Sector Specific Resources
Resources for the New Neighbourhood House Coordination Program Guidelines 2026
The Neighbourhood House Coordination Program (NHCP) Guidelines are the guidelines for the State Government funding program for neighbourhood houses. They outline program eligibility, funding and reporting requirements, governance arrangements, roles and responsibilities and how to implement a community development model.
The guidelines were updated in 2026, effective from 1 July 2026.
Neighbourhood House Coordination Program Guidelines
NHVic held information sessions and created tools to assist Neighbourhood Houses with the transition. You can find those resources here.
Calculator Tool
David Perry developed an Activity Hours Calculator Tool to help Neighbourhood Houses manage their monthly reporting. This will help you capture volunteer, staff, and self-directed hours. Our hope is that this calculator will be quite simple to use and implement and save significant Neighbourhood House time by avoiding the need to input individual sessions and service use info across all session and service types. This calculator tool will also help to simplify the annual survey reporting.
Other Resources
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DFFH Service Delivery Tracking Info Session Recording (July 2026)
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FAQ and Info Guide (updated 31 August)
Updates July 2026
As mentioned in the information session, SDT acquittal for July is not due until 31 August to accommodate these issues and queries. We greatly appreciate the number of NHs who have gotten straight into reporting, but please reassure them there’s no rush.
Open hours reporting
Neighbourhood houses are only able to report on their activity hours, not open hours. Unfortunately the sub-activity to report open hours was not successfully created when service agreements were updated with the new reporting requirements. The NHCP team is working with the SAMS2/My Agency team to address this.
At this stage it looks like open hours reporting will not be available until September, so we ask that organisations report their activity hours this month and wait until further notice to report open hours.
Target number for activity hours
The listed target number is the organisation’s annual coordination hours (for most houses, this is 1300). Annual activity hours reported are expected to be double this number.
When open hours reporting is in place, organisations will be expected to deliver 88.5% of their coordination hours.
Unable to see SDT acquittal or enter information into the acquittal template
To access and edit your organisation’s SDT acquittal, you need to have “Editor” permissions for Performance within the SAMS module. The organisation’s Access Controller can update user permissions to support this. Please see Managing contacts in the Service Agreement Module (SAM) for a guide - if this does not resolve the issue, please contact fac@dffh.vic.gov.au
Reporting for organisations operates multiple funded neighbourhood houses
Please input the total number of activity hours for all neighbourhood houses your organisation operates in the “Response Details Actual Units” box. In the “Response Details Comments” box, please provide a breakdown by house. E.g.:
NH1 – 108
NH2 – 97
Neighbourhood House and Learning Centres Sector Framework
Created in 2003, this sector framework outlines the purpose, philosophy, principles, practice and outcomes of the work we do.
Neighbourhood House Good Practice Guide
This good practice guide is an evaluation tool for neighbourhood houses to evaluate their strengths and identify opportunities for improvement as they strive for organisational excellence. It provides a step by step process that guides you through a thorough investigation of your house’s governance, management and delivery practices.
Networks Good Practice Guide
This guide is designed primarily for Neighbourhood House Network Committees of Governance and Networkers, but it is also intended to inform the public, stakeholders and funding bodies about the operations of the Networks.
Tips from the Auditor for NFP Bookkeepers and Accountants