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Annual Report 2006 - 2007

Presidents Report

Another day, another dollar, wouldn’t that be nice.

Outcare has continued over the past 12 months to provide a range of quality services to meet the every increasing range of demands presented by its clients. Peter and his team continue to be very creative in stretching the limited resources to ensure that a quality and responsive service is provided.

Last year I highlighted that funding levels were inadequate for a number of program areas which was a critical concern for the organisation. It is disappointing to report that this situation has not improved to date and in fact in some program areas has actually got worse. While I recognise that we are one of many community based organisations being funded by Government to deliver services we should at least be funded at the same rate as others to provide the same services.

Our accommodation service receives significantly less funding per bed than any other accommodation service operating in the metropolitan area. In addition, other accommodation services find it difficult to meet the needs of our client group and continue to draw upon our expertise and resources. If we are to continue to provide such a service, which we know can mean the difference between our clients moving forward in their lives or returning to prison we need to be adequately resourced to do so. If such parity is not achieved then I believe a critical question for the Board will be can we afford to continue to deliver this service?

There are numerous other programs that Outcare conduct that are constantly under pressure due to lack of funding. Two such programs that will not be continued in 2008 unless ongoing financial support from Government, private sector or the wider community is secured are the Keeping Kids Out of Crime and the Blood Borne Virus programs. You can read more about both these programs in the body of this report.

In light of the above fundraising will become a stronger focus for Outcare over the next few years in an effort to attract community and corporate sector support for those programs that are making a difference. The Outcare Golf day held at the Vines Resort on 20 April 2007 was our first real move in this direction. It was a fantastic day with 68 people playing golf and 9 sponsors being secured. While we broke even money wise we gained new corporate and community supporters who have indicated their interest in becoming more involved in Outcare and its services.

Given the ever changing landscape that we operate in and the increasing client demands Outcare will need to take stock of where it focuses its limited resources. A critical task for the Board over the next few months will be the development of a 5 year plan for the organisation. I believe our ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships with government, corporate and community sectors will be a key component of this plan. We will be seeking input from external stakeholders including funding bodies and members on the shape and range of services that should be provided. I look forward to your contributions.

I would like to thank the Board for their support over the past 12 months and to commend Peter, his staff and volunteers for their enormous effort and commitment to providing services that change the lives of many in the community. I look forward to the challenges ahead and with your support I believe that we will continue to make a difference.

Peter (Chook) Henson
PRESIDENT

Executive Director’s Report 2006 - 2007

Outcare has finished the 2006-2007 on a sound footing from both service delivery and financial perspectives. We have had a series of years with positive performances overall, however, as in recent years, with some programs still needing attention in terms of longer term and higher levels of support. The major areas of ongoing concern in client services remain those which we have raised in the past.

ACCOMMODATION
Continued support of the accommodation services remains one of our greatest concerns, as it has been in recent years. As the prison population increases, so does the demand for the service.

This year the organisation had to significantly subsidise the services as Government funding is now clearly inadequate to cover the real costs of providing the service. This service is funded significantly lower per bed by the Government than any other accommodation service in this sector. To manage 48 beds in 26 properties we are paid about 25% of the level per bed that other more recently developed services are being funded.

Program income was reduced when there were changes in the parole system which resulted in many unplanned vacancies due to tenants not being released from imprisonment. Again maintenance is an issue as we now pay contract rates as our volunteer support remains low in this area due to the employment market’s buoyancy in WA. To overcome some of the maintenance pressure, the service has worked in partnership with trainers such as MPSA Skills who trained painters using one of our properties, or where we can we will use community service workers to carry out gardening at some properties.

An increased focus on supporting more crisis homeless clients has reduced the vacancy rate however this section of the client base has very high support needs for which we do not have enough direct funding to address. 54 of the total client numbers were identified as crisis or disability clients.

This is a crisis accommodation service, but because of the increased costs now for housing, many clients have great difficulty re-entering the current housing market and finding alternative accommodation.

If you are a prisoner relying on accommodation to be able to exit prison, this is now harder than ever. If you are a prisoner wanting single accommodation, this is also now harder than ever to obtain.

Seventy eight accommodation clients (68%) were supported in employment and training needs and 30 (25%) undertook addictions counselling. Seventy four clients from the accommodation service were also on the Re-entry Link Program.

This accommodation service is crucial to good rehabilitation and community re-entry best practice and principles and should be resourced adequately.

