Understanding resources required
Key points
- Ability to sustain the change that is created.
- Building and space considerations.
- Roles that enable cross sector planning and family engagement.
- Include cost of evaluation / monitoring impact.
Considerations
- Is there potential to explore co-contribution for infrastructure with other stakeholders?
- Have you factored in the time cost of partnering?
Understanding the resources required
The first consideration in resourcing needs should be the ability to sustain what is created. Many communities are jaded by years of pilots or projects that offer great opportunities for 2 – 3 years and then fade away. It is important to factor in both establishment costs and capacity to maintain what is established in the long term.
“This town has had more pilots than Ansett, how long will this one last”
Using existing infrastructure and partnering with others who are already mandated to deliver what your target families need is preferrable to creating an alternate services system for a location.
Schools can and have started small with activities for parents operating from a spare or repurposed classroom, using their own staff and partnering with 1 or 2 other services for specific activities and have been able to do this with minor outlay. However, having a lager suite of additional services on site requires access to appropriate spaces for the services to work from as well as systems and coordination support: other enablers that are discussed later. The space should be available for the long term, not just a few years until the enrolments grow.
Budgets should include a realistic cost for measurement and evaluation whether you are using internal or external resources. It is common to allocate between 5 and 20% of a program budget to evaluation costs including the cost of data collection.
Our Experience/ Learnings
This table offers a starting point for cost considerations using the three broad archetypes to illustrate different levels of available resources.
Space
- Room within school for community activities
- Welcoming entrance
- Shared consulting space
- Early learning service on site
- Room within school for community activities
- Open space in entrance for incidental engagement and interaction
- Early learning service in same building
- Modifications for shared consulting spaces
- Shared Entrance
- Co-location of ELC on site
- Multiple flexible spaces for community activities
- Consulting rooms for onsite services
- Open space in entrance for incidental engagement and interaction
- Shared staff space to promote integration.
Coordination Resource/Backbone role
- Timetabling Space
- Systems to accommodate freer access to school
- Engagement with families
- Activation of community space
- Sourcing and supporting delivery partners
- Warm referrals to other services
- Planning reporting and measuring.
- Shared planning between onsite services
- Joint protocols
- Engagement with families
- Activation of community spaces
- Sourcing and supporting delivery partners
- Warm referrals to other services
- Data collection, evaluation, and reporting
- Shared planning between organisations
- Sourcing and supporting delivery partners
- Joint protocols
- Maintaining cross sector collaboration
- Engagement with families
- Activation of community spaces
- Warm referrals to other services
- Shared governance
- Data collection, evaluation, and reporting
- Engaging with Key service system partners to address system challenges
Funds needed
- Minor refurbishment
- Access to amenities for adults
- Furniture
- Coordinator role (Pt)
- Refurbishment including
- Access to amenities for adults
- Furniture
- Coordinator role
- Refurbish/ rebuild
- Coordination/ partnership brokerage role
- Furnishings
Space
- Room within school for community activities
- Welcoming entrance
- Shared consulting space
- Early learning service on site
- Room within school for community activities
- Open space in entrance for incidental engagement and interaction
- Early learning service in same building
- Modifications for shared consulting spaces
- Shared Entrance
- Co-location of ELC on site
- Multiple flexible spaces for community activities
- Consulting rooms for onsite services
- Open space in entrance for incidental engagement and interaction
- Shared staff space to promote integration.
Coordination Resource/Backbone role
- Timetabling Space
- Systems to accommodate freer access to school
- Engagement with families
- Activation of community space
- Sourcing and supporting delivery partners
- Warm referrals to other services
- Planning reporting and measuring.
- Shared planning between onsite services
- Joint protocols
- Engagement with families
- Activation of community spaces
- Sourcing and supporting delivery partners
- Warm referrals to other services
- Data collection, evaluation, and reporting
- Shared planning between organisations
- Sourcing and supporting delivery partners
- Joint protocols
- Maintaining cross sector collaboration
- Engagement with families
- Activation of community spaces
- Warm referrals to other services
- Shared governance
- Data collection, evaluation, and reporting
- Engaging with Key service system partners to address system challenges
Funds needed
- Minor refurbishment
- Access to amenities for adults
- Furniture
- Coordinator role (Pt)
- Refurbishment including
- Access to amenities for adults
- Furniture
- Coordinator role
- Refurbish/ rebuild
- Coordination/ partnership brokerage role
- Furnishings
Space
- Room within school for community activities
- Welcoming entrance
- Shared consulting space
- Early learning service on site
- Room within school for community activities
- Open space in entrance for incidental engagement and interaction
- Early learning service in same building
- Modifications for shared consulting spaces
- Shared Entrance
- Co-location of ELC on site
- Multiple flexible spaces for community activities
- Consulting rooms for onsite services
- Open space in entrance for incidental engagement and interaction
- Shared staff space to promote integration.
