Inclusion Melbourne is a wonderful organisation, made great by the volunteers and staff who support nearly one hundred people with intellectual disability to be included in communities across Melbourne. There are thirty local government areas in Melbourne, and we are now supporting people in twenty-five of those areas – we are truly including people all across Melbourne. Over the past few months, we have been faced with an extraordinary auditing and regulatory burden, but I am pleased to report that through the efforts of our skilled and professional staff, we have sailed through all of these external reviews, including a financial viability audit, a ‘mid-cycle’ (i.e.: 18-month) review of our Department of Health & Human Services accreditation and our five-yearly RTO (Registered Training Organisation) audit. While many people were involved, credit must go to our staff responsible for overseeing our continuous improvement and accreditation, Lucy Norvill and Nathan Despott, as well as the managers of the relevant areas.
Over the past year, the board and management have been working on a new strategic plan for the organisation and I am pleased to report that it was adopted by the board in April. The aim of the plan is to support everyone associated with Inclusion Melbourne to transition to the National Disability Insurance Scheme over the coming 4 years. A key message is that we want to be better, not bigger and to that end the four key areas of focus are:
If you want to stay connected to our work, please ‘like’ our Facebook page (Inclusion Melbourne Inc.) and we will keep you updated every week.
Best wishes,
Daniel
CEO