A final issue is the lack of storage space for prisoner belongings which may be lost when no one takes responsibility for these when the owner is incarcerated.

As one of the most difficult services we provide, and in light of the lack of adequate funding, the organisation needs to clearly decide, in the near future, if it is a service we can continue to deliver in these circumstances.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT SERVICES
On a brighter note, the community re-entry focus of the organisation is showing very good results. It is worth noting here again that a large percentage of Outcare’s Re-entry Link clients were also in Outcare accommodation (74 out of 148) and it is this holistic model which is the backbone of this success. The removal of direct accommodation support would have a very significant impact on Re-entry Link successes in the future.

The Outcare Re-entry Link programme.
Referrals to this program rose by 23% this year. The clients of the service had a breach rate of 22.8 % over a two year period and those who access this service are shown to be twice less likely to return to prison over this period.

We again estimate that this is a saving to Government of in excess of $5 million over that period. In early 2007 the structure of the service was reviewed and compared with the model we originally had proposed for the service. The staffing structure was subsequently changed to reduce the number of management focused positions, provide clearer boundaries between various attached services and to improve the resources allocated to casework in the service.

SJOG Women’s Program
Women offender’s re-entry issues are a major focus of the organisation and this partnership with the Sisters of St John of God continues to successfully deal with many of these. Family, accommodation and substance abuse figure highly amongst those issues.

Emergency Relief.
There has been an increase in demand for emergency financial and material relief as the state of the Western Australian economy drives up the cost of housing and food, and has required a greater time commitment from staff.

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING SERVICES
Employment Directions Network (EDN) Service
This year this service became much more actively involved with the Deparment of Corrections Education and Vocational Training unit in providing pre and post Employment Directions Services at all metropolitan prisons. This includes assistance with career counselling using a paper based model “Holland Self Directed Search”, assistance in preparing a resume that addresses the gaps in employment history, job search techniques and disclosing convictions. The service also had a focus on assisting prisoners that engaged in vocational training make the connection to employment and or further training when they left prison.

Jobstart job placement service.
This service placed 121 people into employment in the 12 months and with the current skills shortage and the employment service work with the Profit from Experience funding, it is projected that the placement rate will increase in the coming year. Forty two of these placements were for clients in the re-entry program.

Life-skills information sessions
Low job search skills in the client base are a major issue with many clients simply not knowing how to look for a job, not valuing the knowledge of how to complete job application forms, not having a current resume, or knowing how to disclose convictions.

Staff are now also doing literacy and numeracy training at Bandyup, Casuarina, Boronia and Hakea. This focuses on the practical skills required to perform everyday functions in the workplace.

Driver education
Nine offenders have gained their licence prior to release. As an unfunded service, more could be done if we could attract more volunteer drivers to provide lessons, but in this labour market, attracting volunteers is very difficult.

Driving licence issues are a major concern and the employment service spends a significant amount of time in every life-skills session on this. The issue of fines suspensions, court suspensions and the inability of our clients to deal with the bureaucracy surrounding these issues results in them continuing to drive without a valid licence.

In the new legislation before parliament, when you lose your licence for demerit points you can either take the 3 month suspension (with no right to apply for an extraordinary licence), or you can apply to have a 12 month good driving bond. If you have a traffic offence in that period you will then get a 6 month licence suspension, again with no right to apply for an extraordinary licence. For our client base it is felt that this will result in more unlicensed drivers on the road.

In the last year sixty extraordinary drivers licences were successfully applied for.

Profit From Experience
Gaining access to Profit From Experience funding was a great support with skilling up the Employment and Training Service clients. This year the service focussed on “recognition of current competencies” (RCC), helping prisoners with the skills but no qualifications to get these skills formally recognised. This was mainly in the mining area, warehousing, transport & storage and metal fabrication areas.

FAMILY SUPPORT CENTRES
The Family Support Centres remain as busy as ever with 160,692 visitors across those in the metropolitan area that we service. Musters are at an all time high in the prisons but fortunately the visits system to date has been able to cope with the increase in individuals seeking to visit. This increase has meant an increased workload for staff. A change in the amount of visits available at Bandyup on both days of the weekend has provided a much better arrangement for visits there.

If the prison population does rise to 5,000 in the next couple of years as projected, there may well emerge significant issues in dealing with the number of people wanting to access visit times.

Figures at the 16th of August indicate that there were 561 prisoners incarcerated over and above the design capacity of all the prisons in the state.

