PATCHES Paediatrics is a community focused enterprise that delivers high quality paediatric, child development and early intervention programs to disadvantaged children in rural, remote and outer metropolitan communities of Western Australia. By taking highly qualified clinicians to work with children and families in hard to reach places, they aim to improve access to early intervention services, and improve child development outcomes in the early years. PATCHES has specific expertise in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) diagnosis and therapy.
Looking to its future, PATCHES CEO James Fitzpatrick sought assistance from PwC to develop their business model in preparation for attracting investors and applying for future funding grants.
An interactive workshop was designed and facilitated in the PwC ‘Innovation Hub’ in Perth with members of the PATCHES team and seven volunteers from PwC’s Consulting business and PwC’s Indigenous Consulting (PIC).This workshop assessed three key areas of focus for PATCHES to develop their business model:
1. Organisation and governance
2. Operating model
3. Funding
PwC was able to support PATCHES by combining the expertise of its volunteers to assist them in developing their business plan. PATCHES found the discussion very helpful in developing their thinking and highlighting opportunities for PATCHES. The volunteers greatly valued the experience and were impressed with the great work that PATCHES is doing throughout WA.
The team at PwC have been incredibly supportive of PATCHES Paediatrics mission to deliver child development services to children and families in hard to reach places and populations. Their expertise was invaluable in reviewing our organisational structure and governance arrangements, operations and funding model. As well as committing their time and expertise, they took the time to understand our core values and principles. This allowed us to further develop our path forward that delivers for children and families in disadvantaged communities, as well as strengthening our service and business model. Dr James Fitzpatrick, Director, PATCHES Paediatrics
The Wirrpanda Foundation’s (WF) vision is to improve the outlook for Aboriginal Australians by empowering and building capacity among Aboriginal people and their communities. From its beginnings in 2005 WF has rapidly developed and established mentoring programs that run in Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. To continue this growth nationally WF requested assistance in developing a strategy to manage and sustain their growth.
PwC designed, hosted and facilitated a workshop focused on answering the key question “How does the Wirrpanda Foundation remain sustainable?” The workshop covered:
1. defining opportunities to support sustainability within key areas of the organisation, and
2. developing a high level framework to deliver agreed opportunity areas.
Four volunteers from PwC participated in the workshop – approximately 15 hours per volunteer was required to design and deliver the workshop. Seven staff members from the Wirrpanda Foundation attended the workshop. All participants greatly valued the workshop and have implemented the outcomes into WF’s strategy.
Our team building workshop, delivered by PwC skilled volunteers, was extremely helpful to the staff at the Wirrpanda Foundation. The day was unlike any other workshop we had previously attended; it was interactive and modern and included up to date information relevant to our charity’s needs. We were able to review our organisational practices both internally and externally, and walked away with a tangible project plan to work towards. Lisa Cunningham, Wirrpanda Foundation CEO
Pollinate Energy (Pollinate) – a social enterprise that improves the lives of India’s urban poor – rely heavily on online marketing tools such as social media and email direct marketing to promote their international programs, online shop sales and donation drives. The organisation currently uses Google Analytics to review and evaluate the impact of its online marketing campaigns. In order to really understand the impact of these campaigns, Pollinate Energy asked PwC to conduct a marketing review and develop a strategy to enable them to harness the full potential of Google Analytics.
PwC reviewed Pollinate’s current online marketing channels and their effectiveness and provided advice on setting up online tracking and reporting from Google Analytics to measure key user journeys on their website. The team also provided advice on future campaigns, use of Google AdWords and spent time mentoring key Pollinate staff.
Three members from PwC’s Consulting team were able to review Pollinate’s digital marketing strategy and help their team better understand and effectively use the functionalities of Google Analytics and Google AdWords. PwC’s review also enabled Pollinate to accelerate strategically important work.
The PwC team collaborated with Pollinate, using Google Hangouts and Docs connecting the PwC team across Adelaide and Sydney, with the Pollinate team in Sydney and India. This is a fantastic example of PwC’s Consulting team harnessing the power of technology to work effectively across geographies.
I think we started off with one PwC volunteer, but as our scope became clearer he was able to bring in two more colleagues to assist. Understanding the breadth of skills across PwC is not an easy task as a partner on the outside, so having this level of support internally to find the right people was critical. Throughout the whole process Aaron, Heath and Rob were effective at understanding what we needed to work on and why, and picked up our pain points very quickly. Alexie Seller, National Manager Australia, Pollinate Energy
As a not for profit, Mission Australia’s (MA) scarcity of funds impacts its ability to run professional development courses and in turn this has an effect on capability enablement and retention. MA sought the skills of PwC’s Learning and Development team to assist them in delivering staff workshops focused on enhancing staff skills and building resilience.
PwC’s L&D team designed and delivered a half day Personal Effectiveness workshop. The workshop focused on the following topics:
• The 7 habits of highly effective people
• How to Win Friends and Influence People
• Making an Impression
The workshop was delivered to by three PwC volunteers to an audience of 15 Mission Australia staff members. The time dedicated to this project by PwC volunteers was approximately 4 hours each – through delivery and preparation on the workshop. The workshop enabled participants to better understand themselves, others and different ways of working.
As a result, PwC will be rolling out additional workshops during the year to MA, focussed on developing business and technical skills.
I'm not generally a workshop person but I absolutely loved this one! It really made us look at ourselves as individuals and how we can all best work as a team, accepting the differences between us all and leveraging everybody's strengths to gain the best results. A fantastic day! Claire Reid, Manager, Corporate Partnerships