Baptcare delivers a range of community and mental health services across Tasmania and Victoria. When its Horizons mental health program came up for re-tender, the organisation needed to demonstrate not only the success of the existing service, but also a clear vision for future delivery and growth.

The Project Lab was engaged to lead the tender development process and work closely with Baptcare stakeholders to articulate the program's value, strengthen the service offering and position the organisation for continued funding. The objective was clear: secure ongoing investment so people experiencing severe mental health conditions could continue accessing vital support services across Tasmania.

Challenge: Retaining funding for a critical mental health service

Baptcare has operated the Horizons program in Tasmania for three years. Horizons is a statewide short-term, intensive outreach program that equips people experiencing episodic, severe mental health conditions with the tools needed to take charge of their mental wellbeing. It utilises two platforms – outreach and group programs. Horizons is funded by Primary Health Tasmania under the Australian Government’s Primary Health Networks Program and is focused on each participant’s unique mental health experience, responding to their needs and strengths. The program came up for re-tender and The Project Lab was appointed to write and manage Baptcare’s tender response so they could continue to operate the successful mental health program.

• Secure $2.4 million in funding
• Increase community reach throughout Tasmania
• Conditions to provide support services for Tasmanians with severe mental health conditions

Solution: Tender Strategy, Service Design and Proposal Development

The Project Lab worked closely with Baptcare stakeholders to develop a compelling tender response that demonstrated the success of the existing Horizons program while clearly articulating its future direction. The engagement combined tender strategy, stakeholder collaboration, service design refinement and financial planning to ensure the submission aligned with funder requirements and community needs.

Our approach:

• Reviewed Primary Health Tasmania's tender documentation and engaged key Baptcare stakeholders to understand program strengths, service delivery models and future opportunities.
• Developed a tender content strategy that clearly articulated Baptcare's three service delivery models, geographic coverage and approach to supporting people experiencing severe mental health conditions.
• Captured evidence of program success through anonymised case studies, supported by transition planning, risk management and governance information.
• Facilitated collaboration between operational leaders and subject matter experts to ensure frontline experience informed the future design of the service.
• Prepared and refined the tender submission through multiple review cycles, ensuring the proposal was clear, persuasive and aligned with funding requirements.
• Worked with Baptcare to develop a three-year financial budget that aligned with Primary Health Tasmania's funding framework and service delivery objectives.

Project Results

The Project Lab worked closely with Baptcare to bring together operational knowledge, service delivery expertise and strategic planning into a compelling funding proposal. The process not only strengthened the tender response but also helped refine the future direction of the Horizons program.

The engagement delivered:

• Successful award of $2.4 million in funding to continue operating the Horizons program for a further three years.
• Greater collaboration between operational teams and subject matter experts during the proposal development process.
• Refinement of the program's three service delivery models to better address community needs.
• Expanded opportunities to increase service reach across regional Tasmania.
• A stronger platform for ongoing delivery of specialised mental health support services.

Most importantly, Baptcare secured the funding required to continue delivering critical mental health support to Tasmanians experiencing severe mental health conditions, while strengthening the design and future direction of the service.

“The Project Lab recently supported us in a successful retender for one of our mental health programs. Their support allowed several of the operational team to contribute their subject matter expertise to innovate the next iteration of the program and have it packaged up in format required by the funder. Combining the skills of staff who wouldn’t normally be part of the tendering process with the right tendering expertise meant the program was co-designed in a way we hadn’t been able to previously, in a very short space of time.” - Ash Vincent, Operations Manager

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