Frances Head Email & Phone Number

Melbourne, Vic, Au

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Berry Street recently under went a review conducted by the Teaching Family Association and meet all requirements of the Teaching Family Model and are now an fully accredited agency. We are now focused on implementing into more homes, across new regions to reach more children, young people and their families. The Assistant Director position is responsible for oversight of existing services and implementation of new services to ensure they reach and maintain accreditation status.

Melbourne, Australia

Berry Street’s Teaching Family Program offers accommodation and support to children and young people who are referred through the Child Protection system.The Senior Manager is responsible for the State-wide supervision of the TFM Program, providing guidance and oversight across all TFM services and associated support roles to understand and apply the model to the level required in their roles to achieve high model fidelity standards and site accreditation.Key Goals of the role; • Lead the organisation in the development and sustainability of the four TFM Integrated Standards; Facilitative administration, Training, Consultation and Evaluation. • Lead the implementation of new TFM services • Providing TFM specific coaching, training and feedback to TFM staff, trainers and Residential Managers on TFM and its application• Participate in Berry Streets management team to achieve the organisations goals.

Melbourne, Australia

Berry Street are committed to improving the outcomes of children and young people living in residential care and to explore ways to move them through residential care back to home or other home based care settings. The Teaching-Family Model (TFM) is an evidence based model of care, that targets children and young people (6-17) and is conducted in family-style, group care settings. TFM is based in a cognitive–behavioural approach, which is derived from behavioural principles and learning theory. Teaching interactions are targeted to reduce problem behaviours and increase prosocial behaviours. The model is trauma informed and helps young people identify personal stressors and develop appropriate self-regulation techniques. Overall, goals of the program include reduced problem behaviours, increased prosocial behaviours, increased social skills, accomplishment of age-appropriate tasks, and relationship development. As Program Manager I am responsible for the accreditation of Berry Street as a Teaching Family organisation. This involves the implementation of new policies and procedures to align with the TFM Associations standards, as well as management of TFM Consultants in their role to support Practitioners.

Melbourne, Australia

This role was responsible for the management of the Practice Applications team at Berry Street as well as the roll out of Berry Streets first client database in the Family Violence Programs. This included database design, testing, training and ongoing support for the project.

Victoria, Australia

The Outcomes Star™ is a suite of tools for supporting and measuring change when working with people. This role is responsible for the implementation of the Outcomes Star across Berry Street programs.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Disability Action Council (DAC) are the national coordination and advisory mechanism on disability issues in Cambodia. The role was to assist the DAC to implement monitoring and evaluation to track the success of Cambodia's first national disability plan, the 'National Disability Strategic Plan 2014-2018'.

Melbourne, Australia

Continuous Improvement and Evaluation are becoming increasingly important in the Community Services sector. Using a Resulted Based Accountability, my role involved designing and implementing a national evaluation framework.This was achieved through extensive consultation with staff, designing data collection tools, building database modules, developing policy and procedure as well as national staff training and report writing. Key Organisational Outcome : A tailored Evaluation Framework is in place with data being collected daily at all locations nationally, coupled with a wide spread commitment to evaluation and continuous improvement. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of the evaluation data collected, I was able to write Whitelion's first internal Impact Evaluation Report, providing the organisation an excellence platform from which to implement continuous improvement.

Melbourne, Australia

In this additional role, I was responsible for the implementation of Internal Auditing. From a strategical view point, the role was instrumental in maintaining continuous improvement records and holding people accountable to tasks set through this process. I was also responsible for analysing and reporting trends to executive management.Key Organisational Outcome: Whitelion recently achieved 1SO 9001 & Department of Human Services quality accreditation. My role in the implementation of internal auditing was integral in achieving this accreditation.

West Melbourne

This role required the management of Department of Human Services funded programs. Key responsibilities included supporting staff to meet key performance indicators and providing structured and informal supervision. Both programs met there targets under my supervision through monitoring set work plans and mentoring staff to meet best practice standards.

Melbourne

Ramp is a mentoring program run in partnership with the Reach Foundation for young people living in residential care in the DHS Eastern Region. In addition experiential learning personal development workshops and camps were delivered by the Reach Foundation to provide a space for young people and volunteers to challenge themselves.This role provided me with the opportunity to manage staff and key partnerships. I was responsible for the coordination and supervision of the Ramp Program Worker and casual staff to ensure KPI’s were met. Fostering close working relationships with the DHS and agency staff was imperative in this role, to facilitate referral and support for the program. We aimed to be flexible in our program delivery to meet the requests of staff and the changing needs of the young people.Managing a collaborative relationship with the Reach Foundation was a constant objective in this role. Focusing all parties on the common goal of delivering the best program for the young people was my ethos, whilst respecting both organisations needs to maintain their individual program logic.Key Organisational Outcome:‘The Fort’: I was responsible for organising the filming and launch of a celebratory DVD for program participants. This was launched in Child Protection week, over 100 people attended including then Minister for Community Services Mary Wooldridge.Ramp Procedural Manual: In this position I recognised that in order to continue the success of this partnership program a procedural manual was necessary. This 40 page document assists in training new staff and is referred to along side the MOU to ensure Program logic is adhered to.

Melbourne

As the Ramp Program Worker I was responsible for engaging young people and workers in residential care units to encourage participation in the program. This was achieved through spending time at the units to develop trust and rapport with the young people and staff. Through developing and maintain relationships with young people and mentors, I was able to understanding their interests, needs and personalities. Then coordinate the matching of young people with suitable mentors to meet specific yearly targets. The relationships were then closely monitored through supervisions with mentors and regular contact with young people. A key responsibility of this role was the recruitment of suitable volunteers through an intense screening process. This included the delivery of training, interviews and referee checks. Helping to coordinate and manage large community events and camps was an additional responsibility in this role.

Western Region Victoria

The Salvation Army Westcare provide a continuum of services to young people who are not able to reside with their families. They are contracted by the Department of Human Services to provide Home Based and Residential Care programs. The key responsibilities in this role were to engage with and support young people to promote personal growth in a safe environment, through community connection. This was achieved through engagement with education, social and community activities. This role required extensive incident reporting and liaising with many health and social care professionals to provide holistic care to the young people.

Melbourne Youth Justice Centre

The YMCA Youth Programs are designed to build strength, resilience in all young people. They focus on making connections with significant adults, finding secure places to live, engaging through schools, establishing a supportive peer network, and connect with the community. This program was designed to provide the young men in the youth justice center a structured recreational space to enjoy physical exercise. The role was responsible for the facilitation and supervision of sports programs which was fostered through building rapport with the young men and the encouragement of social sportsmanship.

Master'S Degree, Social Work, Honours

Bachelor'S Degree, Social Sciences, Graduated In The Top 15% Of Students