Community Services Bulletin
Community Services Procurement Policy Bulletin – February 2023 Edition.
General Manager Update
February marks the start of the Noongar season Bunuru which is the hottest time of the year. Keep an eye out for the fresh native blooms as the high temperatures bring the white flowers of the Jarrah, Marri and Ghost Gums.
With the year already speeding along, keep reading to find out more about the Commissioning Cycle and a discussion on Panel Contracts.
[Lara Connors, General Manager]
Commissioning Cycle
The State Commissioning Strategy for Community Services has been developed to improve the delivery of community services for Western Australians through a commissioning approach.
Commissioning is a cyclical approach of identifying, planning, agreeing and monitoring to drive sustainable change in our systems to improve people’s outcomes and lives.
Rather than focusing on inputs and outputs, commissioning is outcomes based which means identifying needs and outcomes and designing responses that will best achieve those outcomes.
Co-design principles can be used at each stage of the commissioning cycle to meaningfully engage service providers, experts and system partners in the service design process. In addition to co-design, a culturally responsive and culturally safe approach is crucial for successful commissioning.
Here is a helpful diagram which outlines the stages of commissioning for outcomes. Over the next few bulletins we will be exploring each stage of the commissioning cycle in more depth – stay tuned!
What is a panel contract?
A panel contract is a special kind of service agreement where government agencies can appoint multiple service providers, and then engage them for services covered by the service agreement at any point during its term.
While developing a panel contract may take a little more work than establishing a standard service agreement, the benefit is that services can be procured and delivered over the contract term in a more responsive way, and greater overall demand can be met than by a single service provider.
Important things to know about panel contracts:
• There is no guarantee of work for service providers appointed to a panel;
• However, government agencies should carefully consider how many service providers to appoint based on anticipated need and other factors such as geographic spread;
• Panel contracts can be used to enable individual service users to choose their own service provider; and
• Panel contracts can be particularly useful when service volumes are likely to change over time.
Panel contracts may not be appropriate for circumstances where the expected volume of services is low, where there is a sole or very few providers of a service, or where there are strategic reasons why all services must be provided by one service provider.
Supporting Charities
At the end of 2022 Finance and the Department of Training & Workforce Development as joint tenants at Djookanup undertook a collection drive for Starting Over Support (SOS) as one of our initiatives for the 16 Days in WA campaign.
SOS is a free community-based program providing household goods and furniture for individuals or families who have experienced a life-changing crisis, such as domestic violence or a devastating event.
The collection resulted in a huge number of boxes and a range of household items being delivered to a very excited team at SOS. We also organised for a number of Finance staff to volunteer for a couple of days during the 16 days in WA campaign.
Staff were involved in:
• Packing a crisis family referral
• Packing linen items
• Sorting incoming donations – washing and drying dishes and repacking ready for family packs
• Assembling flat packs (who doesn’t love doing this? Apparently, our team were amazing and put a lot of bedsides tables together)
• Cleaning electrical appliances including washing machines and fridges.
“We are so extremely grateful for the fantastic support they all offered us – and did so with such kindness and good grace. So generous – the time your folks gave helped our whole team so much – these hours are just magical to us.” SOS spokesperson.
In addition to our volunteering days, Finance staff nominate a different charity to support each week through our ‘Casual Friday’ collections. In 2022 staff from Djookanup and QBE raised an amazing $36,800 for over 40 different charities.
