The information indicates to consumers and carers if recommendations about their concern have already been made to that service, if they have been implemented, and whether the issue is ongoing despite being implemented.

There are information asymmetries between mental health consumers and carers and both the mental health service and the Commission. That imbalance of information creates an imbalance of power. Disclosure helps the consumer or carer hold both the service and the Commission more accountable.

It improves transparency of both the Commission and of the mental health service. This can over time build trust.

This can reveal whether the Commission is effective or not by indicating the quality of the recommendations it has made or whether the Commission escalates its enforcement if recommendations are not implemented.

It can highlight repeated recommendations made to the same services about the same issues, inviting questions to the Commission or the service on broader systemic issues.

Services can inquire into any recommendations (in a de-identified way) with one another to find out where they are each trying to improve and how.

Services have a greater incentive to implement recommendations if the recommendations and their implementation status is published.

The Royal Commission called for greater transparency in the mental health system. The new Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022 (Vic) reaffirms the need to publish service-level data.