Together we have progressed reform of nearly 70% of the human service system that is delivered by community and health sector.
We are in or entering the early days of delivery with some organisations actively piloting the service changes while others are beginning the transition to new ways of working with government. Multiple grants, tenders and investment approaches are also underway to see new service delivery arrangements active in 2024.
Experts from across government, the community and health sector as well as people with lived experience have collaborated and co-designed through multiple YourSay consultations, workshops and one on one discussions, to develop the new service specifications to meet community need.
Together we are progressing reform outcomes by designing and delivering a system that is:
As we shift to delivery, it is clear commissioning is maturing the reform of the human service system. Today we are looking more and more at ways to integrate services or seek funding to meet the natural demand from a growing population. This is progress. We weren’t having these kinds of reform conversations four years ago when we started this journey together.
That maturity in our approach to reform has required enhanced governance. To this end, this year we established the Commissioning Senior Officers Group to support this complex and wide-ranging reform as a truly whole of government initiative.
Our new focus on delivery has prompted the need to manage system, program and service transitions. In response, we have developed the draft Human Service System Transition Framework and Policy with a range of supportive tools for commissioners and sector providers.
Three years into commissioning we can say it has been more challenging than we conceived. Critically, the experience has provided several learnings and spotlighted improvement opportunities which we will continue to pursue in 2024.
We have learnt that a one-size-fits-all approach to commissioning doesn’t work. Following feedback from the sector, ACT Health developed and deployed the Refreshed Approach to Commissioning. This will see subsectors restreamed into one of three commissioning pathways to enable greater time, capability building, and support integrated into commissioning cycles.
We have also seen the benefit of increased planning and capability building in strengthening commissioning cycles. In 2023 we co-designed a commissioning induction module and observed the impacts of an effective discover phase in the children, young people and families cycle, where government and the sector designed and implemented the engagement process together. Further the Lived Experience Engagement Advisory Panel has provided valuable advice and support to multiple cycles.
What we can say, is that commissioners, government representatives, service providers, peaks, and consumer organisations, as well as experts and people with lived experience have made a significant contribution to building collective learnings and capability. This hard work will flow through into future commissioning cycles and wider reform activities over the next decade.
It is motivating to see that as we look across multiple subsectors, we are observing aligned outcome frameworks, clear service models, robust needs assessments and forward planning and design considerations which provide the foundations for the next term of the reform.
Find out more: commissioning and reform context
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Page updated: 28 Feb 2024
