1985

Prior to May 1985, an informal group of Respite Care Co-ordinators came together for bi-monthly meetings, each representing a Respite Care program in NSW. They met for the purpose of exchanging ideas and information and recorded their meetings.

May 1985

Some of the first issues these Respite Care Programs began discussing were:

• working towards a standardized set of statistics to be kept by all services. A draft statistical data package was compiled and presented to Youth and Community Services (YACS) by Bob Helleman and June Gardner. YACS had approved and asked for a further draft which they would then distribute to all Co-ordinators of respite care in NSW for comments,
• the lack of appropriate public liability insurance cover for respite care services, and

• having a central body to promote NSW respite care services. After viewing Victorian counterparts on television stating that they knew of no respite care programs in NSW, a resolution was passed to promote family based respite care services to NSW families.

August 1985

An official decision was made by the group of thirteen to form the Association of Family-Based Respite Care (AFBRC). The first office bearers were elected unanimously : Chairperson- Kathy Hagan, Treasurer- Bob Helleman, Secretary Robyn Kennedy, and agreed to hold regular meetings every two months.

October 1985

Letters were distributed to all NSW respite care services regarding proposed constitution/rules and objectives. The Association accepted its amended draft constitution and decided to become legally incorporated.

November 1985

The constitution was adopted and informal plans for 1986 were made (orientation and training, recruiting, publicity, evaluation, consistent data collection, guest speakers, seminars).

March 1986

The insurance cover proposal from Aradlay Investments was accepted by the Association.

April 1986

The name ‘Association of Family Based Respite Care (NSW)’ was lodged and annual membership fees were resolved.

Kathy Hagan created the first poster for publicity.

June 1986

Application for incorporation was lodged. By this time there were 22 member services.

The first seminar was held, featuring management workshops (communication, networking) for members. Many representatives from NSW country areas were in attendance, including Western Riverina , Lismore-Kyogle, Illawarra, Coffs Harbour , Port Macquarie, Bathurst and Newcastle .A video about Respite Care made by Skai Roper was shown and made available to Co-ordinators for publicity and recruiting hosts.

The request from YACS for statistical data lead to a unique statistics package for member services to utilise. Subsequently, as a result of collecting that information, YACS developed a draft set of strategies regarding funding, establishment and administration for host family respite care services in consultation with Association members.

By this time, the Association had made considerable progress; radio and magazine publicity releases were prepared, geographical boundaries had been clarified for client referrals and placements, and the first President’s report was distributed to members.

July 1986

While the Association was in the process of reviewing the YACS draft strategies/guidelines, John Le Breton, Assistant Director of Disabled Persons Policy Unit from YACS suggested that the Association employ a Project Officer with Home and Community Care (HACC) funding. Since the Association was growing with increasing productivity and needs, a Project Officer was needed to assist with seminars, purchase equipment, develop training packages so that all services have the same guidelines for training of host/ natural families and promote awareness of family based respite care services in NSW.

The Association submitted a formal comment on the YACS draft strategies, in which they identified a number of issues and made recommendations.

In the meantime, four radio interviews had been conducted since mid-June.

August 1986

The suggestion of a joint HACC funding submission for the position of a Project Officer arose from a meeting with Trevor Lester, Senior Project Officer, Disabled Persons Policy Unit.

The final version of the altered YACS draft strategies paper was prepared for a meeting with the YACS Minister on this day.

Membership fees for country members were lowered to compensate for travel expenses.

September 1986

Official incorporation of ‘Association of Family Based Respite Care (NSW) Incorporated’.

February 1987

The Association successfully held its first orientation day for Co-ordinators at Waverley .

The first Annual General Meeting and seminar took place.

The seminar was primarily aimed at Co-ordinators and covered the basic concepts of respite care, recruiting, training, support, and administration and included a panel style Q&A discussion. Membership of the Association had grown from 13 services to 29 (10 metropolitan, 19 country) since it began.

April 1987

A working party on funding was set up: Kathy Hagan (Convener), Marigold Williams, Toni Penfold, and Helen Morrison.

The Association established a general procedure for (national) publicity.

