Families South Australia-Murray Bridge Office - Term Paper Example

Families South Australia-Murray bridge office Name Institution Course Instructor Date Families South Australia-Murray bridge office Overview of the organization Throughout the world, human service organizations are created with the sole purpose of serving the minority in the community. The most affected individuals in the modern society are children and women who are vulnerable most of the times (Barrett, Christensen and Todahl 2008). Families South Australia is one of the human service organizations created with the intentions of helping young people and children in the society. The mandate to offer child support services by this organization is constitutionally supported through the children’s protection act of 1993 (Gardner 2006). Families South Australia is one of the largest organizations in the region and it has opened up many branches in order to reach out to the whole community (AIHW 2012). One of the branches is the Murray Bridge Office which oversees the mandate of this organization in Murray Bridge (DECD 2013c). Goals of the organization Like any other organization based on human services, families SA has its priority set out to helping children in the society. Therefore, the major goal is to protect children and ensuring that they are safe from any form of exploitations. Some of the challenges that may face children include homelessness, rough parents or even in some cases, unable parents. Children from such families suffer a lot and that’s the major reason for the existence of this organization. This organization ensures that children from such families are safe and they live normal life just like others (AIHW 2013). Apart from ensuring that children are safe, the organization also ensures that children receive education as part of the support plan. Families SA is able to ensure that children receive education simply because, in 2011, the Prime Minister consolidated it with other organizations in to the department of education to form the Department of Education and Child Development (DECD 2013a). In a nutshell, the mission of the organization is to ensure child support through offering education and other humanly services that ensure better health (Barrett, Christensen and Todahl 2008). Many young Australians from the southern region are able to enjoy these services which ensure that they stay healthy and become educated despite their family backgrounds. In addition, the collaboration of the FSA with the education department of the government also indicates how the government is committed to helping people in the society. Major services of the organization FSA is committed to helping out young people in the community and more so, children. In order to ensure effective child care system is in place, the organization partners with major stake holders. Major stake holders include the government of South Australia and other non-governmental organizations (Children's Protection Act 1993). Collective services are offered to ensure that children are safe. These services include protection of children from harm and abuse. Harm and abuse may come from the parents who for instance are alcohol addicts. Children in similar kind of situation usually receive help from the organization by being alternative homes away from their parents. Also included in the services offered is the support given to families so that they raise their children well. Apart from helping children, FSA also helps young people in the community (AIHW 2013). The Murray Bridge offices collaborates with rowdy youths in the area and make them discover their potential. The organization reaches out to the youth people who have been to jail and offer rehabilitative services. Away from supporting young individuals, the organization also has initiated programs that help to reduce poverty in the society. This is done through those hit by natural disasters like wild fires, a common occurrence in the country (COA 2009). The incidences of child abuse have been reported to be on the rise in South Australia. The goal of FSA is working to reduce on the number of incidences occurring. Several issues have also risen concerning the time the organization takes to respond to incidences of child abuse. It is because of these particular issues that FSA have tightened their belt on protecting children. The future prospects of the organization are to ensure that more families and children receive enough support.FSA has also enhanced the way it operates its services around its regional offices which include the Murray Bridge office (DECD 2013a). The change of tactics by FSA is meant to ensure that the process of service provision becomes easy and accessible to most needy people. The Murray Bridge office is of great significance to FSA since most of the Aboriginal families reside in the area. These families have lost trust in the state welfare concerning them. Since FSA is working in collaboration with the government, they face a lot of challenges when it comes to working with Aboriginal families. In particular scenarios like this one; the organization has made changes that will involve the Aboriginal people of southern Australia while at the same time respecting the community values (Children's Protection Act 1993). Recipients of the services Children are the most beneficiaries of the program being managed by FSA. The most suitable definition of a child is anybody who has not attained the age of puberty. Legally, a child is a person who is below the legal age as stated by the constitution. Therefore, people in the stipulated age bracket being rated as children are the ones that are prioritized by the organization. Apart from children, other clients include abused young people. The families of children being supported by the organization also receive relevant FSA services (DFC 2009). Participation of those who receive relevant services For any organization to receive information on how they are performing, they have to get the feedback of the people they