Executive Director’s Update to Principals #39 - 11 August 2022
Catholic Education Multi-Enterprise Agreement (CEMA) Update
Following our gathering in Horsham last week, the Employer Bargaining Team (including Maree Baker and Ange Jones as DOBCEL representatives) have met to progress key terms for negotiations.
The next bargaining meeting with the IEU is planned for next Thursday or Friday.
We invite Principals to attend an optional, online briefing next week please refer to details below including a survey for Primary Principals.
Primary Principals.
To help us understand the impact of proposed changes on primary schools, could you please take to time to complete this short survey via this link.
Principal briefing
Thursday, 18 August 2022 at 4.00-4.30 pm
Join on your computer or mobile app
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 447 880 225 249
Passcode: prfEgE
Download Teams | Join on the web
Secondary Principals.
Principal briefing
Friday, 19 August 2022 at 4.00-4.30 pm
Join on your computer or mobile app
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 475 072 100 675
Passcode: pC4bRP
Salt Compliance Training Platform
The Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) Learning Manager Platform for compliance training was decommissioned by CCI in Term 1. This meant that DOBCEL had to transition to an alternate platform (see Weekly Newsletter #6 – 9 March 2022).
In partnership with CCI, we migrated to Salt, a platform delivered by GRC Solutions. The new platform went live on 11 May 2022 (see Weekly Newsletter # 13 – 11 May 2022).
One great feature of Salt is that employees can progress immediately to the assessment for each course if they are confident, they know the essential elements and their obligations. You do not have to work your way through the course to navigate to the assessment unless a refresher is needed.
Simplified compliance training cycle.
The compliance training cycle was revised so that most courses now only need to be repeated every three years balancing compliance obligations and individual time commitments.
For 2022 all DOBCEL employees were enrolled in:
- Cyber Security for Schools;
- Privacy for Schools; and
- Whistleblower training.
Staff have 180 days (about 6 months) from the date of enrolment (11/5/22) to complete the assigned courses.
The transition processes for staff.
In the Weekly Newsletter # 10 (6 April 2022) we communicated to DOBCEL employees that they would receive a “Welcome to Salt” email before the end of Term 2 with details of how to login in for the first time.
This email was sent on 12 May 2022 and contained the web address to access Salt, the Username and instructions on how to set an initial password. The Salt User Guide was also attached.
The user details were set up and courses were assigned centrally by CEB, and local (school) administrators were not required to do anything at that time.
For new staff (‘users’) who commenced since this date, local (school) administrators can add them or contact Simon O’Brien for support with this for now.
New users will be required to complete all nine courses in their first year to comply with regulatory obligations.
Information for local (school) administrators.
In most cases, the local (school) administrator is the same person who was the local administrator for the CCI Learning Manager. All schools were given the option to confirm or change their administrator(s).
Additional information was shared via the CARSO network with local (school) administrators including the Salt Administration Guide emailed to local administrators on 18 May 2022. The role of the local administrator is to ensure the staff (or ‘user’) list is kept up to date. Local administrators will also be able to access completion reports for your school.
Two Administrator Q&A Workshops have been set for 17 August 10.00 – 11.00 am and/or Friday 19 August 2.00 – 3.00 pm. GRC Solutions advised, as a part of the implementation to allow Admins the opportunity to see and use the system first, work through the self-paced Salt Administration Guide, and then follow up a few months later with a Q&A style workshop. These workshops will be recorded and published shortly after.
ACTIONS:
- Note the change to the compliance training cycle
- Download a copy of the Salt User Guide and Salt Administrator Guide for ease of access
- View video via this link that provides Salt Unit Administrator Training
- If you have not received an inviation and would like to attend one/both of the Q&A workshops, please contact Simon O'Brien via email on sobrien@dobcel.catholic.edu.au
Proposed change to Compliance and Risk Officer service delivery
Following preliminary conversations about this issue a more detailed document is attached via this link for your consideration and response.
In summary, a shared services model is being proposed whereby expert resourcing is delivered from a centralised function by CEB staff who would undertake the bulk of the administration and support functions to provide consistent support to school principals to meet their obligations.
It is not intended at this time to disrupt the current service in individual schools should they wish to continue with current arrangements. However it is important to note that a reporting line will need to be introduced to Catholic Education Ballarat via a monthly compliance report. This will support the line of sight reporting function.
Options:
- Schools can opt-in to the centralised shared services model to support the compliance function in schools from 2023. This will require forgoing the financial support and recognising a contact will still be required at school level (ie. Sign in processes for visitors and contractors). The responsibilities of the centralised role are included below.
- Schools can retain their existing compliance person recognising that person will need to provide reporting back to CEB and be required to join “team” meetings and development sessions.
ACTION:
Confirmation of your preferred option is to be forward to Simon O’Brien via email at sobrien@dobcel.catholic.edu.au by 16 September 2022.
Should you wish to have a more detailed discussion please contact Megan Ioannou, Deputy Director Stewardship via phone on 0448 481 613.