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Annual Report 2008 - 2009 Download Pdf

Presidents Report 2008 - 2009

The community continues to demand longer and harsher penalties for offenders and stricter rules around when offenders can be released. Building more prisons and filling them up is unfortunately proven to be the ‘easy’ bit; providing an adequate range of services in prison and upon release to enable individuals to develop the skills and support networks is the challenge. Unfortunately with the government 3% efficiency cuts the funding available for such programs is placed under even greater pressure.

While I understand the communities increasing frustration with the judicial system and the perception that offenders get off ‘lightly’ they need to fully understand the social and financial benefits achieved from preventing someone entering the justice system and/or returning to prison. Educating the community is a role and service that Outcare needs to extend in the future.

Over the past 12 months Outcare has expanded its existing services and developed a number of new and innovative programs which have achieved some exciting results; some of which are highlighted in the body of this report. Our re-entry program, a major initiative funded by the Department of Corrective Services, has reduced an individuals rate of return to prison after 2 years from 41% to 17.5%. The youth services area, in partnership with community agencies and government departments, has developed a number of innovative programs resulting in improved education, training and employment outcomes for young offenders. It is expected that these initiatives will be further expanded over the next 12 months.

While much of Outcare’s work is providing services to those individuals (and their families) that are already in the justice system it is clearly recognised that more work needs to be undertaken in preventing individuals from ever becoming a statistic. The Keeping Kids out of Crime program is spearheading this work and has achieved some fantastic results over the past 12 months. The demand and support for the program continues to grow and has now expanded to some regional areas.

The continued growth of Outcare’s services has been the result of hard work and dedication by Peter Sirr and his staff. The successes achieved over the past 12 months have been built around a proven a holistic model of service provision. In addition, providing these services in partnership with other agencies (community and government) has maximised the outcomes achieved.

Given Outcare’s continued growth much of the Boards time over the past 12 months has been focused on refining the organisations governance framework. While there is still work to be done in this area the enhancements made to date has enabled the organisation to effectively and efficiently meet current demands and will provide a solid platform for meeting future challenges.

Some of the future challenges Outcare is looking to meet include:

• Securing premises to accommodate additional services, both existing and new.
• Finding opportunities for Outcare to take a more proactive role in influencing government policy.
• Educating the broader community on crime prevention strategies.
• Increasing our housing stock so that more offenders leaving prison can be provided with supported accommodation.

Outcare’s future is looking very positive and through the continued commitment and support of the staff, volunteers and the board I am confident that the next 12 months will result in even greater outcomes than has been achieved in the past 12.

Peter (Chook) Henson
PRESIDENT

Chief Executive Officer’s Report 2008 - 2009

Peter Sirr

PROGRAMS

This year saw Ernie Hansen, our accommodation manager of 16 years, leave to take on the CEO position at another non profit accommodation organisation. We would like to thank Ernie for his dedication and length of service with Outcare, and wish him all the best in his new position. I would also like to acknowledge and thank Kay Donovan, who also left us, for her work ion the finance section over the years.

Accommodation progress.

The latter half of this reporting year has seen significant moves towards expansion of the available housing stock and I will be able to report next year that staffing and the size of this stock has increased. Much of this has been brought about by strategic alliances with partners such as Foundation Housing and Corrective Services

Outcare also submitted for, and recently achieved Third Tier Housing Provider Registration.

Our foremost accommodation concern is that the Prisoner Review Board has been refusing many release applications, or breaching released prisoners for relatively minor events, which in the past did not occur. This resulted in a period of unplanned reduced use of our accommodation resources as bookings are made on previous expectations and this had a significant financial impact on this service area.

Health Services

The opportunity to set this area up as a separately managed area was made possible this year, and that role was taken on by an existing and well qualified staff member who has had 6 years experience with Outcare.

Addictions programs.

The addictions service continues to have excessive demand place on it. We were fortunate to be able to increase the Federal funding available for staffing and to obtain some other funds to have more counselling staff available for the coming 12 months.

The new service area immediately underwent an independent quality framework review process which has provided additional direction for the service. Some policy elements arising from this of this process have been adopted across the whole organisation. The one on one throughcare model the service implements provides for optimised outcomes for the services clients.

