Integrated Service Delivery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Families

Published March 2012

Introduction

There has been significant focus recently on the importance of integrated service delivery for access, outreach, and improving outcomes for vulnerable children and families. Integrated service delivery is embedded in the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) National Partnership Agreement for Indigenous Early Childhood Development, which draws on a prior Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) publication to advance that: ‘Early childhood experts advocate integrated delivery of services, including antenatal services, child and maternal health services, parenting and family support services, and early learning and child care, as the best delivery platform to ensure families actually receive the support they need.’

Integrated service delivery is also a major element of COAG’s Investing in the Early Years—A National Early Childhood Development Strategy, and Protecting Children is Everyone’s Business: National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020. The latter document specifies that one of the key strategies under outcome 2 (‘Children and families access adequate support to promote safety and intervene early’) is to ‘Implement an integrated approach to service design, planning and delivery for children and families across the lifecycle and spectrum of need.’

Integrated service delivery models have been developed and are being trialled and implemented in Australia. While SNAICC participated in the original drive for integrated service delivery, there has been little Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspective on the evolution of the models of integrated service delivery and the extent to which they respond to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families. This is a critical issue to ensure effective outreach for vulnerable families and a shift in implementation systems and practice towards a more preventative approach to child protection and family support.

This paper reviews the literature on integrated service delivery models for children and families, first defining the concept of integrated service delivery and highlighting its importance for child and family service provision. It describes the Australian policy context, then specifically interrogates approaches to integration that are critical to effective service delivery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families, drawing strongly on evaluation of leading Australian initiatives in child and family service integration. The review presents a summary of promising approaches that are important to inform the design of integrated service systems in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family service contexts. It highlights the critical importance of building the capacity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled organisations (ACCOs) and implementing approaches that are targeted to support their participation in integrated systems.