serve. This is no different with FSA. Various ways of receiving feedback from the people are available and this includes the use of emails which are sent to the organisation. The principles of this organisation articulate that children who receive support should be involved in the decision making process (COA 2009). Service delivery model Families SA delivers its services in a process that involves a number of stages (DECD 2013b). The stages involved range from identifying the needy children as early as possible to the long term solutions of the problems at hand. Each stage has its own mandate that work in hand with the core principle of safeguarding the child and ensuring that the families are also accorded the relevant support they need (DECD 2013d). The child protection services have undergone revolution over time. Initially, the mandate was only for the government but times have changed to the current situation where child protection is the function of community based organizations. For proper service delivery, the FSA office in Murray Bridge has to collaborate with other important stakeholders. Some of these stake holders include families of the needy children, organization for child and youth health and centers for mental health services (AIHW 2012). Governance and decision making structures Governance structures are hierarchical in this organization (COA 2009). Since FSA works in partnership with the government to offer education and child protection, the minister for Education and Child Development is the connection between the two centers. The Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) has its own chief executive officer and the deputy who happens to be the head of FSA. Families SA has its own director who works under the deputy chief executive of DECD (DECD 2013a). The critical functions and strategic operations of FSA are therefore directed the chief executive officers. Narrowing down to the Murray Bridge FSA office, its mandates are overseen by Directorate of the country (DECD 2013b). The office itself has a manager who supervises all the duties carried out in the area by the organization. Supervisors report to the manager while they are still responsible for receiving reports from individual workers (AIHW 2013). Funding FSA is an organization that has partnered with the government to provide child protection and education. As a result, most of the funding comes from the state government of South Australia and the commonwealth government. Substantial amount of money is required to offer child protection and education. This can only come from the government using taxpayers’ money (DECD 2013a). PART TWO OF THE ASSIGNMENT Forces involved in shaping of the human service organization For any organization to function properly, certain forces are responsible for the general decision making process. This forces come from within and the surrounding (external) environment. Forces from within can be effectively dealt with by the organization itself while external forces may require the organization to make critical decisions based on the situation at hand. External factors are not within the scope of the organization to rectify (Bromfield and Higgins 2005). Like other organizations, human service organizations are also faced with particular situations that require experts to decide on. FSA has some external forces that are expected to interfere with the normal service delivery. The mandate of FSA is to ensure that children are safe and educated. To do this effectively, the organization works in hand with the government of South Australia to offer support to the relevant families. They are these external challenges that foster the development of the organization (Courtney 1998). One of the external forces is the cultural difference witnessed in South Australia. The differences are good enough to positively affect the development of the organization. The cultural differences in South Australia are from the Aboriginal families. The past relationship between the Aboriginal families and the state cannot be described as a good one. Despite the sour relationship, the Aboriginals are indigenous people of Australia and this means that they still follow their traditions (DECD 2013c). FSA has to consider these factors before service provision. This is perfect example of the external environment. FSA had to make changes in order to accommodate the families since they had children who needed support. To be on the safe side, the conflict between the Aboriginal families and the state has been solved. The capability of an organization to handle people from different cultures indicates its growth (AIHW 2012). Internal factors do have a role to play in the development of an organization. FSA has great internal structures that can comfortably accommodate its development. FSA works with other governmental and non-governmental organizations to deliver services to the community. What this other organizations require FSA to do is to indicate positive signs of development. When Families SA fails to deliver its mandate, other stakeholders pull out of the partnership deal. To ensure that this does not happen, the organization has to deliver services to the community and show the progress to the partners. Loss of partners can sometimes indicate the loss of important sources of funds (Courtney 1998). Organizational inconsistencies The mission and the stated values There is no organization that can exist without any inconsistencies of its promised values and the mission. A lot of factors play part in the fluctuations of service delivery. One of the factors to be considered for the inconsistent results is the presence of external factors such as politics and other internal factors such as personality conflicts. All these factors originate from the fact that organizations collaborate. Each organization taking part in the collaboration has its own views to be implemented (DECD 2013b). FSA is not a perfect organization despite the fact that it has been good in delivering its mandate. FSA has entered