John Jepsen, the new Executive General Manager of Shared Living, advised there have been changes in personnel within the new structure. Aruma’s service structure is no longer state-based. The new structure is based on a “line of business” approach. There is a flow-chart of the new structure on Periscope.
COVID-19
Aruma management is confident the systems put in place are holding well. The notifications of illness and maintaining PPE supplies systems are working well.
Vaccinations
Aruma is targeting clients and most services have had the first vaccination. Staff on shift at the time get the vaccination then additional staff are called to come in rather than waste vaccinations.
A report on the vaccination program will be released at a later date.
In terms of the pandemic response, most queries are local in nature. The traffic light system set up to field queries is working well and Aruma is following government regulations.
Your Delegates raised the issue of follow through with information about hazards and Incident Reports.
Feedback from staff is that the information around hazards and incidents needs to be shared. Aruma management stated it working on closing the loop to get back to people. The incident reporting forms are being re-assessed for fit for purpose. A report about incidents will be sent out to Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs).
Aruma will seek feedback from the HSRs about the report and the new protocols.
A new flow chart of arrangements to get back to people has been finalised recently and will be sent out soon. Staff can utilise the Continuous Improvement Notice (CIN).
CPSU NSW Delegates raised that the Incident Reporting document was extremely difficult work with, hard to print, had a very small font and does not print as a complete document. Staff are not able to go back to the document once they have sent it forward.
Project Nevada has been working on these issues.
COVID-19 vaccinations
CPSU NSW Delegates asked if Aruma management has the statistics around the number of clients who have been vaccinated. Aruma has been able to keep this information, however, due to privacy issues it is unable to collect the statistics around the number of staff that have been vaccinated. Staff may have organised their vaccination privately and not through Aruma.
Mr Jepsen reported on the reasons for the realignment of services. The realignment was undertaken to gain broader consistencies in servicing. Some of the processes were convoluted and inefficient, with too much internal bureaucracy. The realignment is intended to make things simple. Some projects have been wound back so that there is not so much to manage.
One of the aims is to retain the workforce looking at all areas of the business, including transferred services and assessing what needs to happen.
There is also the impact of different funding from the NDIS. Aruma management is meeting with the NDIA around SIL plans.
Aruma stated the organisation has been carrying costs that have not been funded due to changes in plans in the legacy and transferred services. NGOs can only challenge the NDIS plans if there has been an error.
Previously rosters were developed around the group within a service. Now that funding is arranged individually, the SIL can be reviewed and or changed several times a year. Aruma may continue to service at the previous level without knowing that the SIL funding has changed leading to servicing without funds.
CPSU NSW Delegates queried how the financial loss had occurred and in what areas of the business. It was reported that the losses have occurred as a result of costs incurred as a result of COVID-19. These costs included extra PPE, additional cleaning, staff training and tests run in relation to new online services such as training and data collection as a result of COVID-19. There were cases of COVID-19 in the Victorian services and the recent reduction in levels of funding from the NDIS.
All areas of Aruma business are being reviewed, not just the operational sections.
Management provided an outline of the changes made in the Executive level of the organisation. These have been reported in the CEO Update.
CPSU NSW Delegates raised issues around how the roster is displayed and how changes to the roster are captured. Given the roster issues seem to be widespread across the Southern Region, Shane Elliott will put together a group to discuss the issues that are being experienced.
Your union requested that consultation around rostering commence. Aruma agreed to organise a meeting to discuss the rostering issues.
It was agreed that at this time it is even more important to keep communication channels open. The CPSU NSW requested not to hold meetings on a Monday as this was not a day that all reps were available.
Mel Coombes
Ian Little
Shane Elliott
Stephen Mears
Asren Pugh
Sharny Chalmers
You can join at www.cpsunsw.org.au/join.
