 FTE volunteers, representing a total NSPP workforce of 398.6 FTE personnel. It should be noted, however, that the majority of volunteers work in a small number of projects, with more than half of all FTE volunteers (116.7) associated with a single project.

Table 5-15 identifies the average number project staff by geographic reach.

As identified in Table 5-15, state-wide projects had notably more staff (5.7 FTE) than both national (3.4 FTE) and local (3.3 FTE) projects. Our investigation indicates that in part this may be due to some state-wide projects receiving additional non-NSPP funds, which allowed them to employ non-NSPP-funded staff. State-wide projects employed an average of 2.4 non-NSPP-funded staff, compared with local (1.1 FTE) and national (0.6 FTE) projects. By virtue of the type of work undertaken by national level projects, fewer staff may be required. This was found to be the case for national projects engaged in media work, web-based services and conference organisation, for example.

It would also appear that the average number of NSPP-funded staff employed was broadly similar across national (2.8 FTE), state-wide (2.3 FTE) and local (2.5 FTE) projects. This was despite state-wide projects receiving significantly less NSPP funding ($1.3 million) on average, than local ($1.8 million) and national ($2.5 million) projects.

Table 5-14: NSPP projects staff and volunteers

Workforce	Total FTE workforce across all projects
Staff	176.9
Volunteers	221.7
Total	398.6

Note: Information is for 48 projects as two did not respond to this question.

Table 5-15: NSPP project staff, by project geographic reach

Reach	FTE staff - NSPP-funded	FTE staff - Non-NSPP-funded	FTE staff - Total	Average project funding (2006-07 to 2012-13)
National	2.8	0.6	3.4	$2,472,788
State-wide	2.3	2.4	5.7	$1,259,642
Local	2.5	1.1	3.3	$1,818,810
Total	2.6	1.1	3.7	$1,936,328