OzChild Case Study
OzChild is one of the longest-serving charities for children, young people and families in Australia.
How OzChild have been able to improve their Corporate Governance culture and performance of the organisation through the introduction of Pali.
The Problem
OzChild delivers out of home care, and support for children and young people being placed into the care of someone other than their biological parents. For this you must be an accredited, licensed, or registered organisation depending on the jurisdiction. There are things that need to be done in the first instance to gain accreditation, then other things required to demonstrate suitability to maintain that accreditation - this is mission critical.
In addition, safety screening is critical for all employees and volunteers - and an area of Governance that is of high risk. The consequence of employing someone who harms a child would be catastrophic.
OzChild also deals with a large number of Contracts, which can be quite complex in itself; plus not all Contracts were reflective of real word experience. Without a good system to manage these there is an over reliance on individual Managers knowing what they need to do and when. This problem is exacerbated if these Managers leave the organisation.
There are a number of other areas of obligations that are important to OzChild:
- Need to set and meet targets in terms of number of clients being serviced.
- Child Safe Principles and Standards that may differ by jurisdiction.
- Annual assessments.
- Budgets and Finance tracking.
- Audit requirements and schedules.
OzChild had an old system, but it was cumbersome and did not meet their needs - and as a result not widely used in the organisation. A Risk Register existed but was not being updated correctly. Hence, the organisation was quite vulnerable from a Governance perspective. The previous system did not support a sound approach toward Risk management and how it is needed to support good management decision making and it's use as a management tool.
Additionally, this sector is exposed to significant risk - and to identify, classify and manage these ongoing Risks is a big effort. As a result, the oversight and manual processes required to keep on top of all the Governance requirements was becoming far too onerous and expensive.
The Process
OzChild undertook a formal search and evaluation process to find a new solution and to look at a range of options to meet their Risk and Compliance needs. Pali was one of those options identified in this process. When they plugged Pali into their evaluation analysis, Pali was the closest fit to their needs. In addition, it represented greater value as some of the other options looked OK but were very expensive.
One big factor was that Pali offered unlimited users for the one subscription fee. OzChild found it difficult to estimate how many users they would have as they rolled out the various functions of Pali. This feature meant they know they can continue to expand the use of the Pali functions and involve more users at no additional cost. For example, they started with Risk first, then added Compliance which meant adding additional users.
OzChild looked at a number of alternatives before selecting Pali but were really taken by the simplicity of the solution - it is not over complicated and as such users do not have to have an in-depth knowledge of all things Risk and Compliance Management and are not distracted by too many options, bells and whistles that do not apply to their organisation.
They knew that rebuilding the Risk system was a big job particularly as everyone had disengaged from the old system, but Pali looked the best option to achieve this. Ultimately, Pali was selected, and the implementation began.
The Overall Result
Overall, OzChild have been able to significantly improve their Corporate Governance culture and performance of the organisation through the introduction of Pali. There is now a high level of confidence that all Governance and Compliance obligations are being managed and met.
The previous system did not support a sound approach toward Risk management and how it is needed to support good management decision making and it's use as a management tool. The launch of Pali created an environment where OzChild could have a step change in the organisation's awareness of Risk Management. Pali facilitated the change in the organisational approach and awareness of Risk Management.
Ozchild now will very often identify something that needs to be imbedded in their corporate knowledge, or an activity that needs to be done, and push it to Pali. They have a greater sense and understanding because of the way they are using Pali, critical things are not falling through the gaps and also they have far more robust corporate knowledge of the things that are important.
"With Pali, I now have a significantly elevated degree of confidence that we know what needs to be done, and we now have a corporate knowledge that is centrally held that imbeds reminders and work flow and helps deal with staff churn and movement that we no longer see that knowledge and understanding of a critical task or activity go with that person - we now have got that within the Pali system".
Jarrod Edwards, Executive Director People & Performance
"Pali has enabled a shift in the culture of the organisation. All managers have been involved and now take ownership. We are very happy. We have a great system now".
Lynne McRae - Senior Manager, Safeguarding and Quality
"We have had really fantastic feedback, the staff actually feel really engaged when using Pali, they feel it is quite easy to use and to navigate through, even for infrequent users".
Wendy Ruiz - Quality Advisor
Improved Reporting
The reporting features and functions are also a big benefit. Under the mantra of “Only the things that get measured get managed”, the Pali reporting tools allow OzChild to easily identify the most important Risk Management items and hence be able to measure and manage them.
As a result, the Executives and the Board now have far greater visibility and oversight to the Risks and how they are tracking so a lot more comfortable that things are under control.
"Reporting is nice and simple. We are easily able to track who is not up to date and we can contact those people and find out what the problem is. Consequently, our Compliance rate is very high now".
Lynne McRae - Senior Manager, Safeguarding and Quality
Ease of Use & Implementation
OzChild are happy that they have achieved what they intended with the introduction of Pali. A combination of the Pali functions, the investment they made to making it work and the great collaboration between OzChild and Pali ensured that the required results were achieved. With any implementation there are inevitably questions, challenges and issues - all of which we were able to work through and overcome.
The usability and intuitive nature of the design make it very easy to utilise and rollout. In addition, the collaboration between OzChild and Pali has enabled further improvements and enhancements that are especially pertinent to the not-for-profit sector.
OzChild have found the Pali team to be open and welcoming of feedback and suggestions. Requests for changes and enhancement have been accepted and turned around very promptly.
"I have had so much feedback that Pali is so easy to use".
Lynne McRae - Senior Manager, Safeguarding and Quality
"We could not be more satisfied. From the beginning of the implementation through to roll out, we have received amazing support. Customer service has been outstanding and very responsive".
Wendy Ruiz - Quality Advisor
With Pali now we are getting a lot of things done and this is making us stronger as an organisation - to know that we are doing the things we need to do to meet our compliance obligations, improve things and provide better services.
Lynne McRae - Senior Manager, Safeguarding and Quality
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