The role of interagency collaboration in “joined-up” case management

Abstract

This article reports on research into the relationships that a group of case managers formed with local service providers in order to deliver integrated, “joined-up” services to young people experiencing homelessness and unemployment in the state of Victoria, Australia. Using a two-part customized survey tool, we explored the number and nature of relationships with other agencies. Two focus group discussions contributed to the interpretation of the survey findings. We found that these case managers maintained many relationships, mostly with housing and employment service providers. These relationships were predominantly cooperative in nature, and most could not easily be characterized as collaborative. Our research supports the view that, in an increasingly complex social service system, other forms of cooperation are usually appropriate for achieving the types of interorganizational relationships that are important to assist shared clients. Furthermore, this research supports the notion of a relationship continuum, finding that ratings of relationship elements were positively correlated with relationship type. This research indicates the importance of considering the pragmatic, contextual and situated practices that comprise interagency relationships, their fitness for purpose and the importance of cooperation for effective service provision.

Keywords::

• Case management
• interagency collaboration
• survey
• youth homelessness

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the work of two final year social work students – Daisy Kotlyar and Marita Ri – who contributed to survey design and data collection and data analysis.

Declaration of interest One of the authors was the YP⁴ trial manager at the time the research was carried out.

Notes

^* More information about YP⁴ is available at: http://vuir.vu.edu.au/

^† For further details on the survey see: http://research.vu.edu.au/research-archive/YP4/Appendix1_SurveyTool.pdf