Commissioning Collaborative: a new way of commissioning MHAODSP services

“In its purest form, co-commissioning is evidenced by collaboration and shared contributions to goals.”

A new partnership convened to progress meaningful change within the co-design and co-commissioning space – the Commissioning Collaborative (CC) – met for the first time last month.

The newly formed governance group, comprised of representatives from Brisbane North PHN, Metro North Health, Queensland Health and Children’s Health Queensland, is a forum for funders to come together to plan the co-commissioning of mental health, alcohol and other drug and suicide prevention (MHAODSP) services.

The CC is currently in the scoping and building phase of the partnering cycle, and discussion at the first meeting centred around the shared vision, evaluating the group’s potential, exploring shared and individual objectives and interests, setting expectations for the group and its ways of working together, and considering how it would operate differently to “business as usual.”

The Collaborative will work in conjunction with the new joint regional plan for MHAODSP, which is approaching development. Central to this plan is a process of identifying gaps where service resourcing and capacity cannot meet demand, and developing a schedule and roadmap to address these gaps.

An immediate priority for the CC is to expand membership to include lived experience representatives and First Nations voices. Other next steps are to develop governance arrangements and explore case studies from other initiatives from around Australia.

For more:

Contact Chelsea Muscat at Chelsea.Muscat@brisbanenorthphn.org.au.

Paul Martin, Executive Manager | Commissioned Services at Brisbane North PHN, and Shirley Anastasi, Director of Governance and Quality Management, Metro North Mental Health gave a presentation about the Collaborative’s mission at the recent joint Metro North Health Forum.

Opening quote: pwc, NSW Government (2020) “Supporting innovation and outcomes through joint commissioning”.