Service coordination overview

Service coordination reform aims to place consumers at the centre of service delivery - ensuring that they have access to the services they need, opportunities for early intervention and health promotion and improved health outcomes. Service coordination is facilitated by Primary Care Partnerships (PCPs) where agencies come together to agree on how they will coordinate their services so that consumers experience a health system that works together.

The Victorian Government is committed to an integrated health and human service system to provide Victorians with a streamlined and coordinated approach to their care. This resulted in the key document Better Access to Services: A Policy and Operational Framework, which describes the reasons why service coordination is being undertaken, the principles that guide service coordination as well as the way to improve service coordination in Victoria. To achieve these aims, government departments are working together to align practices through the Service Coordination Implementation Group and integrating service coordination principles into program policies and guidelines.

Since 2001, the Department of Health and PCPs have developed resources to assist in the implementation of service coordination. These include:

• Practice standards: The Victorian Service Coordination Practice Manual
• Information standards: Service Coordination Tool Templates (SCTT)
• Technical standards: SCTT specifications for software vendors
• Human Services Directory

A fundamental component of service coordination is the work done by PCP member agencies to clarify & document how business is done between agencies for consumers they have in common. This work has resulted in the development of the "Victorian Service Coordination Practice Manual" which defines agreed practices, processes, protocols and systems which support Service Coordination across Victoria resulting in support better coordination of services between participating agencies.

Information standards, service coordination tool templates (SCTT), specifications and guidelines to support their use, have been developed to record client registration information, undertake initial needs screening, make referrals, collect client consent to share information and coordinate care. As the range of program areas and agencies implementing service coordination continues to increase, revision of the SCTT and associated resources are necessary to incorporate program requirements and meet the practice needs of different sectors and practitioners.

A cornerstone of service coordination is the collection and sharing of consumer information according to agreed protocols. It is essential therefore, that consumers are confident that their information will be handled appropriately. PCP privacy resources and a consumer privacy brochure in community languages are available to assist practitioners in their discussions with consumers regarding how their information will be used.

Service Coordination: Achieving tangible benefits through a partnership approach (633kb, pdf)

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