Summary
The Orange Door has a key role in helping to ensure that services are effective and positive outcomes for clients are maximised.
The Orange Door plans for, and supports people to, exit The Orange Door and service system, whether they require a service response or are exiting the service system altogether because they no longer need a service. The Orange Door will seek to monitor case plans and client outcomes through strong feedback loops with core services and improved data and information systems to collect information about the status of referrals and interventions provided to clients, as the model evolves over time.
These systems and functions will take The Orange Door beyond being merely a ‘front-door’ to a siloed service system and helps drive integration and more effective service delivery throughout a person or family’s experience.
What this looks like within The Orange Door
The Orange Door reviews cases where they directly provide interventions or remain involved. This aligns with the MARAM Framework (contribute to coordinated and collaborative risk management including ongoing assessment) and may require regular reviews (for example, daily) for high-risk cases or a review at the end of a targeted intervention. The process of reviewing:
- maintains ongoing communication with the client/family and any relevant workers to ensure improvements in safety and wellbeing are being implemented and achieved
- obtains new information to update risk and needs assessments
- leads to a timely and appropriate response to new or emerging issues
- proactively identifies barriers to engaging with a client and/or family
When monitoring and reviewing a case that involves children, it may be necessary to:
- visit the family to see the children, looking for evidence of improvement or deterioration
- obtain feedback from the child or young person directly
- contact universal services and other services working with the child or young person to obtain information about the child’s wellbeing and safety
In most cases, reviews are conducted by the core services or broader services that provide a response. The Orange Door is developing systems to create feedback loops that capture information about the interventions and services provided to improve the safety, welfare and wellbeing of the client and/or family.
Monitoring helps to identify any barriers to achieving the client’s goals so that strategies can be introduced, or existing strategies modified, to overcome them. It also helps to ascertain whether the client or family’s needs have changed over time.
This will help the service system to better understand and monitor whether:
- services are being provided in the way specified in the case plan
- needs have changed
- there are any barriers to service provision
- reassessment and/or changes to safety and support plans are necessary
- the client/family is still actively engaged
Monitoring and reviewing cases at the individual level will help in gathering intelligence about overall system performance. This intelligence allows gaps, blockages and systemic issues to be identified and resolved. It also facilitates a better picture of demand across the system, which can be used to inform planning for the future.
Case closure
In the context of The Orange Door, ‘closure’ may mean from the service system altogether, or from The Orange Door to another service (an allocation or referral). Circumstances in which people and families cease their involvement with the Orange Door may include:
- a client decides not to engage with The Orange Door, or withdraws their involvement (and there are no residual risks that need to be addressed)
- a client has received a service delivered directly by The Orange Door (e.g. a targeted intervention) and does not require any other services
- a client moves to another department area, interstate or overseas
- a client (for example, a perpetrator) is sent to prison, or is otherwise engaged in another service system.
- a client dies
The Orange Door practitioners consider:
- how the client is preparing for their case closure (this may be particularly important if the client has built a strong working relationship with The Orange Door practitioner or team)
- how the client continues to be supported, if necessary, by other agencies or informal support networks
- any relevant arrangements for transitioning to ongoing support from other agencies, including transferring relevant information
- the need to undertake any further risk assessment and management planning, including activating statutory responses where required to reduce risk
- where appropriate, using persistent outreach strategies to try to re-engage the person or family or confirm that they are not at high risk
- whether there are any issues with the services being delivered that can be addressed to better respond to their needs
Where a client’s case is to be closed, The Orange Door practitioners ensure the client is provided with the relevant information and options to be able to continue to manage their risks and needs and that they are aware of how to re-access The Orange Door at any time.
Target group
Review, monitoring and closure occurs for all clients of The Orange Door. Review and monitoring occurs for clients whilst they remain directly engaged with The Orange Door.
Monitoring and review is prioritised for clients who have acute needs or are at high risk. This may include recidivist clients, or those assessed as having significant risks to their safety or wellbeing.
Workforce
Practitioners undertake closure planning, monitoring and review for eligible cases. Practice leaders are consulted as required, particularly in relation to decisions about whether a case should be ‘flagged’ for review, and whether closure is appropriate where risk is unable to be ascertained or managed effectively.
Practice tools, frameworks and guidelines
Practitioners use the CRM to record the outcomes of review and closure.
Timing and duration
Review and monitoring is limited to the duration of a client’s engagement with The Orange Door. Once a client has been allocated a core service and/or referred to a service in the broader system, responsibility for ‘monitoring’ shifts to the relevant service.
Updated