Making integration stick: investing in the ‘glue’

Making integration efforts effective in the long term requires investment in people, infrastructure and systems. This often invisible work, called the ‘glue’, is fundamental to successful outcomes for beneficiaries.

10 March 2025

Making integration stick investing in the glue

Summary

Fragmented and siloed service systems make it hard for people to access the support and resources they need to thrive. This results in highly inefficient program delivery that sees groups already experiencing vulnerability and disadvantage falling through the cracks.
Integration and joining up of services drives better outcomes for communities.
Fundamental to integration is investment in the people, infrastructure and systems that make it happen – the ‘glue’. This investment can be supported through flexible, long-term funding and policymakers creating an enabling environment.

There has long been a vision of integrated services in Australia: joined-up service delivery offering communities seamless access to more connected, high-quality supports. Despite recognition by both the sector and governments that integration can lead to better outcomes and greater efficiency, progress to advance it has been slow.

Integration doesn’t happen organically; it needs to be intentional, and it takes time and resources. It involves increasing levels of cooperation, coordination, information exchange, joint planning, responsibility and accountability, and the development of formal partnership structures.

Integration needs to be woven into all layers of service planning and delivery: funding, workplans, timelines, position descriptions and more. Fundamentally, it also requires a significant shift in mindset by all stakeholders.

SVA commissioned dandolopartners to identify the critical elements of integration in early childhood development across a variety of contexts. The research focuses on service-level integration examples such as how early learning centres can connect with other service providers to offer health checkups, parenting programs and more.

The report highlights what is possible (various innovative models of integration) and what is effective (the design features and conditions that enable effective integration).

A key finding from the research is that making integration efforts effective in the long term requires investment in people, infrastructure and systems.

This can include extra time for collaborative meetings, professional development for cross-disciplinary ways of working, creating a shared vision, building referral pathways, building and maintaining relationships between services and into the community, and outreach.

This is often invisible work, but fundamental to successful outcomes for beneficiaries. This work can be thought of as the ‘glue’ that makes integration stick.

Investment in the ‘glue’ is foundational – especially the team of people who lead and drive the collaboration and undertake the relational work needed to make integration happen.

Understanding the ‘glue’

The ‘glue’ can take many forms, such as a dedicated person whose role is to build relationships and drive a shared vision across diverse stakeholders. This requires strong relational skills and the ability to navigate areas of complexity and conflict, coordinating activity towards shared goals.

Collaboration within and across organisations and sectors needs dedicated resourcing. Initiatives seeking to provide integrated and joined-up services need secure, long-term and flexible funding. Siloed and restricted funding can limit organisations’ ability to implement their vision of providing high-quality services to communities.

Case study: Our Place

Our Place is a backbone organisation that supports the education, health and development of children and families experiencing disadvantage in Victoria. It collaborates with schools and communities to create central places for learning and support services that help overcome barriers to educational outcomes.

Our Place has a formal partnership with the Victorian Department of Education and is involved in planning each site’s physical design and use of space, participates in governance at multiple levels, and works in close collaboration with school leadership. The organisation also facilitates local partnerships in response to community needs, identified through consultation and engagement. For example, community feedback may highlight a gap that leads to partnering with a new service provider.

Notably, Our Place identifies and funds specific ‘glue’ roles, including partnership managers who work to create alignment between various partners that provide services within the community. In parallel, community facilitators use space intentionally to build relationships with families: they spend time in waiting areas, playgrounds, and school drop-off zones to have informal conversations with families, build trust, and link them to supports.

Furthermore, the commitment, capability and capacity of the principal or centre director is a threshold condition for impact. However, it is important that in addition to being a highly effective principal or centre director they also need to be able to bring their team on the journey, foster an environment for intra-professional learning and ways of working, to navigate different service systems, and form partnerships with other organisations.

Importantly, the work of integration is driven by people with the skill and support to do the relational work that overcomes structural issues embedded in the system. This workforce exists, but they need to be found, cultivated and given the authorising environment to work differently. The investment in people is as critical as building the infrastructure.

Case study: The Hive

The Hive is a place-based, collective impact initiative operating in Mt Druitt, New South Wales. The Hive’s goal is to make sure that every child has the best possible start in life. It works to achieve this through a holistic and inclusive approach to service delivery, collaborating with providers and community members to achieve sustainable, long-term change.

The Hive’s early years focus is primarily on overcoming barriers that families face accessing early education and child health services. However, the organisation also recognises broader issues such as local transport, safety and infrastructure that impact the lives of children and families using its services.

The Hive’s ‘glue’ roles support community engagement and gives it the time required to build trust and relationships. But funding these roles would be almost impossible without the organisation’s long-term, flexible philanthropic funding, which allows The Hive to invest time in deep listening and consultation without the pressure of meeting short-term output targets. The organisation also encourages its partners to make in-kind support such as space, expertise, resources, and relationships that are critical to the collaborative effort.

What else do integration initiatives need to succeed?

Aside from the foundational need to invest in the ‘glue’, the research highlights additional considerations for developing integration initiatives that will deliver for communities:

Set clear, intentional boundaries for the work. Don’t set up the integration initiative to be all things to all people – ensure there are clear boundaries around the initiative aligned to purpose and reflective of place.
Build the right team and invest in their capability. Integration is driven by people with the skills and support to do the relational work that overcomes structural issues embedded in the system. The investment in people is as critical as building the infrastructure
Readiness takes time and trust. The readiness and ability of organisations and people to work in an integrated way needs to be intentionally cultivated and time allowed for the development of trust.
Be savvy about what success looks like. Balance the focus on purpose and outcomes. Ensure the focus of the work is optimised for impact but be flexible and adapt as the initiative matures.

Final thoughts

Integration and joining up of early childhood services drives better outcomes for children, families and communities. Funding the ‘glue’ – the people, systems and infrastructure that support integration – is essential to making this happen. SVA’s work in the early childhood space tells us that many organisations would like to increase their levels of coordination and cooperation – both within their own organisations and with other services – but simply don’t have the time and resources to do so. Meanwhile, funders may not be aware of the benefits of integrating services and ‘glue’ funding.

This research can help policymakers better understand the role of the ‘glue’ and how integral it is to the effectiveness of services. It also identifies how grant-makers can support effective integration by offering flexible, long-term funding to organisations, enabling better investment in the people, systems and infrastructure that makes integration successful. For service providers, this work highlights the need for leaders to prioritise building and supporting a team with a collaborative mindset and to create an authorising environment that supports innovation and integration.

Read the full report, Approaches to integration in the early years: learnings for impact.

Learn more about integrated services in the early childhood development space

Authors: Stephanie Chiang, Caitlin Graham and Emma Sydenham

About the authors

The authors are part of SVA’s Young Children Thriving (YCT) team which focuses on supporting children’s and families’ seamless access to services. YCT wants to see children experiencing socio-economic disadvantage and hardship have the support and resources they need to start school ready, as confident learners and believe that integrated holistic service delivery models are a critical enabling factor.

Written by

Caitlin Graham Social Impact Initiatives