Community Services Bulletin

This is the Community Services Procurement Bulletin. May 2023 edition. It is compiled by the Department of Finance.

General Manager Update

The end of May brings us from the Noongar season Djeran (the start of cooler weather and red flowering native plants) to Makuru, the coldest and wettest season.

For Finance, there’s no slowing down in the cold weather! Instead, it’s full steam ahead as we work hard on bringing you new resources to support agency commissioning practices, updating existing procurement resources and continuing to support both government agencies and the community services sector in achieving excellent outcomes for our community.

Lara Connor, General Manager

Commissioning Toolkit

We are delighted to announced that the Commissioning Toolkit is now online, with tools covering every stage of the commissioning cycle.

These tools provide practical advice and guidance to commissioners and are aligned to the State Commissioning Strategy.

We are sure they will be of great value to government agencies in shifting from procurement activities to commissioning practices.

Template Update

The evaluation report template has been updated to provide for recommendations made by the Community Services Procurement Review Committee (CSPRC) on the procurement plan. This update will enable the CSPRC to be better informed about actions taken by an agency in response to CSPRC’s comments and recommendations.

Agencies are reminded to obtain templates from Finance’s Community services templates page. It is important to use current templates to plan, develop and manage contracts.

It is particularly important to use the current version of the Request document as it aligns with the current version of the General Provisions for the Purchase of Community Services by State Agencies and forms the basis of the future contract.

Supporting Communities Forum Communique

The 22 March 2023 Communique summarises updates received from the Supporting Communities Forum (Forum) on work done to progress the priorities of the Forum; and invited guests who presented on specific topics of interest to the Forum. You can access the communique on wa.gov.au.

Commissioning Cycle

The first stage of the commissioning cycle is to identify needs and plan.

Initially, we assess the community service needs by conducting a needs analysis. We engage in market research which can involve undertaking workforce mapping and service mapping, and collecting service vital statistics and evidence. After prioritising needs and opportunities, we communicate the needs analysis findings and set reasonable expectations.

Following our needs analysis, we begin to develop strategy by assessing the external landscape and the internal strategic context for the specified commissioning program. We then identify a set of objectives to achieve the desired result.

Finally, we begin to plan a change portfolio to understand the big picture and assess existing programs and projects. We then plan a commissioning program, which is the cycle of projects that will achieve change, and develop a change management plan to ensure that commissioning and decommissioning goes smoothly. It’s important to develop a stakeholder engagement plan to support stakeholders throughout the change process.

In the next bulletin, we will be looking at the next stage in the commissioning cycle – stay tuned!

Closing the Gap

Team members from the Community Services Procurement Policy and Social Procurement teams were delighted to attend day three of the Western Australian Council of Social Service (WACOSS) conference.

The theme of the session was Closing the Gap, Self Determination and Walking Together, where we were lucky enough to hear from Carol Innes, Pat Turner, Vicki O’Donnell and Richard Walley, incredibly passionate and committed people, and participate in a yarning circle.

We also learnt about the important work Koya Aboriginal Corporation does with children and the challenges of working with year-by-year funding and the expectations that consultation will be freely given.

In Journey to Partnerships, we heard from Ngunga Women’s Aboriginal Corporation and how they worked with World Vision to develop a strong partnership. The success of the partnership is based on its long-term nature, with a 10-year commitment and plans to transition the services over five years.

Another example of success was the partnership between Yorgum Aboriginal Corporation and the Women’s Legal Service who, thanks to a pre-existing relationship and culturally secure services resulted in them submitting a joint tender application.

We learnt a lot from attending the event and look forward to continuing to grow our knowledge.

Dog Refuge

Finance staff recently spent a rewarding day volunteering with the Dogs’ Refuge Home. The visit involved helping with maintenance around the facility, preparing enrichment activities and spending some quality time with the furry residents. The Dogs’ Refuge Home is dedicated to the care and re-homing of lost and unwanted dogs.

If your community service provider is looking for corporate volunteers, please contact the CSPP team and let us know!