Shannon Gordon
Mount Louisa,Australia
Summary
• Strong strategic planning and organisational ability, providing direction, solutions & rationale.
• High capabilities to communicate both orally and written within the Department and external to the Department.
• Passion for staff and believe if staff are supported, they will go above and beyond for the business.
• Passionate to assist staff move through change management.
• Was pivotal in the delivery of a change in large client management system for a large government department.
• Knowledge in the procurement processes and funding for NGO sector which will assist in the ensuring Procurement and Contract Management team are understanding of the needs of the sector and ensure contracts reflect achievable and measurable outcomes.
• Positive and strong relationships with Government and Non Government sector.
• Confidence in raising worries in a manner that addresses the issue yet maintains relationships.
• High in my organisational skills, utilising outlook and creating systems to map and report on necessary targets.
• Highly self-motivated, positive and adapt to changes well.
• Fully vaccinated for COVID-19
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Acting Business Readiness Coordinator
Department of Child Safety, Disabilities and Seniors Services
Office Of The Regional Director - Townsville, Queensland
02.2024 - Current
- Clear and concise messaging for all staff across the region in a timely manner. This required knowing key staff in each workgroup across our region to assist with ensuring the messaging was delivered.
- Implementing change management strategies to ensure staff are aware of the impending change to the client management system.
- Understanding the different learning styles of adults in the working environment and adjusting delivery of information to cater for the learners' needs.
- Regularly reviewed and adjusted goals to ensure it continued to meet the needs of the staff
- Worked with staff across the state in varying levels within the department
- Travel to outlying areas in the region to ensure support is provided face to face with utilising teams' video calls, conferences, in times where travel was not possible.
- Remain calm in stressful situations, reflected and reviewed practices to ensure it continue to meet the needs at the current time of the project
- Ensuring these processes are clearly documented to ensure processes are followed in the future and to ensure accountability
- Communicates with Delegated positions to seek agreement prior to implementing any changes
- Able to reflect on areas of self development and researches on ways to improve these areas
- Communicates these with direct line supervisor and is able to articulate strategies to overcome any identified areas of growth
- Remains solution focussed when faced with adversity, which was always done so by focussing on the end goal
Senior Team Leader
Department of Child Safety
Townsville, Queensland
01.2023 - 02.2024
- Foster a culture and philosophy of frontline service delivery, cooperation, teamwork, high quality people
- Management, commitment to excellence and a professional ethic which ensures the service team continues to meet the department's priorities
- Actively participate as a member of the placement service unit team
- I am able to do
- This by leading the team in creating a team plan, which is influenced by the team input and the strategic plan
- I provide regular, open and honest feedback and encourage the team to continuously improve and adjust to the region need
- Ensure that all members of the team implement and maintain the department's client case management systems/practices/standards, planning and review processes with an emphasis on the involvement of children, young people, families and their carers
- We have implemented several systems with Access, Excel that tracks our key priority work areas
- Having regular communication within the team ensures the workload is known by all
- Allocate, prioritise and perform work tasks in accordance with departmental procedures and statutory delegations
- And actively participate in quality assurance reviews of the regional placement services
- I ensure supervision of staff occurs regularly with a focus on honest feedback and staff growth
- I also participate in supervision with my line manager by being prepared with my topics of discussion and areas I hope to achieve with the team
- I also use this time to raise any worries I have and will attempt to bring solutions where possible
- High level of communication skills and ability to engage with a range of people, including Child Safety Service Centre Staff (CSSC), service providers, children and young people, carers, and other government agencies in order to deliver child protection services pertaining to out-of-home care
- My role requires me to communicate with a range of people across the region on a regular basis
- For example, the Child Information Form was worded poorly around the 'sexual abuse' question
- I sought permission from my management to seek to influence change with this
- I sought
- Expert advice from the SACCS Team around the wording and then fed it to the Policy and practice branch
- This resulted in the current form to be amended and equated to more informed placement matching specifically around children who had experience sexual harm
- Develop and maintain collaborative and productive relationships with non-government agencies in the region to jointly build additional carer capacity, enhance the delivery and coordination of out-of-home care placement
- Services
- Forecast placement trends, issues and concerns in a timely manner to the Manager, Placement and Service Support and be able to articulate regional placement demands and provide regional placement statistics
- I proactively participate in meetings with agencies in Townsville, Mackay and Mt Isa to discuss placement pressures specific to that area
- The databases we use are often collated and provided to the Procurement and Management
- Team to assist them in identifying the need for placement services in each area
