Evaluation of suicide prevention activities

10.4 Program administration

Page last updated: January 2014

Three aspects of project administration were examined in the project survey:

10.4.1 Level of communication by DoHA with projects

The majority of projects reported high levels of satisfaction with the level of communication they received from the DoHA office that administers their project (Table 10-7). Thirty-two projects (66%) rated their level of satisfaction with DoHA communication as 5, ie, very satisfied (15 projects), or 4 (17 projects).

    Table 10-7: Level of satisfaction with DoHA communication

    Based on your overall experience of communicating with the DoHA office that administers your project, how satisfied are you with the level of communication?
    Scale
    		n
    %
    1 (very dissatisfied)
    0
    0
    2
    5
    10
    3
    12
    24
    4
    17
    35
    5 (very satisfied)
    15
    31
    Total
    49
    100

10.4.2 Responsiveness of DoHA communication with projects

The majority of projects (30 of 49, 62%) rated their satisfaction with DoHA’s responsiveness in terms of communication as either 5, ie, very satisfied (17 projects), or 4 (13 projects) as shown in Table 10-8.

    Table 10-8: Level of satisfaction with DoHA responsiveness

    Based on your overall experience of working with the DoHA office that administers your project, how satisfied are you with the level of responsiveness?
    Scale
    		n
    %
    1 (very dissatisfied)
    0
    0
    2
    3
    6
    3
    15
    31
    4
    13
    27
    5 (very satisfied)
    17
    35
    Total
    48
    100
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10.4.3 Potential improvements

Twenty-two projects offered suggestions for improving DoHA’s administration of projects. These suggestions fell into three main categories:

Contract notification delays

Several respondents were concerned about delays in notifying project representatives when contracts had been awarded. They reported this made it difficult to plan for subsequent funding periods, and in particular to secure staff. Others called for longer lead times to develop tender responses and, as noted in Section 9.2.1, longer funding periods were also requested. One respondent suggested that an online portal would assist with contract management.

Engagement and communication with projects

A number of respondents believed that DoHA contract managers sometimes do not have a good understanding of what the projects do, and called for better engagement with the projects. Suggestions to improve engagement included:
  • Visits to project sites by contract managers so that they can see achievements 'on the ground'
  • A single point of contact for contract management and communication of issues
  • Improved handover between DoHA staff at times of staff turnover, so that historical knowledge of projects is not lost
  • Regular formal meetings with DoHA to provide project updates
Other respondents asked that DoHA place more emphasis on facilitating and enhancing communication between funded organisations.

Reporting processes

Views and concerns expressed by projects in relation to reporting processes included:
  • Need to streamline data collection to make it less onerous and repetitive
  • Current reporting system does not enable all relevant information to be captured
  • Concern about occasions when reports have been lost by DoHA, resulting in requests for projects to re-submit Top of page

Key findings

  • Projects reported high levels of satisfaction with regards to the level of communication and responsiveness of the DoHA office responsible for the administration of their project.
  • Suggestions for improving DoHA administration of projects included:
    • Improved contract management, eg, speedier notification of contact awards and greater engagement of DoHA contract managers with projects
    • More streamlined reporting that is less repetitive and more inclusive of project activities
    • Greater care in data management so that resubmission of data is not required.