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Partners in Recovery: information session video, part 4 - application process

The Partners in Recovery (PIR) application process as presented at an information session.

Video - part 4 of information session
Transcript - part 4 of information session

Transcript

Application process

Ms Sue Campion, Acting First Assistant Secretary Mental Health and Drug Treatment Division, Department of Health and Ageing

Sue Campion: If I can just briefly go through some of the information that I’m able to share with you about how to apply. We’re not quite ready yet to release our documentation, it’s not quite finalised.

So in terms of who might be eligible to become a Partners in Recovery organisation.Top of page

Slide: Eligibility to become a PIR organisation
Suitably placed and experienced non-government organisations can apply.
PIR organisations must be:

• incorporated
• non-government health and welfare service providers and
• governed independently (could be funded by Commonwealth and/or state/ territory governments)]

Sue Campion: Organisations that will be eligible to apply will include those that are suitably placed and experienced, incorporated and they will need to be a non-government health or welfare service provider.

These organisations may already be funded by the Commonwealth and/or the state governments but they need to be governed independently. So they might be for profit, they might be not for profit, they might be charitable, they might be local community groups for example.

We will be looking very favourably on consortium applications and in the instance where you do put in a consortium application we’ll be looking for those applications to very clearly identify who the lead organisation is and what the partner organisations are and what their role will be in the consortium.

We may consider joined up multi-regional approaches if it can be demonstrated that that sort of approach is a more efficient way to deliver Partners in Recovery.

Slide: What is eligible to be funded?
In general, only one PIR organisation will be funded in each of the 61 Medicare Local geographic regions.

• Funding will support all costs associated with the establishment, operations, functions and activities of the PIR organisation
• Funding will be provided for PIR-specific tasks only (recognising PIR organisations may receive funding from other sources to deliver programs and services other than PIR)
• Retrospective items/activities will not be funded through the PIR initiative
• Models may vary across regions depending on need and contextTop of page

Sue Campion: We’re looking to just do one funding round to engage our Partners in Recovery organisations and in general as I mentioned before we’re looking to engage one organisation in each of the 61 Medicare Local regions.

We may give consideration to funding more than one organisation in a region but we consider that that will be under exceptional circumstances and we’ll need to be really convinced that that is the most effective way to meet the needs of the target group in that region.

Funding will support all costs associated with establishing the organisation and the ongoing costs of providing those services but we will only provide funding for new Partners in Recovery specific activities.

So if the organisation that’s engaged to deliver Partners in Recovery is receiving funding from other sources to do other things, the Partners in Recovery money cannot be used to top up those activities. And as with all of our funding we will not use it to fund any activities that occur prior to the funding agreement being signed.Top of page

Slide: Invitation to apply (ITA) process
In general, only one PIR organisation will be funded in each of the 61 Medicare Local geographic regions.

• Eligible organisations can apply for funding through an ITA process
• The ITA is not intended as a nationally competitive process, given all Medicare Local regions will receive funding
• The ITA will be released in early September 2012 after the information sessions have been completed, and will be available on the department's website under mental health
• Applications will likely close in late October 2012

Sue Campion: We’ve deliberately released the guidelines ahead of releasing the invitation to apply because this is a new initiative and because partnerships are so essential to the success of this initiative.

So we’ve released the guidelines, given you time to get your head across what the initiative is about, we’re then having these information sessions to give you the opportunity to come along and hear a bit more detail about how it might work, hear some questions and get some answers to those. And to also give you time to then, perhaps, hopefully go away from these information sessions and start working on your partnership building activities so that when the invitation to apply is released you’re ready to go.

In some respects this is a different invitation to apply than a lot that we do in that while it’s competitive in some senses it’s not competitive in another. It’s not competitive in the sense that regions are not competing with each other. We are intending to fund an organisation in each region. Where it will be competitive is where more than one organisation or we get more than one application in a region to establish a Partners in Recovery organisation.

We would hope however that because this is very much collaborative initiative that services within regions would start to get together now jointly to determine the best model and organisation that can lead in their region to develop the groundwork for an application as I said before.

It’s likely that applications will close in the later half of October, late October but we haven’t confirmed those dates yet.

