Planning, Strategy and Evaluation

The Planning, Strategy and Evaluation Team is responsible for leading a comprehensive and iterative health-needs assessment and activity planning process for the population of Central and Eastern Sydney PHN. The ongoing development of the Needs Assessment and Activity Work Plans are key elements of the PHN's commissioning strategy. These activities are undertaken in partnership with key partners and other stakeholders to ensure priority health needs including emerging needs are identified, and local evidence based solutions are implemented to improve the health of the region’s population.

Monitoring and evaluation strategies are integral to all programs, projects or services. They ensure that the objectives of any implemented and locally based solutions are measured in terms of quality, timeliness, cultural acceptability, how and whether targets and outcomes were met and builds a platform PHNs can learn and improve from. This is a crucial process in the PHN's commissioning strategy which involves the development of performance evaluation metrics such as key performance indicators, data collection and reporting. This is achieved through the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework.

Current versions of the Needs Assessment and Activity Work Plan for Central and Eastern Sydney PHN are available below.

Over the next six months we will be updating our baseline needs assessment and activity work plans, these will be made available on the website once approved.

Needs Assessment

The purpose of the CESPHN Needs Assessment was to identify population health needs and service gaps. The findings are intended to inform appropriate responses that support, strengthen and shape a world class, person centred primary health care system. The 2018 Needs Assessment Report addresses key national priority areas such as Aged Care, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, Digital Health, Population Health, Workforce, After Hours, and Remote Health. Click here to access the pdf 2017 Needs Assessment Report (2.17 MB) .

Previous CESPHN Needs Assessments

Refer to the Needs Assessment Guide on the Department of Health's PHN website, for a detailed outline of the approach to conducting needs assessments.

Norfolk Island Needs Assessment

In March 2015, the Australian Government announced comprehensive reforms for Norfolk Island. Subsequently, in May 2015, the Norfolk Island Legislation Amendment Act 2015 and related Acts came into effect and from 1 July 2016 mainland taxation, social security, immigration, biosecurity, customs and health arrangements, including Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, was extended to Norfolk Island.

Central and Eastern Sydney PHN (CESPHN) has been funded to support activities within primary health care.

The pdf Norfolk Island needs assessment (1017 KB) was submitted to the Department of Health in August 2016.

The needs assessment was undertaken alongside the development of the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD) Norfolk Island Health and Aged Care Clinical Services Plan and in partnership with SESLHD and the Norfolk Island Health and Residential Aged Care Service (NIHRACS).

Carramar Consulting completed the Clinical Services Plan, and was therefore engaged by CESPHN to provide assistance in development of the needs assessment.

Consultation with a broad range of stakeholders on the Island was a key element in the development of the needs assessment. The needs assessment was also informed by a range of previous reports and surveys undertaken on Norfolk Island in recent years.

The needs assessment identifies that there is an opportunity to improve health outcomes of Norfolk Island residents through focusing on developing health seeking behaviours and implementing sustainable, locally relevant and culturally appropriate services. The way forward will be a staged approach to build capacity and resilience based on the existing strengths and family values of the Norfolk Island community.

Mental health needs assessment

On 26 November 2015 the Commonwealth Government announced that primary health networks will take on a greater commissioning role for mental health and suicide prevention services. The official announcement from the Commonwealth Government is available from the Department of Health website.

CESPHN is well placed to drive a regional approach to commissioning, already having strong working relationships as well as shared geographical boundaries with our local health districts and hospital networks.

In addition to findings from our Baseline needs assessment, we have completed the comprehensive mental health and suicide prevention needs assessment for the region. pdf Click here to access the 2017 Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Needs Assessment (1.19 MB) .

Mental Health Atlases

The final Integrated Mental Health Atlases have been released, part of a collaboration project lead by Brain and Mind Centre’s Mental Health Policy Unit.

The atlases to provide region-wide views of services and support available to people living with mental distress in NSW.

Alcohol and other drugs services needs assessment

On 6 December 2015 the Commonwealth Government announced that primary health networks will take on a greater commissioning role for alcohol and other drugs services. The official announcement from the Commonwealth Government is available from the Department of Health website.

In addition to findings from our Baseline needs assessment, we have completed the comprehensive Drug and Alcohol Needs Assessment for the region. pdf Click here to view the 2017 Drug and Alcohol Needs Assessment (1.10 MB) .

Activity work plans

Our pdf activity work plans (1.61 MB) have been informed by our needs assessment report. The plan outlines the activities to be delivered over the course of 2016 - 2018.

The plan identifies activities against eight priority areas to be delivered. These include:

Population health
Aged care
Early intervention and prevention
Health literacy
Service navigation
Child and maternal health
Addressing service gaps
Workforce

The areas of care coordination, integrated care, areas with poor health status and digital health were also identified as priorities and have been addressed throughout the work plan.

The additional priority areas of integrated team care (Aboriginal Health), mental health and suicide prevention, Norfolk Island and drug and alcohol treatment are covered in separate activity work plans.

Our updated activity work plans were approved for publication by the Department of Health in June 2017.

pdf CESPHN Updated Core and Flexible Funding Activity Work Plan 2016 – 2018 (1.61 MB)