Annual Report 2014

The LWB Way is a commitment to reconciliation, our people, our values and innovation.

Our Way Forward

To improve engagement and service delivery with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities, we established a national Reconciliation team and this year launched the Executive Reconciliation Group in May.

The Reconciliation team has strengthened the voice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across LWB and the community, and ensures LWB ‘lives’ its commitment to continuing our Reconciliation journey and making a positive difference in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

National Service Recognition Awards

Recognising and rewarding staff was as a key goal of our Human Services processes, particularly rewarding behaviours and actions that reflected our values. In early 2014 we began seeking nominations for our inaugural Employee Recognition Awards and announced winners in late July. These awards were one of several activities within our Human Resources areas that tied our practices to our values, others included revising our recruitment systems and tools, employee induction, and performance development processes.

Capability Framework

As part of LWBs values a project commenced to identify the skills, knowledge, attributes and behaviours required to be able to partner with people and change lives for the better. The project has involved asking a cross section of people in different roles and practices: What capabilities do we need to do the work we do?

The framework is used for:

  • position descriptions
  • recruitment
  • inductions
  • learning and development
  • career paths
  • performance development
  • talent retention

It will ensure Human Resource Management systems and processed embed the refreshed values in our people and culture strategy.

RTO/Learning and Development

The Life Without Barriers operates an enterprise-based Registered Training Organisation (RTO) that reinforces our alignment between our strategic plan, organisational structure and workforce expertise. We provide employees, external learners, and carers and clients with opportunities to gain formal qualifications in a range of disciplines. The RTO currently offers 17 nationally-accredited qualifications at Certificate and Diploma level, in addition to national through ASQA, accreditation LWB is Centrelink approved. During 2013-14, 17 employees graduated with full certificate qualifications from our RTO, 169 received statements of attainment for modules completed, and 368 have or are still engaged in study under this framework.

Our partners in our learning programs include Charles Darwin University, Watson and Blanch Care Consultants in Tasmania, and Forsythes Training in NSW deliver Certificate IV Frontline Management and Certificate IV Training and Assessment qualifications for 29 NSW LWB employees. During 2013-2014 the RTO secured a number of funding sources for learners to have subsidised training in all states and territories.

In March this year, our Aboriginal Cultural Support teams in New South Wales and Queensland received training in family and community history research from Kim Katon, Trainer and Senior Family History Officer with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Kim applied her research skills reuniting Aboriginal families of the stolen generation. Training included ethical considerations in accessing information, drawing up family trees, researching birth, death and marriage records, libraries and library catalogues. It also included information on where to find photographs, films and voice recordings, records from reserves, missions, Aboriginal schools, pastoral stations, land and war records, electoral rolls and presenting and storing research results.

With these skills our Aboriginal Cultural Support planners will compile some very extensive family histories for the Aboriginal children and young people we care for.