General Manager – NDIS (Deputy CEO)

Windsor Group has been commissioned by Arafmi to manage this important assignment. Windsor Group is a social enterprise providing expert advice, HR services, executive search and recruitment services for executive, permanent and temporary/contract roles across nonprofit, commercial and government sectors.

Arafmi is a not-for-profit organisation that provides supports to mental health carers. Our roots date back to the mid 1970s when a young social worker on his final placement at a community health service in Brisbane recognised a need among the families of his clients for a ‘relatives discussion group’ – this became our first carer support group.

Today Arafmi continues to provide support to mental health carers across Brisbane and the surrounds with our expanded services in the carer and NDIS space. We are proud to have built a model which both creates and shares knowledge about how to understand who we are, the roles we fulfil and how to take action in the world.

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Windsor Group and Arafmi are both committed to equal opportunity employment practices. Applications for the position of General Manager NDIS (Deputy CEO) will be assessed on merit and selected applicants invited to interview. An offer of appointment will be made to the applicants whose written application and interview responses best demonstrate their ability to meet the requirements of the role.

NDIS ops role has been challenging to fill. Over past 3 years had internal promotion for person who wasn’t quite ready, our Co Sec who performed function for 8 months and undid a lot of our processes and created chaos. Most recent person in role was internal promotion – very good practitioner but did not make the step up will to managing different services and priorities. She actively chose to leave.

As the role has been challenging at this level we have decided to create a higher level and higher paid role to bring someone in to effectively CEO the NDIS services – Role called GM but open to negotiation with incumbent.

Strategic intent for 2024-2026

Arafmi are in process of negotiating peak body funding for mental health carers and need to clearly separate Carers from NDIS. This means separation of business on paper only: rebranding, separate budgets, different staff with shared services, different websites etc – same CEO, Board, Governance Docs, ABN, legal entity etc. View is to make NDIS self-sufficient in next 3 years and this role to be CEO

The role will be a mix of strategic and roll your sleeves up – atm because some of the team are not performing well and there’s a quite a bit of learned helplessness there will need to be monitoring, showing people what to do and resetting expectations of roles

Strategically placed within the organisation the NDIS Operations Manager is an important role responsible for overseeing and delivering quality and sustainable NDIS services. These services are provided by approximately 100 employees, who provide support to approximately 300 NDIS participants in the following locations: Toowoomba, Ipswich, Brisbane South, Brisbane North, Narangba. The NDIS team is supported by two regional managers, client care coordinators, intake and a rostering and administration team.

This role is positioned in the executive level of the organisation to ensure NDIS services are embedded and represented across Arafmi. The role requires strategic and operational knowledge of Arafmi services and organisational governance balanced with regular

Engagement with stakeholder (internal and external) to ensure services are delivered in a safe, meaningful and quality manner. The role will oversee Arafmi’s NDIS Practice Standards registration and ongoing compliance.

Position description

• Currently 240 clients billed per fortnight (we would like to get this back to around 400 mark, which is how it was in 2021 but this is possibly not achievable)
• 100 support workers (40%PPT 60 casual) varied degree of experience, skills and reliability
• Services provided: Community Access, Core Supports, Supported independent living (7 properties, 12 participants), 2 x short term accommodation)
• Targets of 15% increase in community access, full SIL capacity (1 vacancy in Lutwyche and potential reconfiguration of services in Narangba). 1 STA in Toowoomba only has 10% target for budget
• Approx $7.5M per annum, looking to get it back to 11M in a 3 year period (steady, intentional growth)

• High level of professionalism,
• Will effectively CEO NDIS so needs to experienced at high level of leadership but be humble enough to roll sleeves up and help out
• needs to be honest with me (especially when things go wrong),
• have a curious approach to understanding org, not jump to fix things immediately,
• be sensitive to stakeholders (be able to manage their emotions, be calm, listen, set boundaries, offer improvements rather that criticise),
• have self-awareness,
• good time management and priority setting as the role juggles a lot of priorities
• Proven experience in Mental Health/NDIS service delivery.
• Communications, planning, prioritising and service delivery expertise
• Inquisitive collaborative in decision making and an empowering leader

When submitting your application, ensure your application includes:

• An up-to-date resume (in word format)
• A covering letter (in word format) outlining your interest and expertise relevant to the role

Submit your application quoting reference number AOOMAR to apply@windsor-group.com.au. For more information please contact Adam Oakhill on 07 3211 0001. Your application will be acknowledged by email within one business day.

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