In a significant departure from the way we historically delivered child care at Casuarina Prison, the service is now provided inside the prison and this move has worked well.

Over the Christmas period the service held 5 Christmas events, with 500 presents given out from 5 sites. This project was supported by a multitude of Churches and other community groups.

Hakea Prison initiated some welcomed extensions and maintenance on the Family Centre there and we thank Superintendent Jim Schilo for his support of this work being done.

We again thank all the prison Superintendents and their staff who work cooperatively with us to make the prison visit experience as good as it can be in the circumstances. Families are also the hidden victims, the silent sufferers of crime.

HEALTH SERVICES
Health services continue to be an area we wish to enlarge upon, however opportunities to obtain resources are few and far between and there is significant competition for the existing funding resources from the mainstream established stakeholders.

In a new initiative we worked collaboratively with staff of the State Forensic Mental Health Service to provide an accommodation service for their forensic mental health clients who are exiting prison. The Department of Housing joined the partnership but this idea has stalled due to the total lack of access to more accommodation stock in the state.

Blood Borne Virus service.
The introduction of a vaccination service for families of prisoners was a very successful strategy and at June 30 we had 145 access the service and a projected 77% completion rate. Prisoners and their families are a very high risk group who would not normally access this opportunity elsewhere. Unfortunately the Health Department does not support it because they feel it is too costly to deliver. The costs of providing this per person at a prison site is around double what it would cost to access it in the community. Given it is a small amount of funding and that this is a very high group which wouldn’t normally get the service, it is not an unreasonable cost. We continue to seek funds from other sources for this service.

The education of partners outside the prison on BBV issues has been shown to be taken into the prison by them and this is informing the choices prisoners are making regarding their health risks inside the prison.

Addictions Program
This counselling service continues to deliver much needed support to our client base, the majority of which have alcohol and other drugs (AOD) issues. Demand for pre and post release counselling continually outstrips our and others ability to service it. Many offenders are not being released from prison as they cannot access the required counselling services or programs prior to release.

There has been a noticeable increase in working with people who are imprisoned due to their association with methamphetamines.

The Outcare service was independently and very favorably reviewed in late 2006 and was cited as an example of best practice. It is planned to follow this up with a survey of the client base and jointly this information will support our quests for additional support in this area.

Over the last year there have been some significant developments in the AOD sector, with the government giving serious consideration to expanding AOD services to justice clients in the 2008 budget.

The plans for a residential treatment service for offenders was progressed and a model is currently being finalised.

Brief Intervention Service
BIS, acknowledged by the Department of Corrections to be a very successful form of intervention, was not refunded when its contract term expired. The reasoning behind this was that the department was redirecting most of its resources to deal with the 15% of its prisoners who were considered as high risk offenders.

YOUTH SERVICES
Reconnect Program
The Reconnect Program was internally reviewed in February and March this year and strategies were adopted to redirect it within a quality framework model.

Plans are now underway to try and obtain funding for some supported accommodation stock, as this continues to be the major obstacle the service comes across.

Aboriginal Intensive Youth Program
This program has initiated some successful strategies to engage young indigenous offenders in positive family and community pursuits. Funds were again obtained to run a series of personal and cultural development excursions outside of Perth. The service is now linked to and supporting a metropolitan young footballers club.

Keeping Kids out of Crime.
An ex-offenders speakers program which is run in schools for ages 11 years and on, KKOOC has been extremely well received where it has been delivered. As we have to attract financial support from a variety of sources, including donations, the funding arrangements for this great project are unfortunately an ongoing issue. This is our second attempt in the last decade or so to maintain the momentum for its delivery on a long term basis. We are hoping to attract recurrent support from either the state or federal governments, or from a corporate sponsor.

OTHER MATTERS
Prison numbers continue to rise and they are projected to hit 5000 in the next few years. This will bring further demands on the organisation and the services we provide, and unless resources improve in some areas we will struggle to meet the challenge. Such numbers will further exacerbate the issues we are already experiencing in regard to accommodation and substance abuse issues amongst our client base.

The building renovation plans stalled in late 2006 as the market had forced the cost up and we had to look at ways to get around this. A final tender round is under way and we will be in a position to proceed in the very near future, but the market is such that if we proceed it will be this time next year that the work is finalised.

It has again been a productive year and thanks must go to all staff, Board, volunteers and supporters for their efforts over this time.

Peter Sirr
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER