BUSHkids Annual Report 2018-2019

CEO

Much of which we can be proud as we look to the future at the end of a challenging year As 2019 comes to a close I am immensely proud to lead an organisation that is making such a difference to the lives of children, families and communities across this great State. Queenslanders are tough but the past 12 months have been truly testing times for our families and communities in regional, rural and remote areas.

With more than two-thirds of the State drought-declared, raging bushfires and the devastating inland floods in North West Queensland earlier this year, our resilience as Queenslanders has been put to the test. Natural disasters will not only affect entire communities and families but also their children who are vulnerable to distress at what is happening in the world around them. Stresses on the family can make them feel unsafe and, without help, there may be long-term impacts on their physical and social development and emotional wellbeing. BUSHkids teams are based across Queensland and we work to help parents and communities support children’s development and emotional wellbeing. In times of such difficulty we have stepped up our efforts to support children and families’ resilience and mental health and you will read in these pages about some great work being done by our teams in Stanthorpe. When I began my work at BUSHkids, the importance of early intervention for children was known by academics and health professionals, but did not attract much attention in the media and in society generally. There has been a significant change in the intervening years and communities and families are increasingly aware of how important the early years are for children: this is driving the increase in our services to ensure all children reach their potential. In the past year, we provided 16,780 individual and group sessions and supported 4,351 children across the State: substantial five-year growth.

Our aim back in the 1930s is still what we strive for today: that all Queensland children have every opportunity for a great future, regardless of the postcode in which their family lives. Our efforts in this respect have been multi-faceted, with sound expansion across all our operational streams. In conjunction with the Department of Education and the Brisbane School of Distance Educatio , BUSHkids now facilitate more than two dozen eKindy pods from Far North Queensland to the NSW border and west beyond the Central Highlands. As a contracted National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) Partner in the Community for the delivery of Early Childhood Early Intervention (ECEI) Services , we have opened two new centres — on the Sunshine Coast servicing Maroochydore and Gympie, and in the Fraser Coast, North and South Burnett regions, to service Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Kingaroy and Cherbourg. Our NDIS contract for Bundaberg has also been renewed for a further two-year period.

In May this year, BUSHkids Clinical Services Manager Susan Harrison and I were invited to attend a meeting with the NDIA board. This was a welcome gathering to discuss the challenges we have overcome and successes we have achieved in implementing the model. Later that month we had the privilege of hosting Luke Napolitano, General Manager, Partner Division of NDIA, on a visit to our centres in Gladstone and Bundaberg. An excellent opportunity for a senior executive from the agency to obtain first-hand insights into the complexity of the work being done by our ECEI EarlyStart teams. Our Children and Parenting Support programs funded by the Department of Social Services are entering their fifth year in Agnes Water, Kingaroy and Stanthorpe. These programs are supporting local communities by empowering parents to support their children’s development with best opportunities for education and a sense of belonging in their communities. Our Children’s Allied Health Services — based in Bundaberg, Dalby, Emerald, Mount Isa and Warwick — are our five longest-standing operations and their teams continue to provide high quality and highly-valued services to help children reach their full potential. We partner with universities across Queensland, hosting Allied Health student placements, are represented on the Central Queensland University Speech Pathology Course Reference Committee, undertake research with The University of Queensland and participate in Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder service improvement initiatives with Griffith University .

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16,780 2018–19

+134%

7,175 2014–15

SESSIONS

4,351 2018–19

+282%

1,140 2014–15

CHILDREN

A N N UA L R E P O R T

2 0 1 8 – 2 0 1 9