Research was conducted by way of a Respite Care Phone-in by carers and care recipients. Callers generally stated their preferred mode of respite care as being, in order from most desirable to least desirable, 1) in-home, 2) host family, 3) centre based, 4) vacation care.

June 1987

The funding for a Project Officer was approved by HACC. The Committee decided that it will be the Management Committee for the Project Officer.

The Association was still receiving responses to the Respite Care Phone-in (approx. 800), about half of whom were from the country. Feedback showed demand for centre based care, but not large and institutionalised and that they didn’t know about their options.

Manly Warringah Interchange was the first member organisation to resign.

August 1987

The Association received its first HACC funding grant of about $52,000 for the employment of a Project Officer. Patricia Dunn was selected for the position commencing on 12.10.87.

October 1987

The first Training Package prepared with Coastlink staff was distributed to Committee members by Patricia Dunn. Orientation for new Co-ordinators would be available on regional basis as requested.

The Association was approached by Skai Roper (YACS) for financial support to make a video for the recruitment of host families/care givers about volunteers. The Association had $10 000 available to make a video on wide range of respite issues but considered reserving funds to include further projects.

November 1987

First gathering of North Coast services with the Association.

December 1987

The structure and role of the Committee was formalised; it would consist of three office bearers and three members including at least one from the country. The Committee’s role would be to:

• formulate and recommend policy for the Association; support and monitor the work of the Project Officer; approve expenditure,

• plan and run general meetings of the Association, and
• ensure the continuing improvement of host family respite care in NSW.
• The first newsletter was distributed in December.

 January 1988

A decision was made to hold a National Conference in September.
Patricia Dunn presented her plan for four training videos.
Joy Cavanagh and Toni Penfold presented to the Committee the research results from their recent Newcastle survey.

March 1988

Copies of the Newcastle research papers were sent to the YACS minister and HACC regional Co-ordinators.

Patricia Dunn presented to the Committee a draft Starter Package created for committees of newly funded programs. It included suggested job descriptions, newspaper advertisements, hints, and notes on incorporation. It was planned to be first trialled at Broken Hill.

April 1988

Marilyn Roberts and Patricia Dunn met with HACC management to discuss increased payments to host families, equity of funding for workers salaries and continuing funding for the Project Officer position for next three years. The outcomes were: evidence was required to prove the need for higher payment fro carers, salaries of Co-ordinators would be according to LGA award and the Project Officer’s position would be an ‘outcome orientated model’ with suggested tasks. Such tasks could be:

• lobbying for centre based respite
• developing innovative socially integrated programs
• working with other policy making bodies
• providing in-service and professional development, and
• on-going support for programs and staff

The Committee submitted a funding application for a three year Project Officer position.

An agreement was also made to sponsor a pilot training package developed by the Early Childhood Association. The purpose of the package would be for Supplementary Services workers (e.g. at day care centres and pre-schools) to integrate children with disabilities. At that time there were 27 Supplementary Services workers in NSW. The Association agreed to find a venue and administer accounts and Patricia Dunn would oversee the program.

The training video production titled ‘What would you do?’ was completed and presented to the Committee by Patricia Dunn.

June 1988

The video titled ‘Attitudes’ was presented to the Committee.

July 1988

Patricia Dunn recommended re-organising the Association’s structure to form the city services into a metropolitan regional group, having two or three state gatherings per year and encouraging country regions to meet quarterly.

August 1988

The Association received funds to auspice the Supplementary Services workers seminar; $10,000 from the office of Child Care, $10,000 contributed by DoCS and $8,000 from the Early Childhood Association.

The Association’s training video pack was ready for purchasing by members.

The Supplementary Services Workers seminar was held successfully at Eastwood.

A grant of $5000 was given by HACC to subsidize the National Conference. Registrations for the National Conference totalled 75 (including 23 interstate).

September 1988

The first National Conference was held at Wentworth Falls .

October 1988

Patricia Dunn presented the Training Package (four 3hr sessions with handouts) which was to be sent to every NSW service/program.

November 1988

The Training Package was completed by Patricia Dunn and ready for distribution.

The HACC guidelines, which had been reviewed by the Department, were completed and available to services.

January 1989

The Committee received news of encouraging results from the Training Package. The allocation of $4000 towards further training resources would include a Peer Support video for general use by Association members.