Coordination Resource/Backbone role
- Timetabling Space
- Systems to accommodate freer access to school
- Engagement with families
- Activation of community space
- Sourcing and supporting delivery partners
- Warm referrals to other services
- Planning reporting and measuring.
- Shared planning between onsite services
- Joint protocols
- Engagement with families
- Activation of community spaces
- Sourcing and supporting delivery partners
- Warm referrals to other services
- Data collection, evaluation, and reporting
- Shared planning between organisations
- Sourcing and supporting delivery partners
- Joint protocols
- Maintaining cross sector collaboration
- Engagement with families
- Activation of community spaces
- Warm referrals to other services
- Shared governance
- Data collection, evaluation, and reporting
- Engaging with Key service system partners to address system challenges
Funds needed
- Minor refurbishment
- Access to amenities for adults
- Furniture
- Coordinator role (Pt)
- Refurbishment including
- Access to amenities for adults
- Furniture
- Coordinator role
- Refurbish/ rebuild
- Coordination/ partnership brokerage role
- Furnishings
Space
- Room within school for community activities
- Welcoming entrance
- Shared consulting space
- Early learning service on site
- Room within school for community activities
- Open space in entrance for incidental engagement and interaction
- Early learning service in same building
- Modifications for shared consulting spaces
- Shared Entrance
- Co-location of ELC on site
- Multiple flexible spaces for community activities
- Consulting rooms for onsite services
- Open space in entrance for incidental engagement and interaction
- Shared staff space to promote integration.
Coordination Resource/Backbone role
- Timetabling Space
- Systems to accommodate freer access to school
- Engagement with families
- Activation of community space
- Sourcing and supporting delivery partners
- Warm referrals to other services
- Planning reporting and measuring.
- Shared planning between onsite services
- Joint protocols
- Engagement with families
- Activation of community spaces
- Sourcing and supporting delivery partners
- Warm referrals to other services
- Data collection, evaluation, and reporting
- Shared planning between organisations
- Sourcing and supporting delivery partners
- Joint protocols
- Maintaining cross sector collaboration
- Engagement with families
- Activation of community spaces
- Warm referrals to other services
- Shared governance
- Data collection, evaluation, and reporting
- Engaging with Key service system partners to address system challenges
Funds needed
- Minor refurbishment
- Access to amenities for adults
- Furniture
- Coordinator role (Pt)
- Refurbishment including
- Access to amenities for adults
- Furniture
- Coordinator role
- Refurbish/ rebuild
- Coordination/ partnership brokerage role
- Furnishings
Partners allowing time for collaboration.
Even with a backbone role in place, partners involved in governance and provision of activities and services need to factor in a time allowance for engaging in collaboration. Depending on the role this ranges from information sharing, joint activity planning, to participating in strategic planning processes, providing updates to governance groups or engaging with new partners. Most of this cost is in kind and partners build it into their own time management.
For Service delivery
Most of the service delivery the Schools as Community Platforms design was achieved by working with those parts of the service system that are already funded to provide the support services needed. By locating the service delivery on a school site, we are bringing the existing services closer to families and the services closer to each other not only impacting service participation, but also making service collaboration, coordination, and integration more achievable. The key in this approach is to be able to understand the service system and have the capacity to build the relationship with the many parts of a fractured service system. In Queensland it became clear that the local resources could not be redirected, and the government partner allocated additional funds to the existing service provider addressing a resource gap in the local community.
For Coordination / backbone support
The amount of time needed for this resource varies on the complexity of the intended implementation. In the Our Place sites where the complete Schools as Community Platform model is being implemented the backbone resource on site is between 2 to 3.6 FTE including a senior planning and coordination role and community engagement and partnership support roles. In addition, central resources are used to support evaluation, data management, accountability and compliance and maintaining central partnership arrangements.