Commonwealth Funding for Northern Sydney Collaborative Commissioning partnership

The Collaborative Commissioning program team have been working closely with the Ministry of Health’s Activity Based Management (ABM) team and the Northern Sydney  partnership over the past three months to progress an innovative funding submission to the Commonwealth. The submission and ongoing conversations have focused on a request to jointly fund Northern Sydney’s frail and elderly model of care. Initial discussions have been successful including the Commonwealth’s principal approval to fund.  
 
Several workshops have been held to further review and refine the approach towards the funding request. The focus has been on: 

• reviewing the interim funding methodology 
• assessing the in-scope and out-of-scope activities under the care pathway 
• developing activities and costings for National Efficient Price/National Efficient Cost inclusion.  

Next steps include a future meeting between ABM, Government Relations Branch , the Commonwealth, Collaborative Commissioning, Northern Sydney Local Health District, and Primary Health Network executives to answer specific questions, agree on the approach with the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority and confirm exact funding amounts per year.  
 
Once the Northern Sydney submission has been approved and finalised, the Collaborative Commissioning program will work with all remaining partnerships to progress submitting their models of care for Commonwealth funding support under the National Health Reform Agreement. 
 
This process has been an exciting opportunity for Collaborative Commissioning and the Ministry of Health to progress conversations around joint funding and support for our partnerships. The Commonwealth’s principal approval provides early indications of a more formalised commitment to reform between the Commonwealth and the State, including the specific agreement of an innovative funding model that supports a one-system approach.