Community sector strengthening
Human Services Partnership Agreement
The Victorian Government recognises that partnering with the funded community sector is essential to delivering quality outcomes to all Victorians. In order to improve how Government engages with community service providers and advocacy groups, the Department of Human Services has been working collaboratively with community sector representatives to develop the partnership relationship.
Since 2002 there have been three three-year partnership agreements between the Department of Human Services (DHS) and the health, housing and community sector, with the most recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) going from June 2009 to July 2012. This agreement covers sector organisations funded by the DHS.
Download the MoU here.
The MoU focuses on the need for a relationship based on trust, respect and collaboration and an agreement of a common vision, values and goals. The MoU reinforces the need for a shared approach to developing more effective relationships and working arrangements between the DHS and the community sector.
The MoU is signed by the Secretary of the DHS and by the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) on behalf of health, housing and community sector organisations. To support and sustain the implementation of the MoU, VCOSS and the DHS co-chair the Human Services Partnership Implementation Committee (HSPIC), which is the overarching governance structure for the MoU. HSPIC is comprised of a range of representatives from the Department of Human Services and the community sector.
HSPIC’s work plan is informed by matters of mutual interest and addresses areas of sector sustainability, partnership promotion and collaborative work to improve business processes, tools and practices to ensure high quality and responsive services.
Key achievements of HSPIC include the development of the Collaboration and Consultation Protocol, the HSPIC endorsed Price Review Framework, the bi-annual Secretary’s Forum and the current project examining accreditation and standards process. HSPIC has produced a report card for 2008/09 reflecting on the work of the previous twelve months.
Download the HSPIC 2008-09 Report Card here.
Partnering in Progress
In 2008 HSCPIC endorsed the Partnering in Progress project to evaluate current partnerships across the health, housing and community sector. A series of workshops were held across Victoria with a total of 164 participants who represented 81 different partnerships. Participants strongly reinforced the need for partnerships between community sector organisations and government programs across Victoria, as participants believed that this would achieve improved integrated service delivery and enhanced client outcomes. In addition, participants identified that their individual agencies also obtained significant benefits from participating in partnerships.
Download the Partnering in Progress report here.
The Partnering in Progress report has led to the development of three Partnership Practice Guides. These guides provide information, tools and resources that examine the three stages of partnering: preparing to partner; commencing the partnership; and, sustaining the partnership. It is anticipated that these resources will further strengthen and support partnerships across Victoria. Please feel free to download these guides and distribute them within your organisation or partnership.
GUIDE 2: COMMENCING THE PARTNERSHIP
GUIDE 3: SUSTAINING THE PARTNERSHIP
Price Review Framework endorsed by Department of Human Services
HSPIC endorsed a Price Review Framework in October 2007. This was after several months of consultation in response to a discussion paper prepared for HSPIC in April 2007 where members of HSPIC had requested a systematic process for determining unit prices across the sector.
The Price Review Framework is a guide for program staff and service providers to use when service prices are being reviewed to address the need for consistency and transparency during the review process. It will be reviewed annually by the Department and reported on to HSPIC to ensure that it maintains an effective approach. The Framework includes:
- Guiding principles for price review
- Factors to take into account to agree to a price review
- Price review methodology
- A schedule of DHS program and outputs with their price review status listed
- A price review tool which includes a cost analysis table
- Pro-forma for monitoring the price review process
A significant achievement is the principle that price reviews will take into account the full costs of delivering services. One of the challenges to enable this to be measured was reaching agreement on the items to be included in the cost analysis tool to ensure that salaries, operating costs and service development costs such as time spent on partnering and collaborating as well as costs associated with compliance are included.
A number price reviews have been undertaken since the development of the framework. HSPIC is monitoring progress of these reviews to ensure the principles and methodologies are consistently applied and will use learnings to adapt the framework as required.
Please contact Lauren Matthews, Partnerships Policy Officer, to discuss your experiences with the Price Review Framework and how you think it could be improved – T: 03 9654 5050 or lauren.matthews@vcoss.org.au.
Download the Price Review Framework here.
For further information regarding HSPIC and Partnerships please contact Lauren Matthews, Partnership Policy Officer on 03 9654 5050 or lauren.matthews@vcoss.org.au.
More information regarding partnerships can be found at: http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/operations/regional-operations-performance/partnership-unit.