A national service for people navigating cancer

To shape the future of cancer navigation in Australia, we first needed a deep understanding of how people currently experience Cancer Council’s 13 11 20 service, both those seeking support and the staff delivering it.

Over ten months, Portable worked with Cancer Council to capture this picture from every angle. We reviewed internal reports and service documentation, analysed national datasets such as the NMDS Baseline and the Australian Cancer Atlas, and explored the Queensland PowerBI dashboard to map trends and gaps across the system.

Our team then went on the road, engaging nearly 200 Cancer Council staff through town halls, interviews and workshops across five delivery states (WA, SA, Victoria, NSW and Queensland), and connecting remotely with colleagues in the ACT and Tasmania.

At the same time, we spoke directly with 28 consumers, carers and healthcare professionals from diverse backgrounds to understand how they currently access cancer-related information and support, what they value, and where the system falls short. This included focused conversations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, CALD, and LGBTQIA+ and Intersex community organisations to identify barriers and opportunities for more inclusive care.

All research was conducted in close partnership with embedded Cancer Council team members and underpinned by Portable’s trauma-responsive distress protocol, ensuring safety, care and consent throughout. Together, this process revealed critical insights into the needs and challenges of both staff and community, forming the foundation for an equitable, evidence-based navigation service designed to meet Australians where they are.

Delivering a truly national navigation service meant strengthening the relationships that sit behind it.

Portable worked with Cancer Council to engage key organisations funded through the ACNNP, as well as non-funded partners providing referral and support services across the country. These partners are critical to the success of the Cancer Navigation Service, serving as the connection points between people affected by cancer and the broader health system.

At the outset, collaboration between Cancer Council and its partners largely occurred through working groups and roundtables. While effective for coordination, this approach wasn’t enabling the level of shared ownership needed to design an integrated model. Portable introduced new engagement modes like targeted interviews, facilitated workshops and tailored artefacts, to deepen collaboration and ground design decisions in evidence.

Together, these engagements produced ten strategic recommendations: four focused on Cancer Council’s internal alignment and six designed for joint refinement with ACNNP partners. Each was supported by clear rationale, insights and actions, creating a practical roadmap for sustained, collaborative delivery.

The process marked a shift from consultation to partnership, laying the foundations for a connected, equitable navigation service that reflects the strength of the network behind it.

Designing a national cancer navigation service required a clear view of what already exists and an understanding of what truly works.

Portable conducted a comprehensive review of digital health navigation tools for people affected by cancer, as well as broader health and wellbeing platforms relevant to cancer care. The team reviewed literature, ran systematic searches, and consulted with stakeholders to evaluate more than 100 tools across nine countries, including over 80 focused specifically on cancer and healthcare contexts.

This international scan revealed a rich but fragmented landscape. Many platforms demonstrated strong cultural sensitivity and emerging use of AI-driven personalisation, yet struggled with accessibility, usability, and integration across systems. Insights were distilled into five key themes that defined what an effective cancer navigation service should deliver: consistency, inclusivity, trust, usability, and integration.

These findings shaped a set of strategic recommendations and a development roadmap outlining the core features, functions, and priorities needed to build a service that’s not only fit for purpose but positioned to set a new national standard for cancer support.

To design a service that genuinely meets people’s needs, Portable and Cancer Council first needed to deeply understand who would use it, and how.

Drawing on existing research, national staff engagement, community interviews, and insights from the ACNNP, we developed 13 detailed personas capturing the needs, motivations and barriers experienced by people impacted by cancer, as well as those who deliver their care. To reflect the diversity of engagement across the system, personas were organised into three groups: primary service users, staff, and partners.

This process challenged assumptions and unified multiple workstreams around a shared, human-centred view of the service ecosystem. Four consumer personas were featured prominently in the national service blueprint, illustrating how the proposed Cancer Navigation Service would meet the needs of people with intersecting identities and varying levels of autonomy throughout their cancer journey.

Three staff personas, for frontline workers, team leads and managers, identified the tools, processes and training required to deliver consistent, high-quality support.

Beyond empathy tools, these personas served as strategic design assets to inform decisions on digital and offline interactions, staff capability building, quality standards and communications. They now provide the foundation for ongoing research and refinement as the service moves toward implementation.

Designing a national navigation service required a shared vision that could align every state, territory and workstream around a single model of care.

Portable partnered with Cancer Council’s Operational Working Group and EY to co-design the future Cancer Council Navigation Service. Through a series of national workshops and targeted working sessions, we mapped the desired end-to-end experience and linked diverse user needs to the operational, technical and organisational changes required to deliver it.

The result was a detailed service blueprint capturing the full journey and defining 128 initiatives across nine Navigation Service outcomes, ranging from trusted support and culturally safe care to operational consistency and meaningful survivorship. Together, these outcomes express the value the service must deliver and ensure that every design, governance and implementation decision remains anchored to the overarching goal: a responsive, equitable and person-centred national service.

The initiatives spanned major workstreams (Navigation, Knowledge, Quality, Marketing and Technology) encompassing improvements across systems, processes, standards, communications and tools. Each initiative was linked to a primary outcome but designed to contribute across multiple areas, reinforcing the integrated, holistic nature of the program.

A key achievement was national alignment. The blueprinting process brought together stakeholders across the federation to surface decision-making gaps, clarify interdependencies and identify where further collaboration was required to progress the program.

The service blueprint now serves as a living tool, supporting prioritisation, sequencing and governance, and guiding the continued evolution of the Cancer Council Navigation Service as it moves from strategy to implementation.

To move from vision to implementation, Portable developed a suite of service design artefacts that capture the initiatives required to bring the future Cancer Council Navigation Service to life, and to validate them with community and staff in the next phase of design.

Together, these deliverables provide structure, clarity and momentum for national alignment and decision-making:

• A service initiatives presentation that translates complex program outcomes into a clear, accessible format for stakeholders, grouping key initiatives by outcome and illustrating their purpose, scope and impact in an engaging visual way.
• A Horizon 2 service blueprint that captures the end-to-end experience and shows how every initiative aligns with the overarching service vision. Designed for decision-makers, it enables clear prioritisation, sequencing, and coordination across the national program.
• Our Navigation Service initiatives register provides a detailed, searchable record of every initiative, including notes, decisions, and insights, serving as a living, practical source of truth to support planning, delivery, and ongoing program management.

Informed by extensive research and engagement, these artefacts serve as a strategic springboard for future co-design and validation with end users. Though representing a point in time, they are designed to evolve, supporting ongoing alignment, guiding delivery, and ensuring the future Cancer Council Navigation Service continues to meet the real needs of communities, healthcare providers and staff.

Delivering a national navigation service within a federated organisation required careful orchestration. Cancer Council comprises nine independent state and territory bodies plus a national office, each with distinct operating environments, governance structures and service models. The service design therefore needed to balance national consistency with local flexibility, while also engaging external partners within the ACNNP.

Given this complexity, the engagement demanded hands-on program management and continuous coordination. Portable worked in close partnership with the core Cancer Council Navigation Service working group, embedding within its structures to ensure alignment across governance, compliance and decision-making processes.

This collaborative model enabled transparent communication, early issue resolution and shared ownership of progress. It also allowed Portable to build internal capability, guiding Cancer Council staff through new human-centred design methods and ensuring the organisation could continue to evolve the service long after the project concluded.