Posted: April 15th, 2015

Aitken House Limited

Aitken House Limited

 

 

 

 

VISION:

Removing barriers so everyone enjoys an enriched life

 

 

 

MISSION:

Assisting people who are disadvantaged – through physical, intellectual, cultural or social barriers by providing caring support, training and assistance.

 

 

 

 

 

Aitken House Limited (AHL) has a range of programs including the provision of employment and day training services to intellectually disabled people along with delivering accredited training as an RTO. The organisation operates across Victoria and has offices across Melbourne and many regional centres, with rural outreach programs. AHL is a company limited by guarantee.

 

AHL was established fifteen years ago by parents of intellectually disabled young people. Funding started at $200,000 per year and a property with land and buildings was donated by one of the parents, which has acted as the central office. Three years ago, under a new CEO, AHL began growing rapidly. Funding from Commonwealth and Victorian government and philanthropic sources now totals $10Million per year.

 

The CEO, John Jameson, was previously a manager in one of the large church based services HawkesOak Aged Care before joining AHL. He is recognised as being extremely competent, driven and responsible for much of the growth in funding. Some parents however have raised concerns about the declining intimacy and customisation of services to clients. John has dismissed this as an ‘old guard’ who don’t like change. John is the current Mayor of BlackHorse Council in the wealthy northern suburbs.

 

The Rules of AHL allow any person who becomes a member – membership fees are $10 per year – to join the board. In the first ten years of the organisation the board was made up entirely of parents of clients. The members now are made up exclusively of board directors with only one client /director Paul Smith to represent the original consumers of the services provided.

 

When the CEO started he encouraged the then Chairman to bring external expertise onto the board, which began with the appointment of a lawyer and accountant. These directors, while supportive, did not have any direct experience of people with intellectual disabilities. To appease parents over this move a client representative, Paul Smith, was also appointed to the board. Paul rarely attends board meetings.

 

The current board of ten is now made up of six people with a professional background and three community members who have various backgrounds in business, social work and one is a retired auditor plus one Consumer member. Two directors sit on the Board of the large religious owned welfare organisation known as HawkesOak Church, that the CEO previously worked for.

 

In the past AHL has been recognised as a disability service with a finely tuned understanding of client needs and strong program delivery. In the last three years service quality has been consistent, however there has been a focus on keeping costs down and running more generic programs across the state and expanding into diverse programs to spread risk and source funds to broaden the number of sources of income.

 

As a result of the rapid growth in funding and some strategic investments, suggested by the financially experienced board members, the service has started to accumulate some small reserves. Buoyed by the success the board as a result has increasingly been focused on 2 potential new business /development opportunities; the first is a property development plan $6 Million to purchase and develop the large plot of vacant -formerly HawkeOaks Church land that is adjacent to the site that AHL owns which is earmarked for a purpose built combined Aged Care Centre and International training centre for overseas students. The second is AHL expanding the business deliver to become a Registered Training Organisation to deliver accredited training. Several months ago 2 small working committees were convened made up of the CEO, the Chair and coopted consultants and recommendations were made to go ahead with both.

 

The Board gives the CEO wide latitude in running the organisation while they focus on financial performance, new projects, risk management, legal issues and funding applications. The CEO provides a short report to the Board each month. The three community members on the board regularly raise questions around governance, decision making processes and service quality, but these items often do not get on the agenda which is set by the Chair and CEO, or if they do then they are given little airtime.

 

After gaining the go ahead of the board 6 months earlier the RTO is now accredited after paying a specialist consultant connected to Blackhorse Council to fast track the process by providing all the proforma materials to meet the required audit standards.

 

Two sales people are hired to recruit employers and trainees and 4 new trainers will be delivering the training on and off site. Office space is expanded to accommodate the additional staff. The RTO gets off to a good start albeit a few unanticipated expenses they now provide traineeships for Blackhorse Council in Parks and Gardens, and Waste Management.

 

For the first 4 months labour costs are not covered and the deficit for program is growing however this was anticipated and cashflow forecasts demonstrate significant inflow of government funds after the signed up trainees have reached their 6 month milestones in 8 – 12 weeks. The 6 month subsidy payment should amount to almost $1.2M.

 

The CEO advises the board that there is a significant amount of business (hence income) in the pipeline and also advises that two more staff will need to be hired to cover the work that will be generated – his time has been largely invested in the new projects and two of the senior staff have recently left including the finance manager.

 

The board has realized that the Constitution needs to be changed to allow for expanded business opportunities and at the recent special general meeting of the shareholders of the business the proposed amendments were approved and the updated constitution is about to be presented to the board for their endorsement and approval.

 

There was some recent acrimony and industrial relations issues involved surrounding a claim of bullying which has been strongly refuted by the CEO.

 

At the end of 2012 the Federal Government passed a landmark piece of legislation known as the National Disability Insurance Scheme. This will be phased in by 2016 and will have a major effect on all existing organisations that receive government funding for providing services to people with a disability.   Many organisations are expected to close as a result of these structural changes and others will merge with larger services.  This is a major tsunami that is heading towards Aitken and the board will need to form a strong strategy to respond to the change and cant waste any time.

 

Sam Johnson, partner of the profile law firm of Young, Jackson and Flinders (specialists in property law and work closely with the Blackhorse Council which is how John Jameson first met Ms Johnson). Ms Johnson was brought onto the board two years ago through the CEO and has recently become the Board Chair. She has a close working relationship with the CEO and shares with him a rational and pragmatic approach. She runs strictly timed board meetings and doesn’t have much contact with her other Board members.

 

Board meetings are held face to face every month on even numbers and every other month (odd numbers) by teleconference and the CEO has recently recommended the monthly meetings are changed to bi-monthly in the future.

 

This recommendation is still being considered by the board.

 

 

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