I have been privileged to work for the Australian Public Service for the past 12 years, my career started in the health and Medicare space, transiti

I have been privileged to work for the Australian Public Service for the past 12 years, my career started in the health and Medicare space, transitioning to welfare and pension support managing teams of up to 50 staff in the service delivery space which includes face-to-face service centres across multiple sites on the Sunshine Coast. For the past 12 months, I have been fortunate to be promoted into the aged care regulatory space, ensuring the Australian people feel safe and regain trust in the aged care sector.

In my current role as a Customer Service Manager at the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, I am charged with up-skilling my staff, on how to conduct Minister responses correctly and consistently to the Parliamentary and Media team. Mostly these constituents are dissatisfied with their consumer experience at their aged care residential facilities, or home care service providers. My teams role is to ensure that all risks have been identified and that the providers are meeting their obligations set out in the Aged Care Act 1997 and the Quality-of-Care principles at the onset of an investigation. It is important this occurs prior to any discussions with the facility managers of the service. I also conduct regular formal reviews, providing constructive feedback to the team member, on how to continuously strive to improve their profiling skills. I have had great success with this and am regularly approached by staff for advice and input into their case profiles, particularly when they are unsure of how to proceed. Feedback to date from management has been that these actions have led to a noticeable improvement in the identification of risks, and service improvement through profiling, across the team.

Fostering a strong collaborative approach with stakeholders has facilitated my ability to seek opportunities that enhance efficiencies and increase service effectiveness. Relationships with local community agencies and social workers, in addition to my liaison with local hospitals, have been imperative for assisting vulnerable customers. In establishing these networks, I can promptly provide customers deemed to be at risk, with the assistance that they require outside of my agency. This includes providing members of my service delivery team with adequate information to ensure a quality approach to detecting customers at risk of adverse outcomes, and a process to connect them to the most appropriate services. When referring customers, my team can leverage the professional networks that I have maintained to ensure that the transition to external services is as seamless as possible for the customer. This approach has been particularly successful regarding the Services Australia Family and Domestic Violence Strategy by supporting customers based on the four principles and five themes for implementation, including risk identification, referral, training, information, and staff support.

As a Service Centre Manager during my 11-year career at Services Australia, I regularly interact with upset or aggressive customers, as well as people with disabilities and diverse cultural backgrounds. Always entering these situations with a calm and conciliatory approach, I endeavour to provide clear and concise information in line with policy, legislation framework, decisions, and rulings. For example, in my previous role at the Nambour service centre, I recently had the experience of interacting with an irate customer due to the rejection of an urgent payment. The customer was verbally abusive and offensive to staff and other customers. I immediately assessed the situation and communicated to the customer the reasons behind the decision. The customer continued his aggression and I sought to defuse the atmosphere by apologising for not being able to approve immediate funds however along with my team member sought community referrals, social work intervention, and ongoing emotional support to help him during the hardship he was experiencing at the time. My superior communication skills have also resulted in acknowledgement by my regional managers who have commended me on many occasions for my ability to listen, understand, and adapt my style to suit the audience or situation.

Personally, I am driven, and energetic and I am known for prioritising my own health and well-being to ensure I maintain resilience and reliability. I seek out my own learning and development and welcome feedback at every opportunity, reflecting on the vision of the agency and how my daily work contributes to the success of the agency I work for to deliver quality government services on behalf of the government of the day.