Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service Funding: Report to the Sector 2011

This report presents findings from an analysis of the funding received by 28 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) in the 2007/2008 financial year and the reporting requirements attached to that funding. This study’s aim was to contribute to efforts – on the part of both governments and
the ACCHS sector – to streamline and simplify funding and accountability arrangements.
We undertook this survey as a follow-up to The Overburden Report,
1 which examined the current onerous and complex system of
accounting and reporting faced by ACCHSs, and recommended fewer contracts for longer periods and the development of long-term relationships between services and funders.
Our aim was to update the information
from the first study with data from a larger
sample and a more recent financial year.
This is necessary because while individual
local, State and Commonwealth Government
departments and non-government
organisations (NGOs) have an overview
of their own funding and accountability
requirements, no agency provides accurate
information about the total funding and
accountability picture for the ACCHS sector.
This report was funded by the Lowitja
Institute (incorporating the Cooperative
Research Centre for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Health) and supported by
Flinders University, the University of Northern
British Columbia in Canada and the Australian
Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Studies.