Cutting the red tape in community care

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released a new report “Cutting the Red Tape” preliminary paper detailing the problem of multiple entry and reporting of information by service providers.

The AIHW project examined the problems from the perspective of service providers who have multiple reporting responsibilities at a national level. The principal underlying assumption was that service providers required to report to more than one national data collection involved reporting on the same client (concurrently).

The findings of the report demonstrate that community service providers are experiencing a considerable data collection and reporting impost because of:
· the requirement of program-centred reporting for service providers to use separate, program provided data collection forms and/or software resulting in the client providing, and the service provider, recording and reporting on the same client on multiple occasions; and
· the lack of electronic data capture, storage and reporting systems in the community services sector which would give providers the capacity to record data once, from which multiple reporting could occur.

For further information visit www.aihw.gov.au