Representatives from the community services sector and the Department of Human Services addressed the 9th Secretary's Partnership Forum.

Speakers at the Partners in Quality Improvement forum included:

•          Michael White from the Centre for Excellence, who provided a sector-wide view on continuous quality improvement initiatives;

•          Greg Brady from Connections in Croydon who said a quality improvement approach had helped develop his organisation's priorities in staff development, client and community focus and organisational achievement and include them in its business plan;

•          Kathryn Lamb from the Department's Disability Services Division and Kym Peake from the Office of Children looking at benefits, challenges and next steps for their respective program areas in implementing and sustaining quality frameworks in a partnership environment;

•          VCOSS Chief Executive Officer Cath Smith who raised the need to continue improving the quality of partnership relationships through formal evaluation.

•          Dorothy Wee, from the Department's North and West Region, described how the Department's Service Excellence Framework (SEF) had helped find ways to improve partnership activities—such as joint sector/Department workforce development, planning for growth corridors, client support and choice facilitation and coordination of accommodation vacancies for people with a disability.

Department of Human Services Secretary Patricia Faulkner chaired a discussion on issues raised in the presentations.

She then identified emerging key themes as:

•          The need to look at ways the Department and the sector could continue to work together to evaluate and improve partnerships relationships;

•          How to make the most of opportunities to learn from the variety and breadth of partnership activities across the state;

•          How the Department and community sector organisations could work together to assess how these activities improved joint work with clients.

The Human Services Implementation Committee will pick up these themes as part of its current work plan.

A progress report will then be provided at the next Secretary's Forum in December.

•          For copies of the forum presentations and partnership information visit http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/pdpd.partnership/.