Blood Borne Virus Program.

Staffing matters resulted in this program running at much less than its full time

This COAG funded service was been put out for expressions of interest in the latter half od the year and it is pleasing to announce that Outcare obtained a further 3 years funding for the service.

Vaccination Program.

The vaccination program continues, funded solely by Outcare, and is providing a very valuable health service to visitors to Hakea prison. This client group has come to be viewed by Outcare as extremely vulnerable and at high risk of very poor health Outcomes, and we believe this vaccination service should be provided across all prisons.

Employment and Training service.

Employment Directions Network

The Employment Directions Network (EDN) which provides Outcare with its core Employment Services funding is, along with all the other EDN funded agencies, having these funds being put out to the market in the latter half of 2009. Such a move was disappointing to Outcare as this service has maintained healthy outcomes for its client base, and in many years exceeded them significantly. It also allowed Outcare to value add approximately $230,000 of other projects into support for offenders and ex-offenders in the training and employment area. However, with challenges comes opportunity and we hope to see a renewed and more substantial service running from Outcare in the future.

Job Start

Outcare’s employment placement program Job Start ceased to exist on June 30 as a result of the Job Network system being replaced by the current government.

Job Services Australia.

The previous Job Network system did offer us some significant opportunities through the ability to access resources through the Innovation Panel and the STEP-ERS program. Some creative partnerships were developed with both internal and external stakeholders, particularly with Outcare’s youth area and Balga TAFE in regard to indigenous training and apprenticeships. Fortunately, there will be similar opportunities with the new Job Services Australia

The new service has a significant focus on disadvantaged clients and while we will not be a funded employment placement provider this year, through the new system we will have access to resources which are clearly targeted to our client base.

Family Support Centres

The increases in prison muster over recent years has seen an upward trend in Family Centre visitor numbers and at a total of 166,907 visitors, this year was no exception.

The centres are well supported by all the prison staff and others such as churches, individuals, community groups etc. The approximate total value of donations this year was an impressive $54,447. Of this the Christmas appeal attracted approximately $25,000 worth of gifts from the Churches and Santa’s Workshop, which went to approximately 600 children of the families of prisoners. The amount of individual donations received at the centres this year was exceptional, with a total of $29,447 worth of material items and food. The families of prisoners go largely ignored in the community and by government, and through the centres we are able to alleviate some of the silent suffering they experience.

Our appreciation of these supporters cannot be expressed often nor loud enough.

Youth Programs

Reconnect

This program continues to provide a valuable service to young people exiting detention. Through strategic partnerships the service had some significant successes, particularly in training and obtaining apprenticeships for indigenous youth as outlined below.

Swan TAFE (Balga Campus) Live works Programme

This programme incorporates all of the Youth Services in offering our youth client base the opportunity of a building vocational course. The majority of the course is carried out in the community on Live Works programmes on Department of Housing Accommodation. This collaboration involves Balga TAFE, Outcare, Swan Emergency Accommodation, Department of Housing, Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations as well as the Aboriginal Employment and Educational Committee of Swan TAFE.

Aboriginal Youth Support Services

This service operates on the Reconnect model and targets indigenous youth exiting detention. This year Outcare sponsored The Wildcats, an Indigenous basketball team through which many of the services clients successfully progressed.

Keeping Kids out of Crime.

As in the previous year, this program won an award, this time the 2008 Western Australian Crime Prevention Award. This is a reflection of the value the program has provided to schools in Western Australia

The program has expanded a little into the regions of the state but these activities are severely constrained by the limited availability of financial support.

For a program so well received and recognised, it still operates on a hand to mouth existence with no secure longer term funding.

J-TARP Young Women’s programme

The Juvenile Transitional Accommodation and Reintegration Programme is a new intensive full time behaviour modification programme for young girls involved with the justice system, as well as being under the care of the Department of Child Protection. Started in the latter half of the year, this service is set to move Outcare more strongly into the provision of specialist supported accommodation services for young offenders.

Re-entry Link Program.

This program is a crucial plank in Outcare’s raft of services and much effort is also being put into making sure it is linked holistically with all the other services Outcare provides.