- Provide expert advice and decisions on complex placement matters to assist in the coordination of appropriate client services, decision-making by CSSC Managers and the formulation and implementation of placement
- Recommendations by CSSC leadership teams
- For example, I facilitate conversations with CSSC Management ensuring the latest policies and procedures are considered in their decision making
- I have covered for the CRC-PAS position several times while staff have taken leave
- This requires monitoring of the budgets, seeking appropriate approvals and matching of children and young people in short term placement options
- This position also required relationship building and trust in the service providers to ensure they were skilled enough to provide the care required
- Identified areas of need within the work we do and created projects to assist with improving practices
- Lead a CSO Recruitment panel and provided feedback to all participants including those who were not successful, including an applicant who raised a HR Complaint about the panel members
- It required me to consult with the Human Resources specialist, have the discussion and document open and transparently
- Family based Team
Acting Manager - Placement Services Unit
Department of Child Safety, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs
Townsville, Queensland
02.2022 - 01.2023
- Leads strategically, having oversight of all the teams within the Placement Services Unit and identifying areas of need
- Having to reallocate workloads and amend practices to meet the demand and urgent business requirements and create efficiencies
- Demonstrate calm demeanour in stressful situations and reflects and reviews practices to ensure it continue to meet the needs at the current time
- Ensuring these processes are clearly documented to ensure processes are followed in the future
- Promotes the need for positive staff morale to be a constant discussion and prioritisation of the leadership team
- Suggesting ideas to ensure there is balance to the workload and the stressors within the workplace
- Demonstrates and encourages relationship building within the sector and collaboration approach to ensure the needs of the children and young people are the focus
- Able to reflect on areas of self development and researches on ways to improve these areas
- Communicates these with direct line supervisor and is able to articulate strategies to overcome any identified areas of growth
- Responsible for financial approvals and ensuring HR delegations are adhered to
- Seeking advice from expert positions where necessary and reflecting on policies when required
- Perform HR conversations within the unit and ensures staff are supported and afforded all procedural fairness
- Influencing change in new UNIFY system to respond to practice gap identified through reviews after serious incidents
A/Senior Team Leader
Department of Child Safety
Thuringowa, Queensland
01.2017 - 03.2017
- Provide leadership and management of staff to: deliver quality child protection service delivery consistent with legislation, departmental policies, practice guidelines and statutory responsibilities and in accordance with best
- Practice Human Resource principles
- As I was new to the role, I was required to quickly research the relevant policies and procedures relevant to this role
- I also used the experienced leadership team as a sounding board to ensure I was on the right track in the beginning
- I also encouraged staff to seek expert advice and/or bring the relevant
- Policies and legislation when having supervisions to discuss case specific tasks
- Allocate, prioritise and perform work tasks in accordance with departmental policy, the Framework for Practice, practice guidelines and statutory, financial and administrative delegations
- I prioritised supervision with staff to regularly discuss their workloads and any specific areas of development
- I utilised the workload weighting tool to fairly allocate caseloads to the staff and adjusted these accordingly as the staffing needs changed in the team, for example staff leaving and/or new staff
- In conjunction with the Service Centre Manager, develop appropriate service responses to meet the identified needs
- Of clients including children, young people, families, carers, the community, public and non-government sectors and service providers
- Examples of how I achieved this was presenting at SCAN meetings on children in my teams case
- Load, this required me to complete the relevant documents prior to the meeting and request the relevant
- Information of our key partnering agencies
- Identify training needs and collaborate with the relevant training and development specialists in defining the training gap, to enable content development and implementation
- Provide advice to the relevant training and development specialists in the region regarding your evaluation of appropriate programs that support quality service delivery'
- While in this role, the changes associated with OCFOS were still being embedded
- My team was having challenges around the timeframes and case discussions
- As a result, I fed this up to my Manager
- This influenced the training linked with OCFOS to be delivered again in our region and the entire office attended
- Develop enduring service delivery partnerships to enhance cross-sector collaboration, and support staff attendance at training and development and the delivery and co-ordination of local child protection services
- Having regular supervisions with staff and visual yearly plans for all staff to see deadlines allowed my team to confidently attend training relevant to their training needs without it impacting service delivery
- Foster a culture and philosophy of frontline service delivery, cooperation, teamwork, high quality people
- Management, commitment to excellence and a professional ethic which ensures the service team continues to meet the department's vision, values and priorities
- I met regularly with the team each week to discuss workloads and tasks that needed to be prioritised and/or rescheduled
- Open communication about priorities, limitations and brainstorming as a team resulted in a positive team culture
- Actively participate as a member of the Child Safety Service Centre Management Team and in quality assurance reviews of the service centre
- I attended OLT each week and was prepared with data for my teams performance
- I was able to discuss any worries and strategies to address and/or consult with the management team for solutions
- Provide authoritative and specialist advice and decisions on complex casework matters, child protection policy, legislation and practice to relevant service centre staff to assist in the coordination of quality and appropriate client services
- When attending stakeholder meetings as the Team Leader, there were many decisions where I was delegated to make a final decision and often in a time limited manner
- Where necessary, some decisions required
- Manager or Regional Director level approval, if I was unable to obtain these prior to the meeting, I would be sure to follow up with these approvals as soon as I possibly could
Coordinator
Department of Child Safety
Townsville, Queensland
02.2010 - 05.2013
- Managed and provided leadership to a team of 6 people in the Kinship and Foster Care Team, who were responsible for the assessment, training and support of foster carers and also support of our partners, internal and external
- Responsible for a small budget which was primarily used for outsourcing of assessments and events for recruitment and/or support of foster and kinship carers
- Attended and spoke to data that I had prepared at the Operational Performance Review, which included the Director General at the time
- Facilitated in collaboration with partner agencies, both internal and external the foster and kinship carer events, training and recruitment activities
- Developed the Reconnection Project for my team, 2012, in collaboration with Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak LTD and local Recognised Entities
- Lead fostering events in remote communities, such as Mornington Island, Doomadgee and Normanton in conjunction with Foster Care Queensland
- Completed Ministers briefing when any fostering events were on, to ensure the Ministers had the most recent and local knowledge and did so in a timely manner
- Kinship and Foster Care Team
Child Safety Officer
Gulf Child Safety Service Centre
Mt Isa
03.2007 - 07.2007
- Deliver accountable and collaborative integrated child protection services that respect the culture and context of each child, young person, family and community in accordance with departmental policies and procedures, statutory responsibilities, and the child protection practice framework
- When working in the Gulf catchment areas, each place
- Had different cultural protocols to follow
- As a new CSO in the area, I drew my knowledge from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers in the office and the Recognised Entities in the areas
- Participate and contribute productively as a team member to form culturally appropriate, professional working relationships with colleagues, stakeholders, including children, young people and families, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), and other service providers
- I actively sought opportunities to do work with our NGO partners where possible
- I recognised early that agencies like the Recognised entities and our fostering agencies were the experts in their areas and could provide a wealth of information for me to be able to perform my role sufficiently
Child Safety Officer
Department of Child Safety
Alternate Care Team Regional Office - Townsville
01.2005 - 02.2007
- I have always worked within the Code of Conduct and other relevant departmental policies and procedures.
- I always followed the direction of my leadership team and reported incidents appropriately
- Maintain quality case records in accordance with departmental case management requirements, recording on client management system.
- Participate and contribute to a culture of continuous learning, training, and professional development to ensure practice knowledge and skills are contemporary and evidence-based.
- I have always been an active participant in workgroups and have always strived to learn the most possible in my roles, and applied these skills to achieve higher positions.
- I achieved PO3 and quickly mentored people in my team.
Education
Bachelor of Psychology -
Certificate IV - Leadership and Management
Certificate IV - Training and Assessment
Skills
- Staff Training and Development
- Time Management
- Negotiation
- Verbal and written communication
- Product Management
- Quality Improvement
- Technical Support
- Documentation And Reporting
- Problem-Solving
- Team Check-Ins
- Conflict Resolution
- Coaching and Mentoring
- Team motivation
- People Management
Certification
• Managing People for Performance
• Ethical Decision making and Code of Conduct
• Future Focus Forum
• Leading for Success | Regional Leadership Training (Scott Stein)
• Procurement Fundamentals Level 1
• Intermediate Procurement level 2
• Starting the Journey
• IPMS Framework for practice modules 1-6
• IPMS Training for Team Leaders
• Framework for Practice: Leading Practice II Training
• Water Safety training and awareness
• Structured Decision Making
• Reach Advanced
• People Matters
• UNIFY training
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Acting Business Readiness Coordinator
Department of Child Safety, Disabilities and Seniors Services
02.2024 - Current
Senior Team Leader
Department of Child Safety
01.2023 - 02.2024
Acting Manager - Placement Services Unit
Department of Child Safety, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs
02.2022 - 01.2023
A/Senior Team Leader
Department of Child Safety
01.2017 - 03.2017
Coordinator
Department of Child Safety
02.2010 - 05.2013
Child Safety Officer
Gulf Child Safety Service Centre
03.2007 - 07.2007
Child Safety Officer
Department of Child Safety
01.2005 - 02.2007
Bachelor of Psychology -
Certificate IV - Leadership and Management
Certificate IV - Training and Assessment
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