Patient experience is increasingly recognised as one of the three ‘pillars of quality in healthcare’ alongside clinical effectiveness and patient safety. The health care sector is heavily regulated, however delivering a compliant service does not necessarily translate to a good service experience for the consumer. An increasingly common strategy used by organisations to measure patient experience is to undertake patient journey mapping.

Quite often structured engagement activities are seen as nice-to-have additions to an organisation’s pre-existing repertoire. However in the health and social services sector, specifically in the non-profit arena, the benefits that genuine stakeholder engagement can have on mitigating the negative effects of market competition, public cynicism and perceived transparency are profound.

We’ve recently developed a series of short, low-cost and high-value workshops to support people working in the health and social services sector to better plan, design, implement and evaluate programs.

With all the media attention on energy policy over the last few months, we take a look at the issue from a social impact perspective. It has been largely left to a few of the larger NGOs to advocate for those who really face the brunt of rising power bills—people and families on low incomes, the long-term unemployed those living with disabilities or chronic health conditions, pensioners, students amongst others.

Do organisations that commission programs, whether it be through grants, tenders or philanthropic donations, fully appreciate the important leadership role they play in the sector? We identify a couple of activities that reflect a more proactive and deliberate approach by funders of social programs to getting the best outcomes and bringing service providers along on the journey.

We’ve been knee-deep in data over the last couple of months supporting the Gold Coast Primary Health Network with their needs assessment process, developing data-informed summaries across a range of population health areas. Here we take a look at a few traps and tips to increase the rigour of your data analysis based on our experience.

Earlier this month, we spent a couple of days in the office of one of our clients meeting with staff to understand and capture the principles that guide the work that they do. The aim of this consultation was to inform a practice framework for the organisation that we had been brought in to develop on their behalf. In this post, we explore what a practice framework is, and how it can add value to an organisation.

Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of software company Atlassian, recently spoke to an audience at TEDxSydney about his fear of being exposed as an imposter. We take a look at the three important leadership lessons for leaders of organisations in the social services or communities sectors.

Here we cover the importance of service/project design when presenting an argument to fund one of your new bright ideas. The biggest thing holding many organisations back in being successful for grant funding or tenders is not including a clearly outlined service or project model in their application.