This article draws on Social Ventures Australia's experience with the Resolve Social Benefit Bond (Resolve SBB), which funded a psychosocial, recovery-oriented community support program. It reviews the features of relational contracting and provides insights from this experience for commissioners to understand what relational contracting looks like when taken from concept to delivery.

From 2017–2024, the Resolve SBB funded the Resolve program, a psychosocial recovery-oriented community support program delivered by Flourish Australia in NSW. Resolve supported 469 individuals who had spent significant time as a mental health hospital inpatient prior to their enrolment in Resolve. Over half of participants had a diagnosis of schizophrenia or another type of psychosis.

Recent commentary on relational contracting reflects growing recognition that traditional, highly specified contracts struggle to deliver outcomes in complex service systems. The Australian Government has indicated it wants to pilot more flexible arrangements that support trust-based partnerships, shared goals and long-term outcomes over activity-focused and compliance-heavy contracting. 

Drawing on experience with outcomes-based contracts and social impact bonds across Australia, the article examines how relational contracting principles play out in practice – including where these principles are already embedded within outcomes-based contracts, and where tensions emerge.