The Victorian Department of Health website states that the “Doing it with us not for us policy grew from the Victorian Government’s commitment to involving people in decision making about health care services and the need for a strategic policy to guide the process.” This commitment shows in the quality of this policy and the depth of consumer and community involvement in developing it.
The Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries hosts webpages devoted “Effective Engagement” with access to a series of three practical guidelines to general community engagement.
The framework is designed to assist consumers and committees involved in consultative and decision-making processes in analysing policies, grant applications and initiatives presented to them for consideration. It has a particular focus on access and disadvantage, setting out a series of steps which can be followed to assess the degree to which a proposal has been designed with the needs of disadvantaged groups and individuals in mind. The framework provides a useful tool for identifying gaps in the development of programs where the needs of disadvantaged groups might not have received due consideration. It is not designed to measure or evaluate the success of a program in its application.
