The WA Government’s Aboriginal Empowerment Strategy and the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (National Agreement) commit the WA Government to increasing the proportion of services to Aboriginal people delivered by ACCOs, through sustained efforts in building strong ACCO sectors, and promoting ACCOs as preferred service providers to Aboriginal people.
The ACCO Strategy sets the policy direction to support ACCOs to take on delivery of services for Aboriginal people and empower Aboriginal people in Western Australia to be able to access place-based, community-led and culturally secure services that are planned, designed and delivered by strong and sustainable ACCOs.
Strategy at a glance
The key rationale behind the ACCO Strategy is that when ACCOs are involved in planning, designing and delivering services, Aboriginal people are more likely to engage with those services and likely to experience better outcomes. This is because, ACCOs are accountable to their communities, Aboriginal people make the key decisions, ACCOs are connected to their local communities.
The ACCO Strategy outlines three objectives that support the WA Government’s commitments in the National Agreement and Aboriginal Empowerment Strategy:
- Greater involvement of ACCOs in planning and designing services
- ACCOs delivering more services to Aboriginal people
- Sustainability of ACCOs
It provides guidance on how to achieve these objectives through four focus areas:
| Key focus area | Strategy Vision |
| 1. Relationship between government agency and ACCO sector throughout the commissioning cycle |
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| 2. Service planning and design at the start of the commissioning cycle |
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| 3. Strategic procurement and contracting within the commissioning cycle |
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| 4. Capability and capacity – in both service delivery and commissioning |
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