Make a submission on the draft foundational documents
This pack of documents outline how the department and service providers will work together under relational contracting arrangements.
We welcome your feedback on any or all of these documents.
Purpose of the Consultation
The Department provides funding to organisations to deliver services to members of the public on its behalf.
Relational contracting will create longer-term, flexible partnership agreements that enable services to deliver improved and measurable outcomes for Australians.
The purpose of this Consultation is to gather your views, and feedback on draft documents that relate to relational contracting.
Engaging with us
This Notice applies when you engage with the Department on the DSS Engage platform, including when you:
- submit a response in free text fields in the survey, and
- upload written submissions onto the DSS Engage platform.
What we are after?
The Department is seeking views, and feedback on draft documents which underscore the Department’s approach to relational contracting. These documents include:
- The Draft Shell Agreement for relational contracts,
- The Relational Contracting Governance Framework, and
- The Relational Contracting Decision-Matrix.
What we are not after?
You are not required to provide any identifying information about yourself. You can make submissions without providing any personal information. If you do provide personal information, it will be handled in accordance with this Notice.
We request that you do not provide any personal information or information that might reasonably identify any third parties, such as information about clients that you deliver services to.
How we will use and disclose your information
Information provided during the Consultation will be used by the Department to inform its approach to relational contracting and may be used to inform other matters relating to Commonwealth grant management practices. The information may form the basis of internal reports, policy documents, and guidance notes.
We may disclose any information you provide in your responses or submissions to:
- third party contractors who support us in conducting the Consultation, including the providers of third-party tools we use to process your responses to the Consultation;
- external advisory groups, stakeholder groups, committees or panels (e.g. the Community Services Advisory Group);
- other Federal, State or Territory government agencies (e.g. the Attorney-General’s Department) to progress work on related policy areas;
- Ministers of Parliament; and
- the public, if you consent to us doing so. For example, the Department may with your consent publish submissions, in part or full, on its website or in published reports. The Department intends to remove or redact any identifying information about third parties in the submissions before it is shared publicly.
There may also be situations where we must disclose your personal information. For example, where it is required by an Australian law or a Court or a Tribunal order.
Where you have consented, we may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to summarise any submissions you submit to us.
Overseas disclosures
We do not disclose personal information to recipients located outside Australia.
Further information
We store your personal information (and delete your information when it is no longer needed) in accordance with the Archives Act 1983 (Archive Act). In relation to any personal information contained in records stored under the Archives Act, we will ensure that this can only be accessed by relevant staff on a need-to-know basis as permitted by law.
The Department’s privacy policy contains further information about how you can access and correct personal information the Department holds about you, as well as information about how you may submit a complaint about a breach of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), Australian Privacy Principles, or a registered APP code (as applicable).
If you have any questions about this Consultation or how your information will be handled, please contact DSSGrantsReformUnit@dss.gov.au.