Directly Employing
Writing Procedures
Learn more about training your staff Purchase our Policy Pack
Friendships
Are support workers friends?
A commonly asked question is can a support worker be a friend? If your goal is to help the person you support to build friendships, then my view is that the answer needs to be no. There can be a murky invisible line between friends and support workers because they Read more…
Values and Principles
Key values and principles for good life building
Sometimes amazing, beautiful, wonderful, well-intentioned humans can do some not so good things without intending to that have bad outcomes for people with disability. Even us parents who love our disabled kids dearly do and we don’t even realise it. We’ve grown up learning our beliefs about people with disability Read more…
Directly Employing
Checklist for getting set up as an employer
Decide what kind of business legal structure (if any) you want to set up – incorporated association, company etc. Get an ABN – or a WPN if you decide not to set up a business structure. Get insurance – workers compensation and public liability insurance policy Work out how much Read more…
Directly Employing
10 Reasons why policies and procedures are a must
1.They set boundaries Employees must understand that there are rules that they must abide by and procedures that must be followed. They must understand that failure to follow them has consequences. 2. Safety One consequence of not having policies and procedures in place is that there is no safeguard in Read more…
Friendships
Setting up environments that increase the chances of friendships forming
Are you struggling to help your family member with a disability to form friendships with their non disabled peers? It’s a painful experience seeing them struggle isn’t it. We know that friendships are key for a good life. They bring us joy, a sense of belonging, can help us out in Read more…
Friendships
Don’t count your friends by the number of parties you go to
Building friendships for our family members with disability isn’t easy. How we define what a friend is will be really important for how we go about supporting friendships. If we don’t know what a friend is, then how can we know if we have them or not and our strategies Read more…
Lead Your Team
Stepping Back
It’s a scary thing leaving your vulnerable loved one in the hands of others. We have all seen those stories in the news. It sure leaves a terrible fear in my stomach when I think about it. But being there every day, day after day to make sure things are Read more…
Lead Your Team
What’s your leadership style?
Participative v Authoritarian Do you believe your staff love their work and take pride in doing the best possible job? Or do you think that they see it as a burden, and just do it for the money? These assumptions can influence how you deal with people. Douglas McGregor in Read more…