YFS Logan

YFS uses the Organisational Development Toolkit for more efficient service delivery

YFS is a not-for-profit organisation that delivers a range of services to the people of Logan and surrounds. They cater to people who are disadvantaged, vulnerable or want to improve their circumstances. With an aim to deliver services that are designed to promote independence and citizenship, YFS champions rights and responsibilities and clients taking up social, cultural and economic opportunities.

YFS decided to complete the Organisational Development Toolkit as it provided a comprehensive health check for their organisation. YFS CEO Cath Bartolo said, “Although YFS has always had a strategic plan, we had never developed a business plan to address the long-term sustainability of the organisation. We were keen to apply a tool that would help us to prioritise the areas that we needed to improve and invest in.”

In particular, YFS identified that they could improve their business processes and service delivery efficiencies. They also wanted to address the quality of their corporate services and review their management capabilities. Being a disability service provider, YFS were also keen to ensure their branding and marketing were on point to position them for the NDIS roll out.

“We had always operated on a block grant funded model, so hadn’t really paid much attention to program area unit costing,” said Ms Bartolo.

“Because of this funding model, we were always ‘paid’ at the beginning of each quarter and so had to work out how we would be able to work under a fee for service model in which we would be paid after services were delivered.”

The Organisational Development Toolkit provided YFS with a way to identify the areas they needed to prioritise and to help guide their investment in those priority areas. They formed a core group of organisation leaders, who provided evidence for the Organisational Development Toolkit against their areas of responsibility. They also held weekly meetings over a two-month period that provided a forum to review the evidence and agree on rating via consensus.

“It was a challenging but rewarding process,” explained Ms Bartolo.  “We made sure it was a priority and found that working together as a team was essential in ensuring we accurately rated our performance.”

Coming to a consensus on this enabled YFS to move forward and better position itself as a high quality service provider with an effective business model.