Jane Carter wins Yooralla’s Leadership Award 2021
2021 Excellence Awards Highlights
Jane Carter, Director, Quality and Safeguards has won Yooralla’s 2021 Leadership Award for leading the organisation through complex audit processes with great success.
“I was extremely surprised and humbled to receive the nomination from my manager,” said Jane.
The Leadership Award is for an individual employee who has excelled in people leadership; led the organisation through change; and executed their role by driving their own individual performance and expertise. Jane is quick to acknowledge her work within the greater context of being part of a team.
“Having the acknowledgement and recognition validates the work that not only I do, but what we all do within our division and across the organisation.”
Attention to detail
Jane led Yooralla through self-assessment and Stage 1 and Stage 2 Audits against the NDIS Practice Standards, the National Standards for Disability Services, and the Human Services Standards.
This was a critical pathway to achieve NDIS re-registration and certification under the new NDIS Practice Standards. Jane’s attention to detail and collaborative approach meant that Yooralla was able to complete all audits with no non-conformances. Supportive team relationships underpin Jane’s work.
“By being creative, strategic and innovative, my manager and colleagues motivate me to aim for excellence in my role. Our division aims to generate positivity and productivity in our teams to support other divisions in a timely and responsive manner and ultimately make a positive impact on others,” said Jane.
Jane was nominated by Chief Practitioner, Quality Innovation and Safeguards, Rod Carracher who observed that Jane’s attention to detail was key to managing audit preparations and logistics during lockdown.
“Through Jane’s leadership, all audits went smoothly with executives, managers, staff and customers all clear on when and how they would engage with the audit processes,” said Rod.
Ensuring policy as practice
Jane’s leadership guided the organisation through significant change to align policies, procedures and practice with all NDIS Service Standards.
“I am proud of the work that my team has accomplished over the last year to educate and empower customers and staff to support quality and safeguarding across the organisation,” said Jane.
Stage 1 of the auditing process involved an independent desktop audit of documentation, policies, procedures, training materials, corporate functions and governance. Stage 2 involved an independent audit of service outlets, customer and staff interviews. This was to ensure that policies and procedures are understood and implemented by staff and that customers are experiencing service delivery as required by the Standards.
The auditors highlighted that successful completion of an audit with no non-conformances has not been achieved by many other disability organisations.
“It is felt that through Jane’s leadership and drive that the successful outcomes were achieved,” said Rod.
Congratulations to Jane on your Leadership Award. Yooralla is fortunate to have your guidance and expertise to maintain excellence and continuous improvement for the benefit of all customers.