In terms of your application the guidelines that are already available give you some detail about what we’ll be looking for and there’ll be more information in the invitation to apply. But the key things that are in the guidelines and you can start thinking about now are that we’ll be looking for detail about what the model for Partners in Recovery will be in your region. Top of page

Slide: PIR applications
Applications must include:

• Proposed model
• Project plan
• Project partners
• Communication strategy
• Risk management plan
• Capability and capacity requirements
• Detailed budget

Sue Campion: So what’s the nature of the target group in your region? How many of them are? How are you currently providing services to them? Where are they currently appearing, so therefore what might your referral pathways be? What sort of services are there already in the region? We’ll be looking for you to give us a map of those services in your application. We accept that in your application that may be a slightly high level initial go at a map and if you are successful we will be looking for you to then refine that map as part of the early stages of setting up the organisation.

We’ll also be looking for a project plan that will set out the key steps, timelines, milestones in establishing the organisation. And we’ll also be looking for that to demonstrate how the organisation can be ready to start delivering services within three months of signing the funding agreement.

We’ll be looking obviously for detail of who the project partners are and what role they will play in the initiative. We’ll also obviously need very clear evidence of their buy in and support for the initiative. That will include letters from each partner organisation very clearly setting out that information and those letters will need to be signed by an appropriately senior person in the organisation who can make that level of commitment.

We’ll be looking for information about the governance arrangements, how the partnerships will be managed, what sort of MOUs or other things will be used and how the partnerships will be maintained over time.

Also how barriers to partnerships might be managed. We’re not envisaging that necessarily every partner or necessary partner group might actually be on board from day one, so how will you manage that situation.

You’ll need a communication strategy for how you’ll market Partners in Recovery in your region so that you maximise referrals and also that people understand what the benefits of participating in the initiative are.

We’ll need a risk management plan that identifies known risks or factors which could impact on successful implementation and how these will be managed. Top of page

The capabilities and capacities of the lead organisation will be critical. We’ll need a really clear explanation of what those are. That might include evidence of the experience of that organisation within the health and welfare system in the region, their understanding of those issues in the region, their experience in working with people with severe mental illness, the capacity to engage and work productively with people who are often difficult and challenging to work with, and an understanding of the demographics of the region.

And finally a detailed budget which identifies all costs associated with providing the Partners in Recovery initiative in the region. And we will give you further guidance in the invitation to apply about how to break down that budget into different elements. And that will include as I said before some guidance as to what proportion of that budget could be allocated to the flexible funding pool.

In terms of the funding we have done some estimates of the funding that might be available to each region based on an estimate of the number of potential clients in the region. This is detailed in the guidelines and if you’ve read the guidelines you’ll see that we’ve broken the Medicare Local regions down into different sizes, or categorised them into different sizes from very small to very large with estimated populations and those population figures are based on the 2010 census.

Slide: Estimated available funding

• Very large region:
  • Indicative average one-off establishment funding = $750,000 - $800,000
  • Indicative recurrent funding = $5.2 to $7.8 million/year
• · Large region:
  • Indicative average one-off establishment funding = $750,000 - $800,000
  • Indicative recurrent funding = $3.4 to $5.2 million/year
• · Medium region:
  • Indicative average one-off establishment funding = $500,000 - $600,000
  • Indicative recurrent funding = $1.6 to $3.4 million/year
• Small region:
  • Indicative average one-off establishment funding = $250,000 – $300,000
  • Indicative recurrent funding = $0.9 to $1.6 million/year
• Very small region:
  • Indicative average one-off establishment funding = $250,000 – $300,000
  • Indicative recurrent funding = $0.4 to $0.9 million/yearTop of page

Sue Campion: The funding estimates that are in the guidelines, and they’re also here on the screen, are in two categories. There’s one off establishment funding which is only for year one and that’s to set up the organisation. It’s about ensuring that you’ve got the right tools and equipment to provide the services, to undertake recruitment of staff and get them up and working.

To do your partnership building and networking activities, getting your MOUs in place for example. And doing the marketing and communication in the region both to clients and to services, or potential clients and services. So that’s the one off funding.

And then there’s the recurrent funding which is all costs associated with providing the service in the region. That’s your staffing and on-costs, administration, capacity building in the region, maintaining the partnerships that you’ve set up under the first phase, taking part in the monitoring and evaluation activities, operational costs and also the flexible funding pool money.

Also important to note that the recurrent funding costs here reflect your costs in the first full year when you’re at maximum capacity. So in the first couple of years you may be building up capacity to provide the services to the full number of clients in the region and so this is the sort of costs we would expect to see once you’ve gone past that stage and you’re at the model of that maturity.

Also important to note that we haven’t applied any weightings as yet to these numbers to account for socio-economic disadvantage or rurality and we will be doing that and we’ll be looking for you to incorporate those into your applications if that’s relevant to your region. We haven’t finalised the weightings yet but we expect that they’ll be in the order of 20 to 30 per cent.

Slide: Assessment process

• Formal assessment process by an assessment committee(s) established by the Department.
• Independent advice will be sought on applications.
• Applications will be ranked based on merit, suitability, regional readiness, and value for money as:
  • highly suitable
  • suitable
  • further work required or
  • unsuitable Top of page

Sue Campion: In terms of the assessment process we will establish a committee to do the assessment and as part of that the committee may seek independent advice to validate and confirm the feasibility of the model that’s being proposed in the region. The applications will specify what information must be provided.

I can’t stress the importance of actually filling the application out completely. It might sound a bit basic but I have been in situations where I’ve assessed applications and the essential information hasn’t been provided. It makes it really difficult and unfortunately in some circumstances we’re not able to complete the assessment of the application. So I really encourage you if you are going to apply pay great attention to what’s being asked for and make sure it’s all filled in.

We’ll be assessing or rating applications according to merit, suitability, the regional readiness of the organisation or the model and value for money. And they’ll be rated as either highly suitable, suitable, further work required or unsuitable. We’ll be looking particularly for those that are highly suitable. In a situation where something’s rated as highly suitable it means there’s very little to negotiate or clarify following the assessment process and we’re ready to move very quickly into negotiating a funding agreement. Those that are suitable may just have a few things that require clarification or negotiation. Where further work is required we will be perhaps looking at what else might need to be undertaken to perhaps get that application over the line. And those that are unsuitable obviously they’re lacking in a range of aspects and really do need a lot more work.
In regions where we get unsuitable applications and we aren’t able to negotiate with another organisation to provide the service in that region we will give consideration to what we need to do to make sure that there is a service available for that region. That might involve doing another targeted invitation to apply in particular areas or other activities that will help expedite getting an organisation established.

Slide: Next steps – where to from here?

• PIR is an opportunity for services and supports across different sectors to work together differently
• There is no need to wait for the ITA to be released before getting started
• Program guidelines deliberately released prior to ITA to give regions time to understand necessary partnership building and planning activites
• Use the program guidelines, fact sheet, information paper and other materials as guidance to get started

Sue Campion: Just in terms of where you might go from here, as I said there’ll be further information in the invitation to apply about what you need to do and what information you need to provide to us but please don’t wait for the invitation to apply to be released before you do anything. You’ve got the guidelines, you’ve got the information papers on the website, you’ve got this presentation which is also now on our website, you’ve got a lot of tools and resources available to you now to be able to start thinking about what might Partners in Recovery look like in my region.

So hopefully what we would like you to do from here if you’re interested is to go back and start planning for an application. Top of page

Slide: Next steps – where to from here (continued)?

• Start getting together in your region to determine:
  • what are the specific needs in your region
  • who are the potential PIR clients in your region
  • what are the issues in being able to effectively join up services and sectors / how could PIR best assist with this
  • a map of the services in your region, and identify the gaps
  • what is a suitable PIR model for your region / what are the service solutions on-the-ground in your region that PIR could assist with
  • which organisation is best placed (and eligible) to be the PIR organisation for your region
  • who should the 'PIR partners' in the region be
  • how will PIR partnerships be established / what will be the governance arrangements for the PIR model
  • who in your region will write the application

Sue Campion: And the things you might want to think about are what are the needs for Partners in Recovery in the region? Who might the potential clients be? Where are they currently presenting? So what might our referral pathways be? What are the services available in the region? Who might the partners therefore need to be? Is there an obvious lead organisation in your region and therefore are there obvious partner organisations? How will the partnerships be established and maintained? Is there an obvious organisation to write your application?

Those are just some of the things that you might want to start thinking about if you have an interest in applying.