2013 Workforce Innovation Award Finalists Announced

The Health and Community Services Workforce Council has announced its annual shortlist of Queenslanders who are taking innovative approaches to dealing with workforce issues.

A total of 24 organisations and individuals, from the Gold Coast to Cape York, and spanning services including childcare, disability, youth services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health have been recognised as finalists for the 4th annual Health and Community Services Workforce Innovation Awards.

This year’s finalists have been selected from over 120 nominations across a total of eight categories.

Workforce Council Executive Director Laura Barnes said she is honoured to have the privilege of recognising this year’s best and brightest.

‘Every day millions of Queensland families rely on the care and support offered by the health and community services industry, so it’s incredibly important that we celebrate the efforts of those working hard to improve outcomes for our communities,’ Ms Barnes said.

‘Health and community services employs some 290,000 Queenslanders, which is more than any other industry, and in addition to this is expected to contribute one in every four new jobs created within the state over the next five years. However, it is an industry in which services are often challenged to meet the needs of communities with limited resources which means strategic and creative approaches to workforce planning and development are crucial.

Workforce planning and development typically involves understanding the workforce that is needed to support services into the future - creating effective attraction and retention strategies for organisations, clear training and career progression for employees and developing sustainable partnerships to improve service delivery.

‘The efforts of this year’s finalists serve as excellent examples of innovative workforce practices for all industries.  They demonstrate how combining passion and dedication with a strategic approach to workforce and resourcing challenges can enable services to achieve great outcomes for employees, their organisations and communities.’

Approaches taken by 2013 Award finalists include using advances in technology to overcome issues unique to regional areas, creating successful partnerships with expert groups and facilities, and by building worker capacity through tailored educational programs.

Winners of the 2013 Health and Community Services Workforce Innovation Awards will be announced at a Gala Dinner on Thursday 12 September at Brisbane City Hall.

2013 HEALTH AND COMMUNITY SERVICES WORKFORCE INNOVATION AWARD FINALISTS

Category:            ABORIGINAL AND/OR TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER ORGANISATION

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Organisation category recognises innovative efforts by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations to improve their workforce’s capacity to deliver services to their community.

Finalists:              • Apunipima Cape York Health Council
• Institute for Urban Indigenous Health

Category:            COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES

The Collaborative Practices category recognises collaborations between organisations or individuals which lead to more efficient or effective workforce practices. In most cases these improved practices will impact on more than one organisation.

Finalists:              • gr8 START Early Year Partnership - Embedding PEDS in Gold Coast Childcare Centres: A common tool for early identification of developmental delays and parental engagement
• Centacare- Community Services - Brisbane Hoarding and Squalor Working Group
• Lives Lived Well Amalgamation
• Youth Affairs Network of Queensland - Communities of Practice Leaders Action Networks   (CPLAN)

Category:            EDUCATION OR TRAINING PROVIDER 

The Education or Training Provider category recognises innovative approaches to building workforce capacity undertaken by a university, registered training provider or other professional development agent who is working in direct partnership with industry organisations.

Finalists:              • Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland
• Family Planning Queensland and Sunshine Coast TAFE
• Griffith University School of Nursing and Midwifery

Category:            HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Human Resource Management category recognises organisations who have adopted effective human resource practices to attract, retain and skill their staff to achieve positive outcomes in service delivery.

Finalists:              • Department of Justice & Attorney General, Youth Justice Services
• Flexi Queensland
• The Townsville Hospital

Category:            LEARNING CULTURE

The Learning Culture category recognises organisations that promote a culture of learning in the workplace and generate ongoing enthusiasm for discovering and sharing knowledge and practice.

Finalists:              • Charters Towers Neighbourhood Centre Inc.
• Community Solutions Group Ltd
• Department of Justice and Attorney General, Youth Justice Services

Category:            MICHAEL KIRBY AWARD FOR INCLUSIVENESS

The Michael Kirby Award for Inclusiveness category recognises workforce strategies that actively promote principles of equal opportunity and reject discrimination on the grounds of age, race, culture, gender, sexuality, disability or any other basis immaterial to the work in question. This award is named after the Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, former Justice of the High Court of Australia, in thanks for his support of the Awards and his role in promoting diversity and advancing social justice.