The program successfully diverts people away from re-offending and is subsequently a significant cost reduction for the state Government when dealing with our client base. This cost saving runs into the millions of dollars per year.

The tightness of the labour market and lack of qualified and experienced staff severely affected the expansion of this program in the early part of the year. it was only as the Global Financial Crisis began to affect Western Australia that staffing needs were eased in early 2009.

With the introduction of a new level of management there has been a concerted effort in the latter half of the year to boost staff numbers and to increase the quality and quantity of our work with released offenders.

ORGANISATION

Strategic Planning.

The strategic action plans continue to be addressed and a large percentage of these have been satisfactorily completed or progressed to near completion.

Staff Recruitment and Retention update.

As previously mentioned recruitment and retention of staff had been one of the major issues for us in the recent but now departed boom market, and this problem has eased recently. The amount of staff movement has decreased, resulting in a more stable workforce, which is obviously also better for improving client outcomes.

This was not a problem faced by Outcare alone, it has been something that most of the non profit sector has had to face over recent years. Outcare staff were surveyed and a series of actions initiated to address this problem.

A major competitor for our staff is in fact the state government, as the remuneration their agencies offer is usually 30% or more above what Outcare and other non government human sector agencies can offer. Paradoxically, Outcare’s salaries are based on contract funds which are from those same government agencies. It is often the case that we train our staff up and then government employs them off us.

Governance and Management

Management structure

The creation and appointment to a General Manager Services position in late 2008 was a significant step for the organisation. This position has bought a focus on human resources, contract compliance and quality service provision. This also allows us to deploy the resources necessary to appropriately address several of our strategic objectives. Over time we are now constantly updating our HR framework and how the services effectively relate to each other.

The Management Team

The management team has had, amongst others, a major objective this year. This was improve the holistic service delivery approach we promote and to maximise the way the various Outcare services work together. This process has always been somewhat hampered by differing contractual arrangements and required outcomes between the services, however we are now tracking some of the service provision interrelatedness and should be able to measure it against KPI’s into the coming year.

A HR structure around the management team has been developed and the managers roles and responsibilities have been reviewed. This is timely because as Outcare and its services have expanded, expectations and workloads have risen and more is being asked of the individual managers.

Board and Governance.

An increased attention on Board matters this year has seen the Board work on membership, governance policy and take on a more strategic perspective in relation to service reporting and budgetary processes. This was in part driven by the increases in service and staffing size and budget increases in very recent years, so the demands on providing good governance will be ongoing well into the future.

Outcare is first and foremost a service delivery organisation, however an initial step has been taken into developing some basic policy responses to justice issues and at the Board level there is a will to develop a broader policy response role for the organisation.

Other matters

Assets

The construction works on the main office in Moore Street were finally finished, and as a result of the increase in services, the building’s capacity is now fully taken up. Any further services will need to be provided from other locations.

Prison numbers and releases

By far the most pressing issue we face as a service provider and working in the justice system is the high and increasing number of the daily prison muster. This has risen quite quickly over recent years (3,160 in July 2004 to 4,517 in July 2009, a 43 % increase) and the main flow on effect for Outcare is the increased demand for all of our services and the uncertainty around our accommodation bookings which occurs while the Prisoner Review Board continues to refuse applications for release which in the past would normally have occurred.

These two factors, the increasing muster and the large decrease in anticipated releases, are contributing to a significant increase in tensions within the prisoner population, which is a matter of grave and ongoing concern which government has to address.

CEWA

Community Employers WA is a collection of agencies committed to improving the employment conditions of non government staff in the human sectors sector. Outcare has been involved since its inception and strongly supports the objectives of this group. One of its major aims is to improve the funding levels applied to the governments purchase of services through non government agencies (NGO’s) so that we can all offer wages and salaries which can provide our staff with what they are really worth and are competitive in the open market. If you belong to an NGO providing services to the community of western Australia I urge you all to join CEWA and support its actions.

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The organisation has frown significantly over recent years and the signs are this will continue. I would like to thank all those associated with Outcare for their support and work towards achieving our objectives in the past and into the future.

I would like to thank the Management Team and the Board for the personal support they readily gave to me over the year and particularly in recent times, it has been greatly appreciated.

Peter Sirr
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER