Our annual review for 2019-2020 looks back on a period before an Australian summer of devastating bushfires and a period of shutdowns during the global COVID-19 pandemic that has in the second half of this year affected our services,
staff and our participants in so many ways. So much has changed, and yet the principles underlying our approach as a services provider and advocacy organisation remain the same. We believe our organisational principles will help
us interpret and respond to a new post-COVID environment where old patterns of thinking and behaviour are rightly being challenged.
Wellways has happily risen to the challenges of COVID-19. Our staff throughout our 16 regions, some working remotely and others delivering important face-to-face services, have shown remarkable commitment in often difficult
circumstances. Importantly, we have been guided throughout this time by our organisational vision for an inclusive community where everyone can imagine and achieve their hopes and potential.
We have been agile enough to embrace the digital space, while at the same time acknowledge that we have a role as an essential service to continue our frontline supports for some of Australia’s most marginalised people,
many with severe and enduring mental health issues or challenging disabilities. We made sure we implemented precautionary training for staff, systems to distribute personal protective equipment around the country and regularly
maintaining communications channels with participants, staff, the sectors in which we work and the wider community.
We have always been an organisation available for anyone in need of our support and the services we provide. The last 12 months has proven our ability to expand our reach and grow our programs. The COVID-19 environment
has opened opportunities, including expanding our programs and services into the digital space. But our expansion this year began well before any of us considered we were facing a global health crisis.
The Board and the Executive Leadership Team have overseen an exciting period of growth. Last year Wellways announced our successful bid to become a Carer Gateway Service Provider across Queensland and the New South Wales
region of South West Sydney and Nepean Blue Mountains. In April, this year we launched our Wellways Carer Gateway operations, reaching out to over 700,000 informal, unpaid carers. Our support for carers has not stopped at State
or regional boarders, with Wellways now playing a pivotal role to the further development of Carer Gateway services across the rest of the country.
This year Wellways also experienced success in our bids to manage six Prevention and Recovery Care (PARC) services in Melbourne’s north western and eastern suburbs. Our successes strengthen our partnerships with North
Western Mental Health and Eastern Health, some of the biggest health service providers in Victoria. Excitingly, the PARC services commenced under Wellways management from midnight 30 June 2020.
We also find ourselves in a fortunate financial position during this review period. With our ongoing focus in strengthening our responses to tender opportunities, we have increased our revenue by $30 million. A key contributor
to this revenue increase was our continued ability to attract substantial block funding from Commonwealth, State and Territory governments to deliver transformative services, including BeyondBlue’s NewAccess counselling service
and its suicide prevention program, The Way Back Support Service.
Wellways is a truly diversified organisation, providing programs and services across a range of areas and communities. What has particularly struck us as we reflect on the past year is the vital contribution each and every
staff member makes towards delivering our organisational strategy.
In December 2019, we undertook our first Best Practice Australia annual employee engagement survey. We were very pleased with the results, especially in learning 62 percent of staff believe Wellways is a truly great place to work and
that we have a strong workplace culture of ambition.
In releasing the survey results, we have made commitments to our staff that we believe our workplace culture can be further strengthened and more than ambitious. We look to instituting a culture of success in the coming
years. We want to truly listen, hear and act on our staff voice. We have laid down critical foundations across the organisation to ensure our management teams constructively listens and responds to the concerns of their staff.
Where training needs have been identified at the organisation and occupational levels, we have sought to provide staff with suitable opportunities. And where improvements can be made, we will seek to implement change.
Advocacy is also a key pillar of our strategic plan and over the past year we have significantly expanded our reach and influence through our communication and responses to government inquiries and reviews, including the
Productivity Commission inquiry into Mental Health, the Victorian Royal Commission into Mental Health and the Federal and Victorian parliamentary inquiries into homelessness. This year we also saw the launch of our innovative public
mental health campaign, #StampedeStigma and the appointment of the campaign’s inaugural ambassador, comedian and media personality, Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann. In its first year the campaign reached out to over 2 million Australians.
On a personal note, as the new Chair, appointed in June 2020 and the new Chief Executive Officer, appointed in December 2019, our priorities have been to engage with our staff and stakeholders. We have both benefited from
succeeding leaders who have left Wellways well placed and in an extraordinarily strong position. To Paul Montgomery, our former Chair of the Board and Elizabeth Crowther, our former CEO, we say thank you and wish them both all
the best with their future endeavours.
In a year like we have just experienced, it is hard to list all those we need to thank. From the perspective as Chair of the Board thanks go to our Directors and Co-opted Independent Committee members for their support
and attention to detail and as CEO thanks must be passed on to our management team and all staff at Wellways for their continued dedication to our mission.
Moving forward into a new year, Wellways will only continue to grow. Just as being defined as an essential service has characterised us this year, 2020-2021 will be a year where we strengthen our accountability for achieving
the commitments in our Reconciliation Action Plan as we advance reconciliation and our relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It will be a year where we will seek to not only stamp out mental health stigma
and discrimination, but we will also further address discrimination and inequality experienced by the LGBTIQ+ community. It will also be a year for seeking out collaborations with more individuals and organisations who can help
us reach more people, more effectively and strengthen how our services are delivered in a COVID impacted environment. It’s a year we look forward to.
- Michael Gorton AM (Board Chair) and Laura Collister (CEO), October 2020