Finalists:              • Flexi Queensland
• Lives Lived Well (QLD Drug and Alcohol Council Inc.)
• Tropical North Queensland TAFE

Category:            RURAL AND REMOTE SETTING

The Rural and Remote Setting category recognises organisations which are operating in a rural or remote setting and are taking innovative approaches to workforce planning, workforce development and/or workforce management.

Finalists:              • Apunipima Cape York Health Council
• Flexi Queensland
• The Townsville Hospital

Category:            WORKFORCE CHAMPION

The Workforce Champion category recognises an individual for their outstanding contribution to the development and/or implementation of strategies which have improved the skill, quality and/or capacity of their organisation’s workforce.

Finalists:              • Bernadette Lee (Blue Care)
• Brenda-Anne Parfitt (Flexi Queensland)
• Tony Jamison (Department of Justice and Attorney General, Youth Justice Services)

MEDIA ENQUIRIES

For more information on the 2013 Health and Community Services Workforce Innovation Awards including details of the organisations and practices being nominated, please contact the Workforce Council Marketing and Communications Team:  07 3405 6771.

Submission in response to the paper ‘Safer Street Crime Action Plan- Youth Justice’.
The Law and Justice Institute (Qld) Inc. submits that:
1. Detention should continue to be a last resort for children being sentenced for a criminal offence.
2. Children should be named by courts only in exceptional circumstances.
3. Breach of bail should not be a criminal offence for children.
4. Courts should not be able to access a person’s juvenile criminal history when sentencing that person as an adult.

These issues are discussed further below...

Community Infrastructure Funding
Australian Government
Amount: Various per council (see details)
Closing: Council to submit applications by 22 July so get your ideas in! 

Do you have an idea for a project that could develop the community, support economic growth, support the environment or benefit the community in other ways? Our councils will have new money to spend on projects like this soon. The Federal Government announced new funding to Councils across Australia for community infrastructure projects. All Councils will share about $150 million as part of the Federal Government's plan for jobs and growth in local communities. 

What does this mean?
It means our Councils will have more money to spend on local infrastructure projects (no matter how small) that benefit their area and the communities who live in it.  Council must submit applications by 22 July 2013.   If you have an idea for a project that could develop the community, support economic growth, support the environment or benefit the community in other ways, please let me know. I'd be very glad to pass it on to your Mayor. 

For more info: http://www.regional.gov.au/regional/programs/rdaf-round-five-guidelines.aspx

Click read more below for more grants!

Please find below a letter explaining the purpose of the Gold Coast Check It Fest and asking for youth appropriate donations to use as giveaways on the day. Any donations will be used to engage young people in conversation around the key messages of the event.

These are;
Check – in with your mates: A good mate checks in with their friends to see if they are all good
Check – out services: There are free, youth friendly services and places on the Gold Coast if you or your mates need support
Check – yourself: It’s ok to ask for help or support if you’re having a hard time

If you have any questions please contact myself Teniele (Tink) Oats on 5509 5900.

The Carmody Report has just been released, and included are calls for the abolition of the Queensland Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian. If adopted, this would save the Government money – but at what cost?  The cost to our disadvantaged children is simply too high.  They would be placed at greater risk of harm and left unprotected by the independent watchdog.
 
The Commission is the independent watchdog that provides a voice for approximately 8,000 children in care. Its work keeps the Government honest and serves to protect the most highly disadvantaged in our population, the children who cannot protect themselves. 
 
As a result of the improvements put in place since the Forde and CMC inquiries, Queensland now has a highly efficient and effective Commission which provides proactive oversight of all children in care.  This means today Queensland has an early alert system for children in care which we didn’t have before.  We also now have solid evidence on which to focus child protection system improvements.  We have a credible complaints system that children in care value and can use by way of their Commission community visitors.  We also have a highly specialised audit capability which can investigate any incidents and deaths of children in care. 
 
Furthermore the Commission has a proven record of financial efficiency.  Over the past five years it has effectively reduced the annual oversight costs for each child in care while continuing to successfully fulfill its mandate to all children in Queensland.   If the Commission is abolished, this credible oversight of children in care all disappears. 

The Queensland Government has a statutory responsibility to protect our children and is a signatory to the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child.  The Queensland Government cannot abrogate its responsibility to our most marginalised children.
 
As a community we simply cannot accept the removal of the voice for disadvantaged children.  Carmody’s recommendation to abolish the Commission for Children would set child protection in QLD back at least a decade. 
 
I urge you to reject this Carmody recommendation by emailing your concerns to the Queensland Premier and your local Member of Parliament. 
 
