Clarity of Purpose

It is important to start with an understanding of what you are expecting [aiming] to change by establishing an integrated service delivery model on a school site.  Establishing a School as Community Platform or creating a community hub is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

The overall purpose: improve life chances of children and families by improving education outcomes using existing system resources, leads to incorporating the enablers to education success into the school environment and reducing or eliminating known barriers to achieving improved education outcomes. It also favours working with and building capacity in the existing system resources rather than adding to or complicating an already complex and fragmented system.

Being able to articulate a simple shared vision for change “Improving education outcomes” and “working in partnership with the existing system resources” has been crucial in gaining traction with the right partners that need to be involved as authorisers and actors in the work. It also serves as a reference point for future decisions in design and implementation. How will this lead to improved education outcomes? Is this “working with and building capacity in the existing system resources or adding to the complexity?”

While the creation of a vision is a collaborative effort as part of the process of establishing a place-based initiative, having clarity about the core purpose in the very early stage of ideation helps to identify other stakeholders and champions for the work.

The model described in this guide uses the universal platform of a school because learning and education are at the centre of our purpose. By creating holistic Community Schools that focus on addressing the barriers to learning and educational success we are bringing the essential supports that children and families need to succeed in education, to places that are centrally located and a permanent infrastructure in each community.

Our Experience/Learnings

The partnership at Doveton College did not set out to create an integrated services delivery model.  Nor is it the only strategy in the School as Community Platform approach. The original purpose of the work at Doveton college was to improve the life chances of children and families by improving education outcomes. With this clearly defined, the next step was understanding the evidence about enablers and barriers to education success and so the focus was on finding ways to address the underlying reasons for ongoing poor education outcomes in the Doveton community.

The use of an integrated service delivery model was in response to identifying the number of families where their children’s ability to participate in learning was impacted by the families not being engaged with appropriate services or were finding it overwhelming and not effective.  It was one of several strategies that contributed to a shift in education outcomes for the school.

Co-locating key services and supports on a school site is a strategy to address physical accessibility, and access to infrastructure but there are many more barriers to education success that need to be addressed for families.  This includes trust in education and learning, sense of belonging and agency, reducing complexity for families and they require a more considered review of practice and culture.  Many of these barriers can also be addressed through locating services together where there is a commitment by the organisations providing these services to work collaboratively on the issues.  As with any change process, those who need to be involved in the change, need a common purpose to align with.

The step from co location to integrated service delivery model involving many organisations needed a clarity of purpose to drive the ongoing engagement of partners and strategic decisions about what needs to be in place on the sites and most importantly the practice changes that need to be pursued to achieve the shared vision. 

If the purpose was not related to improving education outcomes, it would be difficult for schools and the respective State Education Departments to justify the investment of time and resources needed to support an integrated place-based model on their infrastructure.