Closing the gap for child, maternal & family health services (South Australia)

The challenge

Aboriginal people are among the most disadvantaged population groups in South Australia, experiencing more life risk factors, poorer health and less acceptable outcomes in a range of life areas when compared to other South Australians.​

SA Health’s Aboriginal Health directorate works to address the health inequities faced by Aboriginal people and reduce the gap in health outcomes between South Australia’s Aboriginal population and the rest of South Australia’s population.​

In 2019, the Aboriginal Health directorate sought support from Rebbeck to recommission the statewide Closing the Gap funding by practically applying the concepts of commissioning for outcomes.

The impact of our work

Developing a guiding coalition for change​

The first step was supporting the Aboriginal Health team to establish a guiding coalition of local experts to provide a steering group to support the recommissioning process.​

We helped the steering group to prioritise which area of Closing the Gap services to recommission first. Through expert informed analysis, the first priority for recommissioning was identified as Child, Family and Maternal Health.​

Prioritising local health needs​

We synthesised the available health data and evidence to develop a rich picture of the population needs, including key health issues, and the specific cohorts and regions with the greatest needs. We then conducted an evidence review to summarise good practice in Child, Maternal and Family Health across the life course.​

Co-designing the service​

We then facilitated a broad reaching co-design process to develop and refine a series of Child, Family and Maternal Health logic models across the life course (see diagram below). Through a series of large-scale co-design workshops, we were able to design a service that addressed the specific needs of Aboriginal children, mothers and families in South Australia. ​

Procuring the service​

This led to the development of a robust service specification that was the basis of procurement of the new services.