You can also show your support by joining the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #protectQLDkids and linking and sharing on Facebook .

Elizabeth Fraser
Former Children’s Commissioner (2005-2013) & Campaign Leader

AYAC launched the first ever national snapshot of youth work in mid-June, as the culmination of months of work by the AYAC team and their partners at Southern Cross University, as well as contributions from over 1,500 youth workers around Australia!

The AYAC National Snapshot of Youth Work 2013 has been created to address the gap in collective knowledge of youth work and build a solid evidence based to assist in driving forward positive changes for young Australians and the sector that supports them.

For many years, the youth work sector across Australia has been speaking out about the barriers they face to providing the best possible support to young Australians in need. To download your copy of the AYAC National Snapshot of Youth Work, go to the website - http://www.ayac.org.au/projects/AYACsnapshot2013.html

A new bill before the Massachusetts Legislature would change how 17-year-olds are tried and sentenced. When it comes to incarceration, Massachusetts has recognized 17 as the age of adulthood since 1846. Of course, anyone who has a 17-year-old might question that assumption, as have citizens in 38 states across the U.S. Even some states we think of as far more conservative than Massachusetts—Arizona, Alabama, and Mississippi, for example—send lawbreakers younger than 18 to juvenile instead of adult court...

Read more...

AYAC’s 2013 National Youth Affairs Conference is less than 6 weeks away and the 2013 Conference Team is full steam ahead. Last week, the AYAC released the first draft program for August’s conference.  It is shaping up to be one of the most exciting events in 2013 for young people and the youth sector alike.  Why not take a look? The program is available at http://www.ayac.org.au/uploads/Program%20Preview%20FN.pdf”

Registrations are open now, so head over to http://www.ayac.org.au/projects/AYAC2013/registrations.html to get on-board.

2014 Organising Committee. Apply now!Are you interested in joining the team? Read about the positions available... then apply!

Please apply before 20 July 2013. Interviews for Spark 2014 Director will occur by the YWB Managing Board and the new director will be announced on Saturday 27 July. The rest of the organising committee will be announced shortly thereafter...

This application is for the Organising Committee of Youth Without Borders' (YWB) program, Spark Engineering Camp 2014. We would love to hear from you, whether this is you hundredth residential camp, or your first! Although this is an engineering-based camp, the program will benefit from a diverse committee. Thus, being within the engineering field is not a pre-requisite for your participation. Involvement on the Organising Committee will be favourably taken into consideration during the selection process for student mentors. These mentors are the staff present during the week of the camp and are directly involved in the implementation of the program. 

NOTE: all committee members must be Youth Without Borders members. Join up for free! http://www.youthwithoutborders.com.au/wordpress/?page_id=508

The Valuing Diversity Grants Program will allocate funding to multicultural events across Queensland in the 2014 calendar year in two categories:

·         Signature Events – grants up to $20,000
·         Culturally Diverse Events – grants up to $10,000.

The closing date for the submission of applications under this program is Wednesday, 10 July 2013.

Late applications may not be accepted and will be considered secondary to the applications received by the closing date.

To submit your application, you can either

·         POST TO – Multicultural Affairs Queensland, Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Multicultural Affairs, PO Box 15397, CITY EAST QLD 4002.  Ensure your envelope is stamped (postmarked) by Australia Post before or on 10 July 2013.

·         BY EMAIL – Email the application and attachments to MAQ@datsima.qld.gov.au before or on 10 July 2013. Signed copies of Section 10 – Certification – organisation, and (if applicable) Section 11 – Certification - auspicing organisation are to be posted to Multicultural Affairs Queensland, Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Multicultural Affairs separately before or on 10 July 2013.

·         IN PERSON – Hand-deliver your application enclosed in an envelope or package to “Decipha” (the Queensland Government tender box) at 2 Duncan Street, West End, Brisbane, no later than 4pm on 10 July 2013. Late applications will not be accepted or processed.

The envelope is to clearly specify that it is an application submitted to Multicultural Affairs Queensland, Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Multicultural Affairs, under the 2013–14 Valuing Diversity Grants Program.  Please complete and attach the relevant label at Attachment 1 of the Application Form to your envelope or package.

If you have any queries in relation to the program or submitting your application, please contact Multicultural Affairs Queensland on (07) 3224 5006 or email MAQ@datsima.qld.gov.au.