David Burns

• Manage a team of Disability Advocates and Intake Advocates who deliver individual advocacy to people with disability throughout the Greater Sydney Region, including providing regular training and reviewing work for quality control.
• Engage with internal stakeholders, including Regional Managers, Executive Officer, Chief Executive Officer, and Principal Solicitor, to support the ongoing collaboration and growth of the organization.
• Provide direct individual advocacy to clients as needed to support them in pursuing matters involving unfair treatment in forums such as the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART), NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), education and employment services, government services, and others.
• Identify barriers that restrict fair access to advocacy services, and implement strategies to engage with and support these key demographics for individuals from diverse backgrounds, communication needs, and complex life backgrounds.
• Support the accessibility of advocacy by promoting Disability Advocacy NSW to relevant professional stakeholders, such as services within the legal, health, civil, and disability fields, including organising regular meetings and cross-organizational training opportunities.
• Complete reporting and legislative requirements, including regularly reporting qualitative and quantitative data to funding bodies relevant to individual and systemic advocacy.
• Manage the office requirements for the region, including taking responsibility for the upkeep and maintenance of the work vehicle and office, addressing any maintenance issues, and identifying opportunities for improvements to the workspace.

Key Achievements

• Led key organisation-wide projects including re-shaping our organisational intake process, creating and implementing updated processes for ART advocacy matters, and leading the development of supported-decision making practices implemented into our everyday practice.
• Led key regional projects including building connections with local community legal centres and tenancy advocacy services to support collaborative referrals and working systems, connecting with local education offices and education directors to share information on our service to support education matters, and developing resources and data to identify key demographics within the Greater Sydney Region to support our ability to implement strategies to improve accessibility.
• Increased the accessibility of our service within the region by 28% over two years, resulting in increased client intake and a larger volume of advocacy matters completed.
• Increased the processing time of intake inquiries within the region by 62% over two years, resulting in individuals receiving faster responses regarding the eligibility of their matters.

• Manage industry relations with stakeholders such as support coordinators, local area coordinators, allied health therapists, and disability service providers.
• Attend networking events across Australia to connect with stakeholders within the disability sector for the purpose of information sharing and assisting Support Coordinators to support their clients.
• Run in-person and virtual events both for and with industry stakeholders to cross-promote and collaborate across different disability service providers.
• Manage Industry Engagement Coordinators who assist with transitioning leads to customers by managing all elements of their Hireup experience, and provide top quality service standards.
• Creating and regularly reviewing processes for automated follow-up journeys catered to separate cohorts based on stakeholder type, user need, and other data points.

Key Achievements

• Promoted the intake of clients from Support Coordinator referrals by 45% within 2 months in the role, as well as creating a new referrals system for industry stakeholders.
• Created Industry Engagement Coordinator roles allowing more involvement for our team to support industry stakeholders after the initial interaction phase. The company has had a 70% growth from new leads to activated customers since the inception of these roles.
• Created all relevant training and development processes for direct reports to promote continued growth and quality improvement. Achieved this through regular coaching and performance conversations.
• Assisted in the creation of multiple supporting roles including an Independent Living Options (ILO) Manager and a Provider Relationship Manager to continue to engage and support our industry stakeholders.

• Led a high-performing team through a myriad of day-to-day reactive queries ranging from simple admin tasks to complex support queries.
• Engaged with internal stakeholders to proactively identify opportunities for improvement, share insights and knowledge, and positively and constructively communicate the voice of the community within Hireup.
• Managed community relations by handling escalations, complex queries, and responding to incidents and complaints, while empowering team growth and enablement by educating team members on processes to navigate these types of inquiries.
• Provided regular coaching and training for direct reports to promote continuous growth and performance development at both the team and individual levels.

Key Achievements

• Created, implemented, and managed a range of process improvements, including changing the roster and workflow of the team to improve productivity and efficiency, proposing and developing features to promote and improve quality and safeguarding, and producing resources for the Incident Response team.
• Improved team performance and development by creating large-scale training programs on topics such as feedback, decision making, and handling challenging conversations.
• Designed and implemented progression within the team in the form of the creation of the Senior Community Support Coordinator role, and continued work with other team leads and stakeholders to manage this role.

• Supported People with a variety of physical and intellectual disabilities, in a multitude of tasks from everyday life management (e.g. money management) to broader skills (e.g. supporting to achieve HSC and TAFE certificates).
• Worked both face-to-face with clients and behind the scenes with managerial work, organizing and helping create Client Management Plans, liaising with other companies and the NDIS in achieving the greatest possible client satisfaction, and managing a team of support workers and team leaders.
• Operated with clients in individual and group settings, as well as working and planning programs both co-operatively and independently.

• Supported children with varying support needs with household tasks, community access and personal care requirements.
• Assisted with implementing communication support, such as using Auslan sign language and other non-verbal communications such as stop/go and finished boards.

• Supported Children with a variety of physical and intellectual disabilities in years K-6 in a primarily one-on-one environment.
• Created and implemented personalized programs for multiple students to assist their studies and maximize their potential.
• Aided students with personal care needs and assisted with verbal and non-verbal communication.