• Green Paper for Vulnerable Children

    Friday, January 27th, 2012

    On top of our minds as we hit the road running for 2012 and certainly predominant in the media this week has been the government’s action plan for children in the form of the Green Paper for Vulnerable Children.

    The consultation phase is well underway and we know many of you will be considering making a submission.

    We want our submission to be represntative of our members views and concerns.

    Submissions on are due by 28 February (a month away still) but we have to act now in order to collaborate on this and meet the deadline.

    > Read or download the Green Paper

    We’ve developed an outline for a submission which focuses essnetially on community and community sector aspects of the Green Paper.

    > Read our draft submission

    This is our initial framework which we will develop on the basis of more discussion and consultation with members, and we ask for your ideas and responses to:

    • Do you agree with the messages in this draft?
    • Is the balance about right between the different aspects?
    • Are there other issues we should cover?
    • Anything else you would like to comment about a submission from us as an umbrella group

    Let’s have an online conversation about this so we’d appreciate comments directly below this blog post.

    Posted in Government Relationships, Social Services, Welfare | 1 Comment »

  • Where do YOU go for HR advice?

    Thursday, January 19th, 2012

    Workplace Wellbeing logoOver the last few years those of us involved in the Workplace Wellbeing project have continually heard of the need for experienced, professional advice about managing staff and good HR practices for community organisations.

    So, we recently undertook some research to scope the concept of such an advisory service. The survey confirmed our interest in developing a resource or service.

    > See the survey results below

    We’re interested in retaining a focus on encouraging good practice as relevant in the community sector, rather than repeating material about legislation and generic HR practice that is already available on a range of excellent web sites.

    We’d like to have more discussion with community organisations and people with HR experience on how we could next proceed. We’d love to hear from you if you have:

    • HR experience in our sector and interested in working with us to set up an ongoing service (such as a national network).
    • Ideas for existing resource organisations or sites that we could further collaborate with.

    Contact us if you’re interested in a seeing copy of this research or in finding out more how you can help.

    Survey results

    234 responses to the survey showed that:

    • 62% of those who replied had less than 20 staff.
    • Only 23% identified as having any HR experience as a specific portfolio on their Board or Committee.
    • Most sought external assistance for—
      • general employment relations management advice;
      • change management, redundancies or restructuring;
      • developing employment agreements;  and
      • managing staff performance.
    • 25% identified websites and Freephone services as the professional support that would be most helpful to them.

    There was (gratifying) acknowledgement that such an advisory service would involve costs, with 93% favouring a monthly or annual subscription, and 91% favouring a sliding scale of costs.

    Posted in Employment Relations | No Comments »

  • Our stakeholder survey results

    Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

    > Read the full survey results

    Late last year we asked our members and those with whom we work closely to respond to a survey to give us feedback about what we’ve done over the years to help us assess what our focus and priorities could be as Social Development Partners.

    Here’s what you told us.

    Most of what we do and are known for is considered both important as well as highly-rated.

    In terms of our role—

    • Most important—‘Building awareness of sector issues’ and ‘Advice & submissions to government’.
    • Most satisfied—‘Building awareness of sector issues’ and ‘Informed comment on a variety of issues’.
    • There was a slight preference of our 3 advocacy-related roles over our collaboration and capacity-building roles.

    Of the many activities we undertake, much the same was reflected:

    • Our advocacy, online communications, Keeping it Legal, TechSoup and ComVoices all scored very highly in terms of both satisfaction and importance. Our online communications recorded the highest level of satisfaction overall.
    • Our least valued activities were Collaborative Voices, HotHouse and Connecting Communities.  Generally these were specific, although very successful, events that were either new or had a limited audience.

    The two top issues likely to impact on organisations in the next 2-3 years were ‘decreased funding’ and ‘government policy’.  100% of respondents reported ‘decreased funding’ as their one top issue.

    > Read the full survey results

    Posted in Social Development Partners focus | No Comments »

  • From the President’s desk

    Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

    Photo of Lynn McKenzie, PresidentBy the time you read this, many of you will have returned from your holiday and will be preparing for a new year ahead.

    Last year was an eventful year for us here at Social Development Partners.

    Since taking on the role of President I’ve seen some great things happening with this small, but agile organisation. Our name change has now bedded in—it seems everyone has accepted our choice and new look without issue.

    That’s got the horse over the line, so to speak.

    We’ve since been spending time shaping our future and looking at our focus and priorities, leaving our former identity behind and embracing the opportunities offered us by our new brand.

    So, we’ve asked ourselves, what does Social Development Partners offer?

    The first step was to consult members along with all those we deal with regularly for feedback and input.  Our email stakeholder survey went out in late October and I’d like to thank those who responded to the survey and will now share some of the things you told us.

    We received nearly 70 responses in all.  Resoundingly, the top three benefits of being associated with Social Development Partners are because we advocate on behalf of members and the sector, the fact that we work collaboratively and that we have good & regular communications.

    Of all the many activities we’re involved in, most were either ‘satisfied’ or ‘highly satisfied’ with our TechSoup programme, our involvement in ComVoices, maintaining the Keeping it Legal website, as well as with our online communications. You rated these same activities as being either ‘important’ or ‘most important’ to you as well.  This was reassuring and endorses the work we’ve done in recent times on behalf of members and the wider sector.

    But the attention grabber for me was the two top issues likely to impact on organisations in the next 2-3 years.  These were ‘decreased funding’ and ‘government policy’.  The stark truth here was that 100% of respondents reported ‘decreased funding’ as one top issue.

    This feedback (which you can read in detail elsewhere on this website) has helped shape our thinking about where we might head as an organisation.

    We’ve been giving a great deal of thought as to how best we can represent our members and the wider sector and do the work that all our stakeholders expect us to do—in a much tougher environment of decreased funding and with a stretched budget.

    One of the things that interest me is the need for us all to become and stay relevant as organisations and also to be in the uppermost part of people’s minds as and when they make decisions about who they want to support and stay involved with.  We want to make Social Development Partners a force for organisations to belong to and one that stays in touch with your needs.

    As the new year unfolds, I’m confident that our Executive Committee and staff will remain committed to growing a strong presence for Social Development Partners, a vital organisation dedicated to representing and helping to strengthen our member organisations, the sector, and in turn the community as a whole.

    I wish you every good wish for the New Year, take a fresh look at things, determine where your strengths lie and where people value you most, and go for it.

    Posted in Featured, Social Development Partners focus | No Comments »

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