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Collaborative commissioning between health departments and PHNs to support well-planned, integrated and coordinated service delivery and pathways for consumers is a key feature of national and local health policies, plans and agreements. At a local level, a commitment to “collaborate and partner in the planning, funding and delivery of services” was embedded in the ACT Regional Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan. Collaborative commissioning is seen by CHN and ACT Health as an important step towards delivering integrated mental health care through a whole-of-system approach, supporting targeted co-investment in an agreed area of need.
The introduction of the new Head to Health Service and Pop-Up Clinic established in parallel to the new Safe Haven service is presenting a new entry pathway for people needing access to mental health services and information, and a multidisciplinary service intended to target the gap for people with moderate to severe mental illness. CHN was tasked with establishing two Head to Health services over the same timeframe as the establishment of the Safe Haven service which created challenges but also opportunities. One of these opportunities was collaborative commissioning, which was defined by ACT Health and CHN during this process as ‘a whole of system approach to the planning, development and delivery of health services, with the aim of enabling and supporting value-based care across the health system’. CHN and ACT Health Directorate noted the synergies between the Head to Health and Safe Haven services, which led to co-funding and collaboration in the commissioning of the community-based Safe Haven service to optimise links to Head to Health and strengthen the Safe Haven pilot.
In 2022, a review of CHN and ACT Health Directorate’s collaborative commissioning was undertaken by an independent consultant. This review revealed that the collaborative commissioning exercise was viewed by all stakeholders as a significant success, with direct and indirect benefits for the integration of the Safe Haven into the ACT mental health service landscape.
The critical success factors were:
- the visible commitment from both funding organisations to the initiative and to supporting an integrated outcome
- shared ownership of risks and outcomes by the organisations particularly through co-investment in the initiative
- shared communication and promotion
- clear contractual expectations – including clarity of roles and responsibilities and expectations regarding information sharing and linkages
- goodwill, professionalism and commitment of the officers from the funding organisations and from provider organisations
- a collaborative governance model which supported partnerships with key players involved in critical pathways.
Overall, collaborative commissioning offers significant promise for addressing system fragmentation and duplication and establishing integrated service pathways.
Testimonial
“By involving multiple parties in an open and collaborative arrangement we give people buy in to the future of their community and their health services. I think we are long past the days of thinking that any one group has all the answers, by sharing common problems and arriving at jointly developed solutions we achieve outcomes that will hopefully take note of the community’s needs, resulting in a safer, higher quality of service delivery.” – Stakeholder feedback as part of the collaborative commissioning review, conducted by an Independent Consultant.