National Disability Insurance Scheme

In accordance with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Quality and Safeguards Commission, our services were audited and recommended for accreditation with the NDIS as a service provider. This meant adjustments to the registration and quality assurance of the NDIS as providers, to the complaints process, to the incident management and reporting process, new practice standards for the NDIS and Code of Conduct.

ORGANISATIONAL LEAD

We saw significant changes taking place within the organisation, as well as transformational progress making an immediate and enduring impact towards achieving the best possible outcomes for our elders and clients. 2019/2020 capped off a number of years work in the areas of LGBTI+ inclusive practice and the launch of our Hand-in-Hand™ model of supports, making these key areas of change and progress both challenging and rewarding. Through these, we were able to change our approach to supporting people living with a disability and in delivering an inclusive environment for our elders, clients and staff.

 

Rainbow Tick Accreditation (LGBTI+ Inclusive Practice)

In early 2020, after two years of planning, preparing, and organisational development, Jewish Care achieved full Rainbow Tick Accreditation, a world first quality framework to help organisations become safe, welcoming, and inclusive for the LGBTI+ community.

The Rainbow Tick Accreditation Program provides a framework to support, understand and implement LGBTI+ safe and inclusive service delivery to assure LGBTI+ service users and staff that the organisation is aware of, is responsive to, and is understanding of their needs.

This national accreditation acknowledges the transformational change in the area of LGBTI+ inclusive practices and acts as beacon for the LGBTI+ community to know that not only are they safe coming to us, but they are welcomed too.

Hand-in-Hand™ model of support  

While a number of departments were focussed on building a state-of-the-art new building on our St Kilda Road site, there was just as much work being focussed on building a model of support for elders that would both complement the world class design and construction, as well as ensure we are able to provide exceptional person-centred supports to those living at our residential homes.

Hand-in-Hand™ model of supports implementation has made it easy for our elders to live a more independent life that supports their needs. We will continue to develop this model and evolve over time, considering the implications of COVID-19 that has had a significant impact on their daily routines and life, as a whole.

Person Centred Active Support

Through Person Centred Active Support, our dedicated and skilled team in disability services have been able to offer quality supports to our clients and continues to improve their supports year-on-year. La Trobe University has been evaluating these supports for more than six years now as part of an Australia wide study incorporating 14 other organisations and has seen the greatest positive changes in Jewish Care’s services across a number of assessed categories in the last 12 months.

STRATEGIC PROJECTS & ACQUISITIONS

This year has been significant for the Infrastructure team at Jewish Care. During this period two significant property development projects reached practical completion with a third rapidly closing on completion.

After more than eight years of planning, the Hannah & Daryl Cohen Family Building located in the Holckner Family Senior Living & Community Precinct in Windsor reached practical completion in March 2020. This state-of-the-art nine-storey precinct was completed on time and is been widely accepted as an industry leader in vertical aged care living. The design reflected current thinking sourced from around the world, which was adapted to integrate with Jewish Care’s trademarked Hand-in-Hand™ model of support for elders.

The 156-bed facility comprises eight individual houses, each providing accommodation for 15 elders in a truly home like environment with dedicated residential kitchens, activity, lounge and dining areas and laundry facilities. Located on the ground and first floors are communal spaces providing for Active Living Services, Synagogue, café, Boardroom, hairdresser and main reception. A training centre, community services administration area, gallery and cinema are all located on level one.

The development of Anne & Eric Smorgon Active Living centre located in Freeman Street adjacent to Gary Smorgon House reached practical completion. The building was conceived to provide a dedicated connection for the community between our Active Living Services and Gary Smorgon House. Special features of the building include the façade, which is a striking combination of angled brickwork and a cantilever connection link between the two buildings and, internally, the use of floor-to-ceiling glass doors and windows bringing the outside environment into the building. Level two includes a physiotherapy and gymnasium area, synagogue, large multipurpose room, treatment and interview rooms. The cafe, theatrette and casual seating areas within Gary Smorgon House were also completely upgraded as part of this project.

The next state-of-the-art project to reach final stages of completion is the Senior Living Precinct in Carnegie. The facility replicates in many ways the learnings from the design and documentation implemented at the Hannah & Daryl Cohen Family Building and is aligned to Windsor to create a common platform across both sites to enable our staff to operate across both sites without the need to learn new systems and processes creating a truly mobile workforce.

In addition to these three exciting projects, we have continued to look ahead and have started detail planning to improve access to the Hannah & Daryl Cohen Family Building from St Kilda Road as per the original design. This enablement work will allow the sale of the land located on the corner of Punt Road and Union Street Windsor following the transfer of elders to the new Senior Living Precinct in Carnegie.

A dedicated in house Facilities Management team diligently worked around the clock to maintain, repair and enhance Jewish Care’s large property portfolio that includes 396 aged care beds, more than 100 independent living units and four supported accommodation houses and shared services facilities, ensuring essential service compliance and maintaining statutory accreditation of all buildings and workplaces.