:: client news ::

Client News June '10

Victoria - South West Franchise

Our franchise 'Victoria - South West' (covering the south-western corner of Victoria from the South Australian border, then east of Port Campbell, north of Warracknabeal and then west back across to the S. A. border) has been sold and will now be based in Horsham.

Ms. Rosemarie Whitehead is the new franchisee. Rosemarie comes from a nursing background and is a local Wimmera girl. We welcome her to the Simply Helping team.

Full operations from the new office will commence 1 July 2010.

Staffing will remain the same for the region, so as to maintain the rapport and support the team members have built up with our clients.

The new office's contacts are available here.

Our farewells and very best wishes to Leanne Williams and her office team at Warrnambool. Our thanks to them for continuing to provide excellent services to our brokered clients and clients within the region. They have done Simply Helping proud.

Victoria - Central Highlands and Djerriwarrh Franchise

A huge welcome to Beryl and Stephen Barry who commenced as new franchisees with Simply Helping on 1 March 2010. Beryl and Stephen now look after the Ballarat, Bacchus Marsh, Melton and Caroline Springs region. They can be contacted on -

2 Wannon Court, BROOKFIELD VIC 3338

Tel: 9743 0924, Fax: 9971 5587

E-mail: centralwest@simplyhelping.com

All issues and enquiries relating to clients within this region should be forwarded to the above.

All our Franchisees, and we at Head Office, genuinely appreciate the generous support private and brokered clients have offered and given each and every one of us during the past financial year.

As our franchise system grows, we continue to do our level-best in assisting our clientele with our extensive range of in-home care and support services.

Professional Development Programme

As part of Simply Helping's ethos for supporting individuals and families, we have had in place since 2004, formalised professional development programmes, the purposes of which are to:

Refresh our care team on their responsibilities within our company,

Update on issues surrounding Occupational Health and Safety,

Provide training or understanding in specific client care need areas, and

Have carers recognise and contribute as a team.

During October 2009, four sessions were held at Bendigo, Ballarat, Leongatha and Hamilton and generally ran for 5 hours.

The 2009 Development Programme included:

The "Simply Helping Philosophy" which gave participants the opportunity to break-down our Mission Statement to enable full understanding of our role along with our vision, and

Guest speakers on:

autism spectrum disorder,

acquired brain injury,

mental health issues, and

what it is that case managers are looking for in service providers and their care givers.

Other speakers were:

Toastmasters at Ballarat,

a carer from the Bendigo team who gave a brilliantly put together speech on a number of situations she had come across in her career,

a staff member from Head Office who presented our OH&S policies and gave a snap-shot of the new policies which are being rolled out across the network, and

Heather from Creative Awareness of Hamilton who took the group on a journey of self discovery and team and group work, and finished off with a motivation speech on not forgetting the importance of our role as care givers.

This series will continue in 2010 and are due to be held around September and October.

We would welcome any suggestions you may have for topics and guest speakers for this years programme.

For further information, please contact the Head Office on 1800 99 88 66 or e-mail us at:

info@simplyhelping.com

FEE SCHEDULE FOR 2010-2011

Our revised Fee Schedules will be forwarded out to the brokered clients over the next few days, and will commence for all services provided from 1 July 2010. The fees will at least incorporate the very recent minimum wage increase of 4.7% and the CPI. We always endeavour to maintain our prices at a competitive rate, and hope that the new Schedule continues to reflect this.

ONE IMPACT OF THE MODERN AWARDS 2010

You may be aware this new series of awards have now come in and one of the conditions of our Award that affects us is that all staff must now be paid a minimum of one hour's work even if they are only required for .5 hour.

This requirement means that the fee must reflect this, as Simply Helping is continuing to provide a half hour service. If you have any concerns or queries on this, please contact your Simply Helping Office.