Our funding and contracting processes

Diagram of key funding and contracting processes

Planning

Each year Family and Community Services develops a funding plan to determine what services need to be delivered to support families and communities.

The plans are developed by the regional funding teams in consultation with other services lines of the Ministry of Social Development and the community sector. They are then collated nationally and approved by the Minister of Social Development.

Information taken into account when developing the plan includes community need, currently funding of services and the distribution of funding.  

Selecting a provider

There are a number of ways Family and Community Services selects community organisations to deliver services for families. These include:

• Applying for funding through a specific Fund, such as the Community Response Fund 
• Tendering for a service, such as Family Start
• Directly approaching a single or group of providers where a service requires specific knowledge and or where the need is critical and urgent

We aim to be consistent and clear in our selection of providers and our selection process is complies with the principles of fairness and transparency. It is normal practice to assemble a panel to evaluate applications or proposals - assessing them against clear criteria.   

Once decisions have been made - a due diligence process is carried out to verify each decision. 

Negotiating a contract/grant

Once a provider has been selected, the next stage is negotiating the contract or grant. This will include an offer and acceptance phase, determining the service specifications that will be delivered under the contract, the reporting requirements, length of contract and standard terms and conditions.

Managing a contract/grant

A fundamental principle for both Family and Community Services and the provider in managing the Contract or Grant is ensuring a robust relationship management platform is in place. This ensures openness, integrity and fairness and trust are developed over the life of the service and into the future with the provider.

Managing the contract is a joint task and involves addressing such things as monitoring, reporting, performance, payments and when circumstances change.

Review and evaluation

Review and evaluation involves addressing the effectiveness of the service, discussing the providers performance and Family and Community Services effectiveness as contract manager, any recommendations for the service to be developed if needed, and whether to continue, change or end the service.

Review and Evaluation also serves as an essential information source for future planning processes.