Berry Street Web Docs Berry Street Annual Report 2011 | Page 25

and 10 staff are currently completing
the Certificate IV in Training and
Assessment.
• New courses were developed and
delivered on resilience, complex
chronic mental health, introduction
to family violence, managing work
priorities, in addition to ongoing
courses in supervision, leadership and
management and Aboriginal culture,
knowledge and understanding
• Forty four students were supported
through our Placement Unit and
we developed two online learning
modules on student orientation and
supervising students
• A new online module on Foundations
for Practice – Child Development –
was completed by 250 staff. This is on
top of five other online modules (on
equal opportunity, diversity, code of
conduct and occupational health
and safety), which are expected to
be completed within the first three
months of employment
• We supplemented the new
Government paid parental leave
scheme to allow all primary carers
to take 18 weeks paid leave and two
weeks partners’ leave on full pay
Because our work is so complex and
emotionally demanding, we work very
hard at ensuring our staff feel properly
supported and know when and how
to access help.
We launched our new Health and
Wellbeing Strategy, which amongst
other things, enables staff to take some
additional work time for a registered
health-related activity.
In a number of areas we have
implemented regular ‘health checks’,
where our Employee Assistance Program
provider offers support. Eighty-nine
staff and four foster families accessed
our Employee and Carer Assistance
Programs for work-related (49%) and
personal (51%) issues.

• The development of Business
Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Plans
• A Quality and Risk Governance and
Accountability System, which includes
a new compliance calendar

At our last Annual Celebration
we honoured:
• Pam Miranda (Senior Manager
Learning and Development) – Deb
Kearsey Award for Outstanding Staff
Member
• Otto and Anna-Marie Ippel – Selina
Sutherland Award for Outstanding
Foster Carers with our Gippsland
region
• Steve Kightly - Selina Sutherland Award
for an Outstanding Volunteer with our
Hume region
• Jess Sewell – Early Career Award for
her work with Take Two

Others honoured:
• Sandie de Wolf, CEO – inducted into
the Victorian Women’s Honour Roll
and celebrated 20 years as our CEO
• Jackie Mead, Director People, Culture
and Information Systems – national
FABO Award for HR Manager of the
Year

What our staff say:
90% would recommend Berry Street as a good place to work
99.7% are aware of our five Values – Courage, Integrity,
Respect, Accountability andWorking Together. 95% see them
applied in their day to day work
96% said we are accepting of people from different
backgrounds
92% said they regularly laugh with their team members

Other highlights included:
• The rollout of our new Professional
Development and Assessment
Program

85% agree they challenge each other to come up with the
best solution

• A new recruitment and induction
strategy for residential care staff,
with ‘shadow shifts’ to ensure they
are suited to this very challenging work

80% feel they have a good work/life balance

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