MARCH 2008

Excellence recognised by health care accreditation

Pacific Shores Healthcare has been awarded Australian Council of Healthcare Standards (ACHS) accreditation in recognition of its commitment to excellence in healthcare.
In order to achieve the four-year accreditation, which extends from head office through to all service delivery sites, the company had to satisfy extremely stringent national health care standards.
Roger Orr, GEO Australia’s executive general manager health care, said ACHS accreditation emphasises that the management and staff of Pacific Shores Healthcare are committed to excellence in health care with a strong and continuing focus on safety, quality and performance.
“I commend all involved for their contribution not only during the assessment and evaluation process, but also for their support and commitment to quality care through continuing dialogue and improvement initiatives,” he said.
“We are aware of the increasing demands on health services for the quality of care they provide and we are proud that Pacific Shores Healthcare has been recognised for meeting those expectations.”
The ACHS is an independent, not-for-profit organisation, which has received international recognition for excellence in assessment and evaluation and is responsible for accrediting the majority of health organisations throughout Australia.

From left: ACHS surveyor Marie Larkin, GEO Australia managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout, and Corrections Victoria commissioner Kelvin Anderson.

GEO graduates mean business

For 16 GEO Group Australia employees turned students, nine months of diligence, lectures and after hours study culminated recently in their graduation with a GEO Diploma in Business.
It was a great achievement, especially as many had not undertaken formal study for many years.
Managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout and executives from head office recently visited each state so that participants could present and discuss their workplace projects with senior management.
The diploma program involves not just learning about business and management strategies, but implementing effective techniques in the workplace as participants progress through the course.
The program has been designed for employees who currently have a management responsibility within GEO and want to undertake appropriate training or for employees who show management potential.
GEO contracted South East Australian Training Services (SEATS), the commercial branch of East Gippsland Institute of TAFE, which previously generated staff and prisoner education programs, to develop and deliver the initial course in 2006.
SEATS, in partnership with GEO, tailored the program to specific GEO and industry requirements to ensure that the skills and knowledge gained directly relate to each participant’s employment.
The course covers management, budgeting and financial planning as well as facilitating continuous improvement and workplace change and innovation.
Over the past two years 45 employees have successfully completed the management development training.
Following the success of the first two years of the program GEO has offered a further 10 scholarship places on the course for 2008, which will be delivered at week long residential training sessions in March and June at Rawson Retreat in Gippsland, Victoria.
Throughout the rest of the year each participant will attend coaching and action learning sessions, build and produce workplace projects and collate evidence portfolios to be submitted by the end of November 2008.
Mr Bezuidenhout said the GEO Diploma in Business and the new supervisor training programs, which will be launched shortly, were at the forefront of industry training and he urged interested employees to discuss the possibility of career progression within GEO with their human resources manager.

Recruiting record at Fulham

The recent graduation ceremony for 26 trainees who completed the intensive and extremely demanding Correctional Officer Training Program at Fulham Correctional Centre was the largest since the centre opened in 1997.
The group was chosen from 59 applicants following an exhaustive selection process.
In the first week of their six-week program they were given a comprehensive overview of how Fulham Correctional Centre operates, GEO policies and procedures, the Victorian legal and prison systems as well as relevant current legislation.
They were then divided into two teams and the following weeks alternated with morning and afternoon sessions of classroom theory and practical on-the-job training in the units.
This led to immediate benefits for the trainees as they were able to put into practice the theory component of the morning’s exercise while being taught practical skills by senior, experienced officers in each work area.
A number of trainees displayed great potential and located a number of contraband items using their newly acquired observation and search training skills.
The trainees also experienced some of the more challenging and strenuous features of a correctional officer’s job when they took part in two weeks of Centre Emergency Response Team (CERT) and fire drill training designed to equip them for any emergency.
GEO welcomes the 26 graduates into the ranks of the professional team at Fulham Correctional Centre.