Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy Procurement
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Overview of the Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy program
The Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy (IHSS) provides intensive initial settlement support to newly-arrived humanitarian entrants for the first six to 12 months after arrival in Australia.
Services are delivered through a coordinated case management approach and are designed to assist humanitarian entrants to rebuild their lives and achieve self-sufficiency as soon as possible.
Humanitarian entrants granted visas under Australia's Humanitarian Program, whether offshore or onshore, are eligible for IHSS services. Entitlement to services is based on assessed need.
See: Fact Sheet 66 – Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy
Current contractual arrangements
Current IHSS contracts commenced on 1 October 2005 and will end on 30 June 2010.
Services are delivered by a range of organisations contracted by the department. The IHSS program is delivered by 16 service providers in 20 separate contract regions across Australia.
Procurement process
The department has commenced a procurement process to replace the current IHSS contracts.
A request for tender (RFT) will be released in January 2010 and all relevant tender documentation will be available on the AusTender website.
The release of the RFT will be advertised in major capital city newspapers and some regional newspapers.
See: ausTENDER
Discussion paper
As part of its program review process, the department sought submissions to a discussion paper released on 30 June 2009. Submissions to the discussion paper have now closed.
Eighty-six submissions were received in response to the paper, of which 65 were from community organisations and interested parties, 16 from state or federal government agencies, and five from peak industry groups or ministerial councils.
The department will not be releasing a summary report of the submissions.
For your information, the discussion paper is still available to download.
See: IHSS discussion paper (537KB PDF file)
Consultations
The department held consultations with community organisations and government agencies around Australia between 29 June and 12 August 2009. More than 460 individuals attended the sessions, representing 217 community organisations and 82 government agencies. The purpose of the consultations was to seek feedback on the current IHSS program and identify areas for program improvement.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services, Laurie Ferguson, attended most of the sessions.
The following report provides a summary of the main themes discussed across the consultation sessions.
See: IHSS Consultations – Consolidated Summary Report ( 48KB PDF file)
As part of the consultation process the department also held focus groups with IHSS clients to gain a better understanding of the client experience. Eleven client focus groups were conducted in metro and regional centres.
More than 195 clients from 18 different ethnic groups participated in the sessions. Feedback from these sessions will not be made publicly available.
Information gained from submissions to the discussion paper, consultations and focus groups will be considered when drafting the tender documentation.