Housing and Support Program (HASP): Final Evaluation Report

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Section 3 The effectiveness of the collaborative process
established across agencies
3.2 Governance arrangements established to support ongoing development
and delivery of HASP
While those interviewed felt that the level of
collaboration between the agencies was satisfactory,
a number of concerns relating to the governance of
HASP were identifi ed. These included (i) communication
fl ows, (ii) the nomination process, and (iii) ongoing
review of support packages.
3.2.1 Communication fl ows
Participants from all agencies highlighted problems
arising from poor communication between the agencies,
and individuals within agencies. This is not surprising
given the complexity of the agencies involved with
HASP. A range of barriers to good communication
was identifi ed by those interviewed.
These are discussed below.
Moving between treating teams
Clients transitioning to the community are likely to
move between a number of care coordinators and
Case Managers. Case mangers can often be diffi cult
to reach as they are often away from their desks and
many do not work standard 9–5 hours. In addition,
some have days off mid-week, while others work
across different services:
In most cases, Qld Health are good, but if they
change staff, and we don’t know who is in the new
role, and it comes to HASP verifi cations and all of
a sudden the person who did it last year, has been
asked not to do it, and you think, oh, I had a great
contact last year, now who do I ring? So it can be
a little bit disjointed at the start of picking that piece
of work up.
Regional Supports Facilitator
Final Evaluation Report
Agency structure
All of the organisations involved with HASP have
hierarchical structures that make it diffi cult to fi nd the
right person to talk to when a crisis situation occurs.
Even within the NGOs sector, there can be several
layers between the person who works directly with the
client and the manager or coordinator who liaises with
the government agencies. Respondents appreciated
having an identifi ed responsible contact at each
agency, especially in the initial stages of moving
a client into HASP:
I think what worked well was to have that one
person contact. And we found that out recently too,
to have that liaison person— ‘Who do you contact?
Oh you contact this person’. If you’re having
problems with Dept of Housing, contact this person.
If you’re having problems with the NGO, not getting
one, or DSQ — contact this person. So that worked
really well having that one contact person and to
know who it was…sometimes we wouldn’t know
who it was!
Rural mental health facility staff member
In some areas, the Service Integration Coordinator acts
as a ‘bridge across the silos’ so as to bring the relevant
stakeholders together:
Health, Housing and MHS, we meet regularly, email
regularly and talk regularly on the phone. It makes
things run smoothly, for example one of the clients
went up north, and when she came back, I knew
before she was coming, so I got back in touch with
the Case Manager, and we were able to manage it
all very smoothly. If there are any issues, like with
neighbours or anything, Housing will contact me
very early in the confl ict and we set up a round-table
meeting and talk over the problem, and talk with
the client and we are able to sort things out before
things go too far.
Service Integration Coordinator