Coordinated and Integrated Human Service Delivery Models

Abstract

This report, prepared for the New South Wales Cabinet Office, presents empirical evidence of the use of coordinated and integrated approaches to human service delivery in Australia, particularly in New South Wales, and overseas. It focuses on the evidence of successful integration initiatives involving community-based projects and those that cater to the needs of specific groups. Over the course of the twentieth century, most essential human services came to be organised with clear program boundaries and a high degree of administrative autonomy. In recent years, however, there has been shift away from specialised and bureaucratic patterns of service provision towards a more coordinated, integrative approach. This more holistic approach, it is argued by advocates, can create synergies leading to innovation and streamlining of service delivery through information and skill sharing. Moves to enhance linkages between services are also undertaken to simplify consumer access to services, increase the cost-effectiveness of provision through the eradication of duplication and the inappropriate use of resources associated with poor preventative practices, and to help realise efficiencies of scale in service delivery.