Implementing a common practice framework for better service delivery

For the first time in Victoria (Australia), a community service organisation has documented their evidence-informed, common ways of working, across all program areas, with the goal of providing more consistent, improved services to individuals, families and the community.

CEI has partnered with the purpose-driven non-profit organisation Meli, based in regional Victoria, to develop and implement the Meli Common Practice Approach framework. This articulates, for the first time, a “Meli way of working”, informed both by research evidence and what practitioners and clients agree works to achieve positive outcomes.

“The common practice framework is designed to strengthen the core interventions and programs delivered every day by Meli’s highly skilled teams,” says CEI Principal Advisor Frances Head. “Together, we’ve identified the evidence-informed common practices that underpin all Meli’s activities – across child and family services, housing support, family violence, emergency relief, counselling services, and other social supports.”

“The goal is to improve engagement with, readiness for, and uptake of services – to drive greater overall effectiveness of this vital community work.”

The Meli way of working is articulated as “consistent, collaborative, effective and evidence-informed”, and is defined by 10 practice principles. Three headline practice components – “engage”, “change”, “sustain” – set the scene for 14 practice elements, each described in plain language, so they can be clearly understood and flexibly applied by Meli’s practitioners.

“CEI helped the Meli team define and capture their common practices and principles, and then we assessed these ways of working in light of research evidence,” Frances explains. “As an example: when Meli practitioners from a number of program areas described how they build client engagement and relationships, we recognised those practices as being grounded in the well-evidenced Motivational Interviewing approach to counselling and behaviour change.”

There is huge benefit in building an organisation-wide understanding and common language to describe the very intangible work of social service delivery.

“Developing and implementing this framework is key to driving effective and consistent professional practice among our teams, and to improving clients’ ability to navigate the service system,” says Bernadette McCartney, Meli's Executive Director, Services. “Our goal is an integrated, embedded approach that draws upon evidence-informed practices, and best meets the changing needs and aspirations of Meli’s clients.”

“How we work is core to who we are as a service. We see these common practice elements as building shared and evidence-informed techniques and language across our organisation, providing a strong foundation for all our work, and leading to better and greater collaboration between teams, and with other services.”

Effective implementation of the common practice elements is the next step. A program of training is planned, followed by coaching and other evidenced strategies, guided by a cross-organisation implementation team which will oversee progress and adapt in line with robust data.

“It’s not enough just to have the framework,” says Frances. “Active implementation is needed to ensure its contents are put to use.”

“Meli’s commitment to using implementation science means our work is guided by robust evidence, and our practitioners are active and effective proponents of the practices and principles of the Meli approach”, says Lisa-Jane Moody, Meli's Executive Director, Outcomes and Strategic Engagement.

“This will have huge benefit in accelerating uptake, and in achieving the framework’s goals of more consistent and improved service delivery.”