Carmel visits a community legal centre to seek assistance with her family violence matter. The Centre lawyer identifies that she has numerous debts and therefore also needs to see a financial counsellor
Scenario 1:
There happens to be a separate independent financial counselling service co-located at the same premises as the Centre. The Centre lawyer walks with Carmel to the reception area for the financial counsellors. They peak to the financial counselling service receptionist, who then makes an appointment for Carmel, and takes some initial details. This is recorded as a Facilitated Referral.
Scenario 2:
The local financial counselling service is located in the next town. The Centre lawyer tries to ring but cannot get through. The Centre provides Carmel with the phone number for the financial counselling service, and encourages Carmel to call them to make an appointment. This is recorded as a ‘Simple Referral’.
Scenario 3:
The Centre employs a financial counsellor, and all appointments are centrally managed by the Centre’s reception staff through CLASS. The lawyer asks reception staff to make an appointment for Carmel the following day. When Carmel attends, the Centre creates one Non-Legal Support Service – Financial Counselling.
As this is not referring Carmel to an external body, this is not recorded as a Referral. [Note that some centres might want to capture this in CLASS as an Internal Referral so they can identify those matters]
