Sharing Places has expanded and now has more space at the Holt Community Hub to house a new support team called Acacia, as well as a staff area and office space. To celebrate the opening of Acacia, we are having a morning tea on Thursday 26 July 2018. Please come along to the Hub at 80 Beaurepaire Crescent in Holt (enter via the rear of the building) and have a look at the new space while enjoying morning tea. Please RSVP to Rachel by 24 July on 6290 1964 or email her at rachel@sharingplaces.com.au.
The NDIS is currently in Stage 2, which is the transition stage. Here in the ACT, we also experienced Stage 1 of the trial stage. We are the only jurisdiction in Stage 1 that rolled out the NDIS to the entire population, with all other trial jurisdictions only rolling out the NDIS to pockets of the population (ie, children). This transition stage to full scheme is, unfortunately, having some negative impacts for participants, families and service providers. We are once again having to provide evidence of support needs and risk. During this transition stage, it's more important than ever to ensure that you are well prepared for plan reviews. Sharing Places has many documents that can assist you with your plan reviews, but we won't necessarily know when your plan reviews are being held and the NDIA won't ask us for any evidence. So, please be prepared and plan early. Please speak to your Team or Program Coordinator for a copy of these important documents.
Feros Care is the Local Area Coordinator (LAC) provider for ACT. Feros Care is the NDIA's community partner and many of you will have been contacted by Feros Care for a plan review. Feros have offered to hold information and training sessions for families and they are happy to hold them at times that are convenient for family members. Topics they can cover include information about self managing plans, how to navigate the NDIS portal, and assistance with claiming. If this is something you are interested in, please contact Rachel on 6290 1964 or email her at rachel@sharingplaces.com.au.
Sharing Places Board continues to focus its energies on ensuring that the organisation continues to successfully transition to the full National Disability Insurance Scheme. This work has particularly focused on risk monitoring of our financial position to ensure our continued viability, and providing guidance and support to the management team on operational issues. The Board and the management team continue to be heavily involved in lobbying government (Territory and Federal) to improve the Scheme by conveying our experiences through various forums and opportunities. It is our hope that the more information that we can provide, the better the Scheme will be once it is fully implemented.
The Board is also focusing on delivering on the goals and priorities that we have set in our 2017-19 Strategic Plan. In particular, we are undertaking a stream of work to improve the IT infrastructure of the organisation in line with our priority to invest in and improve the quality of our physical assets and to support and empower our staff. To achieve this we are undertaking an audit of our IT needs and developing an IT strategy to ensure the organisation can continue to have at its disposal, the critical infrastructure required to function. We are also undertaking a stream of work to appoint a patron for Sharing Places in line with our priority to enhance our profile within the community. Further, we are also beginning to develop a succession plan to ensure seamless transition of key staff across the organisation in the future.
Finally, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone who attended our General Meeting on 21 May. Our General Meetings are an important opportunity for the Board to meet our participants, their families, guardians and carers and staff and to report to you on the health of the organisation. These meetings are also a good opportunity for all of you to share your views with us. At our two most recent General Meetings, we have been piloting discussion group sessions with key focus questions to elicit feedback on how we are doing. We then use this information to make improvements to our operations and our service. These discussion group sessions have provided a wonderful opportunity to take people’s ideas and put them into action. I would encourage you all to get involved where you can. Our next General Meeting will be held in October.
Kind Regards, Shelby A.E. Schofield (Board Chair)