A few words from Scope Board member Tricia Malowney
A shared determination to enable people to live ordinary lives.
As a Director at Scope I have governance obligations. However, one of the things I enjoy most is meeting with our clients and their families to ask if we are meeting their needs. I do the same with our staff.
I always ask are you happy and is there anything you want the Board to know. I know that none of us are happy all the time, but it is not something that people with disabilities are asked often. Perhaps because I have a disability, I am seen as a member of the in crowd, so people do open up to me and tell me the things they are happy with and the things they are not happy with.
Mostly the comments are very positive, which is a relief, and the things they want me to take back to the Board are service issues like “I want to know who is coming” or “I hate it when someone comes to the house who doesn’t know me”. It is not about individual staff, it is about continuity. The families that I meet say the same things.
The staff comments have been about the clients, about making sure that they are able to choose how they live their lives, how they are supported and that they are able to be as independent as possible.
The NDIS has required dramatic social changes which impacts on service delivery to Australians with disabilities. Scope is meeting that challenge by ensuring that there is a common determination to allow people to live ordinary lives, and that this is shared by our clients and their families, and our staff and the Board and the Executive are the enablers.
Tricia Malowney