About Us

Royal Far West is one of Australia’s most enduring and respected charities. We have been connecting children in rural and remote communities to the care they need since 1924. Today we do this from our Centre for Country Kids in Manly, through community outreach and via telecare.

Our Bushfire Recovery Program is designed to support the wellbeing and resilience of children affected by the bushfires of 2019/20. It was awarded both the NSW and National Resilient Australia Community Award for service excellence in 2021.

The program can be adapted to meet the needs of children experiencing other disasters such as floods. Read more about the program on the Royal Far West website- After the Disaster and The Children’s’ voice reports- https://www.royalfarwest.org.au/the-childrens-voices/

The Role

Following the success of our Bushfire Recovery program, we are currently extending the provision of our services to flood recovery and are looking to appoint a number of new clinicians to support this growth. Within the Flood Recovery Team, you will lead a multidisciplinary team including, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Speech Pathologists and Clinical Psychologists.

This position is funded until 2024 with plans to continue delivery beyond that date. The program will be supporting flood impacted communities within Northern NSW. Applicants will be considered from both Sydney and the Northern NSW area.

This position is responsible for the provision of Multidisciplinary Team Leader services to children referred to the program in NSW. This will include:

• Assessment, care planning and therapy, parent/carer group programs, child group programs, and professional development workshops for Educators and Health and Social Service Practitioners.
• Delivery will be a combination of in person community visits working closely with schools and preschools with ongoing support and therapy provided by telehealth. 
• Services are provided collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team.  

Purpose of the Position

The award-winning Community Recovery team at Royal Far West practice a strengths -based, trauma informed approach, supporting children’s wellbeing in the wider context of their home, environment and community. This position is responsible for leading the multidisciplinary Flood Recovery team and coordinating the delivery of the program. The position includes a clinical caseload. This will include individual therapy, parent/carer group programs, child group programs, and professional development workshops for Educators and Health and Social Service Practitioners. Delivery will be a combination of in person community visits and telecare delivery.  Services are provided collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team.

Within the Flood Recovery Program you will lead a dedicated multidisciplinary team of Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Speech Pathologists and Clinical Psychologists. You will also be part of a wider supportive clinical leadership community at Royal Far West.

Within this supportive multidisciplinary team and leadership community, you will have access to individual and group supervision, professional development opportunities and flexible working arrangements including the ability to work from home.

Key responsibilities of the MDT Team Leader include:

• Provide training, management, supervision and support to team members. This includes line management tasks such as performance reviews.
• Monitor and coordinate workflow within the team in line with organisational KPI’s.
• Work with their manager to manage the recruitment, onboarding, management, pays and rostering of staff in line with organisational need and program demand.
• Manage the auditing and quality assurance activities of the team ensuring services are being delivered within scope of programs, and are value adding to our clients.
• Coordinate improvement initiatives aimed at increasing quality, and efficiency of the team.
• Work collaboratively with the Schools & Community unit, Child & Family unit, other internal streams and staff, clients, carers and related external agencies.
• Other projects, tasks and responsibilities to support the smooth and efficient operation of the business unit as identified by the Line Manager or General Manager.

Essential Criteria

• Relevant degree, unrestricted AHPRA Registration (as relevant) and current membership of their respective professional regulatory body.
• Comprehensive knowledge, skills and clinical experience of developmental, learning, behavioural and mental health difficulties in children and young people (0-12). This includes high level skills in assessment, case planning and working in partnership with families and local service networks.
• Experience of developing and delivering professional development individual or group workshops to Educators and/or Health and Social Services practitioners.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively both independently and as a member of a multidisciplinary team; Skilfully prioritise time, manage a demanding workload, apply high level reasoning skills and have independent professional judgement.
• Experience in providing clinical supervision.
• Highly developed written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills. Demonstrated computer literacy and ability to use health information systems.
• Evidence of leadership skills with experience of supporting, inspiring and motivating clinicians to deliver high quality & sustainable clinical services.
• Demonstrated skills in providing best practice, quality improvement activities and service development. Capacity and willingness to participate in professional development and the provision of new programs as required
• Demonstrated understanding of the issues faced by CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities within the context of health and family wellbeing.
• Demonstrated understanding of, and ability to work within, the principles of Trauma Informed Practice. Knowledge of the key principles in supporting recovery from community trauma. 
• Capacity, skill and willingness to deliver services to rural and remote communities by both via telehealth (video-link) and outreach.. This may include a minimum of two multi-day (1-2 week), community outreach visits each school term.
• This role has been identified as a ‘Category A employee’ and requires protection against vaccine specified preventable diseases, including Covid 19
• The successful applicant will be required to provide a current Working with Children Check.

Desirable Criteria

• Previous experience in a clinical or MDT leadership role.
• Training and experience in project management
• Evidence of relevant clinical experience, working within the area of Disaster recovery and resilience.
• Experience in delivering children’s groups focused on loss and change, such as Stormbirds and Seasons for Growth
• Experience in planning and delivering parent groups and education sessions such as Tuning in to Kids,
• Experience and knowledge of the Education system, including the Department of Education NSW & Catholic Education NSW.
• Experience of program evaluation.

Our culture:

Royal Far West is a rewarding, inspiring, diverse and purpose driven workplace which aims to elevate and harness our people power to support the health and wellbeing of country children for generations to come.

Our core values of Care, Connection, Passion, and Impact are integral to the organisation. Respecting and upholding these values enables us to maintain a positive, innovative and highly collaborative workplace culture. 

Why work for us?

★Meaningful work where you are making a positive difference.  You will be supporting children’s mental health, their wellbeing and helping them to build resilience.

★ You will be able to focus on the practical work and clinical care, while our support team take care of the administration and service planning.

★ Career and professional development opportunities:  You will be given high-quality clinical supervision.  All team members are supported to become accredited facilitators of the Tuning in to Kids, parent group program and the Seasons for Growth children’s group program.  There are  great opportunity to learn best practice, we offer Impactful Leadership Program to emerging leaders, interactive workshops offered to develop your work skills as well as online mandatory training. 

★ Multi-disciplinary work with our collaborative and supportive resident paediatricians, psychiatrists, psychologists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and social workers to name a few.

★ Attractive remuneration: base salary + 10.5% superannuation

★ Salary Packaging – up to $15,900 of your annual salary will be tax free + meals and entertainment card $2,650 pa. See details at https://www.salary.com.au

★ Paid Parental Leave – 9 weeks full leave pay.

★ Work/Life Balance – work from our beautiful location at Manly Beach or work from home anywhere as long as you can travel for outreach to the areas we support and attend one team day a term in Manly.  A laptop provided to work remotely and we offer a purchase leave scheme.

★ Recognition & Reward – Length of service awards and recognition awards aligned to our values.

★ Positive Culture – We are an inclusive organisation welcoming people from all walks of life!

★Beautiful location at Manly beach: easy access by bus, ferry and parking options.  We are based in an architecturally designed building, purposely built to deliver our services.  We have showers and towels available for your use so going for a swim before or after work is possible.

★ WHEREFIT program with access to 50% off gym memberships and class packs at over 400 gyms across Australia

★ Royal Far West has been recognised as one of Australia and New Zealand’s Best Places to Work in the prestigious annual list, published by The Australian Financial Review and Boss Magazine.

HOW TO APPLY

If you like to take the first step in developing your career in a purpose led organisation, please submit your CV and cover letter by clicking on the “Apply” button.

For further information please see Position Description [link removed] or contact Sarah Eagland on [email protected] Alternatively a position description is available on the Royal Far West website https://www.royalfarwest.org.au/current-vacancies/

Candidates will be reviewed as they are submitted so, please don’t delay in submitting your application.