Patricia Dunn planned to run the first management orientation program for the Maitland and Muswellbrook Committees at Kurri Kurri.

The Committee decided that maintaining funds of existing services would be a priority in the coming year. Staff Selection Guidelines were also completed and ready to be sent to services.

A brief interstate newsletter was issued to expand the network and increase other services’ awareness of the Association. An article about the Association was also to be published in an upcoming issue of ‘Foster Parents Journal’.

February 1989

The first Host Family Respite Care meeting was held. Discussion included such issues as models of care, subsidies, service planning, client assessment/objectives and salaries.

The first State Conference was held bringing together many members who participated in forums, workshops and seminars. ‘The Numbers Game’ seminar launched the 1988 Statistical Summary (the statistical data would be used by a sub-committee to strengthen negotiations with HACC on funding issues). During 1988 over 3000 clients received family based respite care in 20,000 placements.

It was decided that a Peer Support workers group would be formed and supported by the Project Officer.

The Feedback forum ‘Catching up with each other’ identified the following points:

• members were working with increased flexibility to provide services to a wide range of clients,
• Peer support was being tried in a variety of guises, with or without additional funding,

• Inroads were being made into mainstream services such as family day care, vacation care, and after school care with varying degrees of success,
• DoCS and NSW Health had funded services (Family Resource and Network Support Inc. and Sylvania) for workers to promote integration into family day care and out-of-school-hours programs, and

• the overall number of placements with host families had grown significantly with new and increased funding.

March 1989

The Association received its first recurring quarterly grant of about $18,000 from HACC.
Muswellbrook services asked the Association to research the need for family based respite care in that area.

May 1989

The first orientation workshop for new Co-ordinators was successfully held at Wyong with 10 participants.

Topics under discussions within the Committee were

• having a central access point as some services kept clients on a waiting list while clients could possibly use another service.
• The principle of user choice was strongly agreed to, and

• the preparation of a Manual for Management Committees of respite care programs.

The Peer Support video was available for recruitment of clients and volunteers.

June 1989

At this time 45 Host Family programs and 16 Peer Support services were linked to the Association.

August 19 89

Regarding insurance, a proposal was made to GIO to consider umbrella insurance cover for all services since each one currently varied.

The Management Manual was being refined by Patricia Dunn. She also suggested that the Committee consider adopting the standard ‘Interchange’ name, thereby making the Association a more recognizable entity and accessible to clients, as host family services in VIC, SA and WA had done.

October 1989

The Committee had concerns about the vulnerability of its members while award salaries were not completely established, therefore union membership was recommended for 1990 as a safeguard. It was also suggested that all Committees join the Local Community Services Association.

A decision was made to accept GIO’s insurance package on the condition that 80% of services will join.

At this time, the Association’s members numbered 46 affiliated bodies managing 64 separate programs.

 December 1989

The Committee decided to change its structure at the next AGM in February 1990; it would be composed of one representative from each region, one from Peer Support and three office bearers.

The rules were amended to change the Association’s name to Interchange.

Other important milestones were coming together by this stage; Patricia Dunn was preparing a National Bulletin, GIO’s insurance package was ready to go ahead for 1990 and by the end of December, a Policy and Procedure Manual was ready and sent to each service as well as HACC.

By the end of 1989 the Association’s NSW membership was reporting from six regions: North Coast , Hunter, Metropolitan, Western, Riverina and South East.

Post 1989

The name of the Association of Family Based Respite Care (NSW) Inc. was officially changed to Interchange Respite Care (NSW) Inc. on 23rd March 1990 . The Victorian logo was subsequently adopted for several years afterwards.

Interchange Respite Care (NSW) continued to plan and develop ways in 1990 to improve respite care service provision as a peak body. Some key developments at the start of the new decade were the idea of standardization e.g. submissions, salaries, carer payments, car allowance and minimum rates; a second orientation program for Peer Support; planning the formation of a Grievance Committee; a Quality Assurance Package which was developed with professional consultants, using regional meetings as forums for the package content; and the participation of member services in consultation with HACC regarding the Department’s Draft National Service Standards.

Prepared by Ozlem Guler. October 2006.

(Go up)