BUSHkids 2016-17 Annual Report

CHAIR

Chairman

Evident in my report last year, the themes of review, renewal and changing times have been amplified during the course of 2017. It has been a year of both profound loss and exciting expansion and, to whomever follows in the legacy of Matt Tesch and Adrian Harrison in reprising and updating our history book for our Centenary, I extend my best wishes into the future for your efforts, for BUSHkids has taken yet another of the great steps which has periodically redefined our organisation. I refer, of course, to the expansion of our early intervention services into the field of early childhood early intervention , in partnership with the National Disability Insurance Scheme. BUSHkids’ newly- designated ‘Early Start Teams’ began operating in Bundaberg during 2017 and our organisation’s successful tender to the NDIA means we will commence similar operations across the Gladstone, Central Highlands and Rockhampton local government regions in 2018. Arguably, the expertise of our clinical leadership and Allied Health teams, and the credentials of our 82 years’ experience supporting chil- dren and families throughout Queensland – via many different models of care and service delivery methods over that time – has well-equipped us to be entrusted with these new responsibilities. Plans for the restructuring of BUSHkids – our line management, discipline-specific and multidisciplinary professional supervision, more robust ICT systems and enhanced administrative support of the front-line teams – had already been developed over many months of planning, and were presented to all staff at our annual Conference in June. Together with these additional funding sources and accountabilities, and projected increase in staff numbers in the next two years, the need for such changes had been clear for some time. We have come a long way in the last five years and readers will see this reflected in the pages of this report: our ‘streams’ of Learning and Development, Children’s Allied Health, Children and Parenting Support, and our new Early Start Teams, have replaced the former Centre-based and discipline-specific approach in communicating with our supporters, funders and the wider community. Concurrently, BUSHkids Council ranks have been refreshed with the ‘co-opting’ of Margaret Lavery and Jan Boys to add their expertise to the comprehensive skillsets of my colleagues. Margaret has been one of our valued volunteers for a number of years, and Jan has taken up the cudgels of the Quality Assurance work begun by Carolyn Searle and David Ham to spearhead our new Risk Assessment Committee. Increased opportunities also carry concomitant risks – strategic, operational, financial and reputational, to name just four – and a clear-eyed reappraisal of where we stand, both now and with our faces turned to the future and the approaching growth of our services, is essential to the effective discharge of our duties to our fellow Queenslanders. Associated with this is the review of our Constitution which I flagged in my report last year. With the altered landscape of BUSHkids’ funding, statutory and legislative accountabilities in this exciting new period, consideration also needs to be given to the reporting requirements – present and prospective – of the ACNC, NDIS and the Corporations Act and these are being evaluated through further research, our intention being to present an appropriately-updated Constitution to the 2018 Annual General Meeting. In paying tribute to the tremendous amount of work which has gone on behind the scenes – both by my fellow Council members and our visionary CEO Carlton Meyn, as well as by our clinical leadership team and many staff members – which has safely and successfully delivered BUSHkids to the close of our 82nd year in December 2017, I also thank our funders, State and Commonwealth, and the donors, supporters and volunteers who are the enablers of all the work we do today and, in so doing, entrust us with their renewed and ongoing commitments to underpin our plans for the future. This year, following the hectic programs of 2015–16, we have been able to give our Patron a ‘bit of a breather’ but we continue to appreciate the keen focus of His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey ac, just as we are blessed with the energetic support of his predecessor’s grandson, Charlie Wilson, and the many volunteer members of our dynamic Friends of BUSHkids groups. We are glad of the attention you give us, and which others then bring to the work we do, and we are empowered and uplifted as a result. On such note, two valedictory observations are in order. The first is addressed to the family and friends of Catherine Dunn, one of our Warwick Centre team who succumbed to cancer in July and who was remembered at a very moving Friends meeting in September. Husband Andrew recalled “the impact Catherine had on lives and organisations she felt worthy of her enthusiastic energy” and we are humbled not only that BUSHkids was among those but also that your connection with us will continue. Keenly-felt, too, was the passing of the doyenne of the Queensland Bush Children’s Health Scheme, Mrs Glenda Keeshan, in late March. In previous reports I have touched on the powerful legacy of her nearly three decades at the helm; as you will read in Matt Tesch’s emotive obituary on the opposite page, without Glenda you might not otherwise be reading this document at all. In paying our respects to her husband Len, and all who joined us in remembrance at Toowong in October, I am mindful of the future we face without her in 2018 but am confident Glenda would find our return to Emu Park – our second Home in 1937 – and Yeppoon – site of one of the biggest challenges she faced – worthy of a quietly proud smile.

Dr Neil J Bartels MBBS LL.M Grad.Cert.Leg.Med. FACRRM

Two new rose gardens, 160km apart at our Warwick and Brisbane offices, were planted in late 2017, to honour the memory and legacies of some very special people and their important roles at different times in the long history of BUSHkids. InWarwick, the types of roses planted in memory of Catherine are: ‘Little ray of sunshine’

‘Remember me’ ‘Isn’t she lovely’

AtToowong, the rose colours chosen honour the memories of: Catherine Dunn DavidTanner

Pat Carlin’s mum Glenda Keeshan

David was our Scheme’s Honorary Treasurer, 1991–2006, and it was through his acumen and foresight that BUSHkids owns the Morley Street property. Pat Carlin mentored many a staff member during two periods as a BUSHkids staff member, 1992–1995 and 1998–2010, and both she and her mum hold a special place in our hearts. Glenda’s quintessential role in the history of our organisation is well-documented, both between the covers of BUSHIES and in the obituary on the opposite page.

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