in to collaborative partnership with other organizations including the state government of South Australia. Doing business with the government means that politics cannot be thrown out of the equation. Therefore, politics is one of the factors inconveniencing FSA to fully deliver its mandated services (Bromfield and Higgins 2005). Personality conflicts are also likely to play part in the smooth process of service delivery therefore making the organization to deviate from the stated mission and values. FSA has collaborated with mental hospitals to help young people and other child centers to ensure that all children are helped appropriately. FSA also incorporated in the Department of Education and Children Development. All these structures have different leaders. Even though there is a hierarchical structure of management that involves all the executive officers, personality conflicts may arise thus creating the inconveniences in the service delivery that deviate from the stated values and the mission of the organization (Children's Protection Act 1993). Organizational image and service delivery priorities For effective service delivery, organizational image plays an important part. A less public organization is most likely to face opposition from the community they are trying to help (COA 2009). Therefore branding the organizational image is an important step to effective service delivery. Branding the organization’s good name has its benefits of recruiting volunteers. Volunteers are willing to work in organizations that are well publicized. FSA good name has been developed from the fact that it works closely with other organizations to help children and young people in the society. On the slightly lower side, lack of local collaboration hinders effective service delivery to the home community. FSA is inconvenienced in its service delivery in the Murray land due to lack of proper structures that incorporate the Aboriginal families. The organization tries its best but in service delivery but factors like the issue of the Aboriginal families hinders effective service delivery (AIHW 2013). Service delivery priorities also are great determinants of the organization’s success. Delivery of proper services in an organization requires the availability of the correct personnel. For the case of human service organizations, proper training is required to ensure that this is achieved. The training should be organized by the managers. It is important to update the skills of the organization’s workers on a timely basis. All workers should undergo a specialized kind of training that makes them deliver services properly to the community. This training is more important to the volunteers who work at the organization (Barrett, Christensen and Todahl 2008). However, good training does not necessarily indicate that the service delivery process will be as effective as expected. Deviations from proper service delivery may originate from certain individuals with poor performance. Every organization experiences this kind of scenario. FSA is not an exception to this. Poor performers in the organization interfere with smooth service delivery (AIHW 2012). Inconsistencies in the service delivery process may also be affected by lack of good communication structures. The flow of information from the source may take a long time thereby hindering effective service delivery. FSA has initially been accused of taking too long before they intervene in ensuring safety of a particular child. This is simply because of late entry of information that the inconsistencies may arise in the service delivery process (Bromfield and Higgins 2005). Bibliography Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2012, 'Child protection Australia 2010–11,Child Welfare, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Canberra, no. 53, viewed 28 August 2014, . Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2013, 'Child protection Australia 2011-12', Child Welfare, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Canberra, no.55, viewed 28 August 2014, . Barrett, W, Christensen, D and Todahl, J 2008, Solution based casework: An introduction to clinical and case management skills in casework practice, Aldine Transaction, U.S.A. Bromfield, L & Higgins, D 2005, 'National comparison of child protection systems', Issues Paper , National Child Protection Clearinghouse, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne, Australia, no.22, viewed 28 August 2014, . Children's Protection Act 1993 (SA), viewed 28 August 2014, . Commonwealth of Australia (COA) 2009, Protecting children is everyone’s business: National framework for protecting Australia’s children 2009–2020, Commonwealth of Australia, viewed 28 August 2014, . Courtney, M 1998, The costs of child protection in the context of welfare reform, The future of children: Protecting children from abuse and neglect, vol. 8, no.1, viewed 28 August 2014, . Department for Education & Child Development (DECD) 2013a, Department of Education & Child Development Annual Report 2012, DECD, Government of South Australia , viewed 28 August 2014, . Department for Education & Child Development (DECD) 2013b, Families SA: Delivering the Future - DECD, Government of South Australia, video, You Tube, 28 August 2013, viewed 28 August 2014, . Department for Education & Child Development (DECD) 2013c, Department for Education & Child Development, Government of South Australia, viewed 28 August 2014, . Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) 2013d, Families SA Redesign - Stakeholder briefing, Brighter Futures News, Government of South Australia, viewed 28 August 2014, . Department for Families and Communities (DFC) 2009, Standards of alternative care in South Australia; An alternative care partnership, Families SA ,Department for Families and Communities, Adelaide, South Australia, viewed 28 August 2014, . Gardner, F 2006, Working with human service organisations : Creating connections for practice, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Victoria. Read More