Governance and accountability

This year, PlayAbility moved through a succession of challenges as we sought to meet community demand for quality services and raise our profile in the lead up to the completion of the Inclusion Hub project.

The ongoing situation with C19, competition from new services, changes in workforce, and the challenge of providing services across a large shire all impacted on our sustainability; reflected in the financial report.

The success of our grant application for the purchase of property and development of the Inclusion Hub project was a huge lift for the organisation mid 2021. The news was a boost to morale and enabled us to see beyond the cold reality of Covid-19 restrictions and vaccination requirements. Government support grants also gave us confidence to continue to ensure employment for current staff, upgrade our processes and to recruit and plan for growth. As restrictions eased and service delivery began to recover in 2022 we began to focus on the wellbeing of staff and sustainability after such a long period of instability.

The role of PlayAbility and our services to the community have become increasingly important over the past 18 months since the Black Summer Bushfires and the Covid-19 pandemic. These events have had a significant effect on client families and staff impacted directly and indirectly. PlayAbility responded as flexibly as we could to meet the needs of families and staff through this time and continue to do so as the community is still deeply affected.

Well, nobody will forget 2020.  Like many communities the double dose of bushfires and Covid-19 caused significant disruption and stress to providers as well as families accessing supports.  Many of our staff and families were directly impacted by the fires but thankfully not by Covid-19.  All PlayAbility staff are to be commended for the rapid response and adaption to the evolving circumstances for which there was no precedent and no manual.  This report will attempt to describe a brief synopsis of the past 12 months.

At this point last year PlayAbility was looking towards 12 months of transition to a new funding structure.  In reflection what we have achieved has been so much more than that. We have actually had to respond quickly to policy changes, adapt to fluctuations in demand, increase our productivity and maintain a quality of service in line with our values.  The process has challenged each member of staff in different ways but I feel at the end of the day it has made our purpose and our commitment to helping children and families clearer and stronger.