Strategic directions

As a values-based socially-oriented organisation, we exist to support individual and community wellbeing. We are social in our goals and as our community’s needs grow and change, so shall we.

We will be grounded and flexible and demonstrate inclusivity, partnership and collaboration with consumers and carers that goes beyond convention and rhetoric. We will listen to the expertise, knowledge and experience of consumers and carers about what they need and want, and work with them as valued partners in the design, delivery and evaluation of services.

New and Enhanced Services

We listen to consumers. We are curious and work with them to improve current services and co-design new services. We understand the consumer journey and collaborate with them in design, delivery and evaluation of our services. We know consumers develop control over their own lives and resources to positively disengage from our services, but we continue to support them where we can, to meet their needs. Service excellence will be at the heart of everything we do, specifically focusing on quality, safety, clinical governance and ethical care and practice.

Awareness and Appeal

We are a provider of choice by taking practical and systematic steps to improve our public profile so consumers understand who we are, what we do and how we can contribute to their lives. We prioritise a relationship of trust, inclusivity and empowerment with consumers and carers with lived and living experience.

Impact Assessment and Evidence

We demonstrate to consumers, funders, partner agencies and our workforce that our services act as pathways for safety and opportunity, healing, quality of life, growth and wellbeing. We focus on our strategy, the evidence-base and embedding data collection, analysis and reporting to illustrate the value of what we do.

We will work with others to improve the lives of people living with mental health issues and/or adversity nationally. This will mean broadening the scope of our partnerships to include those that will enhance our knowledge, expertise and collective impact, as well as strengthening our connections with existing partners.

We know that in order to deliver our purpose and increase impact for consumers and carers, we cannot do it alone. We have to work across traditional sectors, beyond our current locations and in deep collaboration with like-minded and values aligned organisations to deliver on our purpose.

Purposeful Partnerships Outside Our Sector

We will actively seek out and engage with providers and stakeholders outside the psychosocial and mental health care systems where this will help us to deliver on our purpose.

Stronger and More Purposeful Partnerships Inside Our Sector

Existing and new partnerships within our traditional domains will be strengthened and deepened to better deploy scarce resources and support proactive engagement and the development of solution-based proposals with funders. We will actively share knowledge and experience where doing so will lead to more effective service provision, system reform and better outcomes. Our collaborations will privilege lived experience and enable evidence for better and more effective service provision, system design and change.

Expanded and Improved Funder Partnerships

We will engage with funders as partners and use the knowledge developed through expanded partnerships to improve our relationships with existing funders. We will also draw on collective knowledge and expertise to conceive and deliver proactive proposals to funders that better meet the needs of consumers and deliver on our purpose.

Our team is optimistic, enthusiastic and engaged. These traits will help us to build a great workforce, a great place to work, be more financially resilient and more operationally effective.

Our staff are overwhelmingly positive about both the workplace and belief in our work. Neami and its staff hold high ambitions for growth – that the work they do will be valued and become more accessible. People are a strategic supply and one that will come under significant pressure even without growth. Financial resilience, along with an effective workforce that is performing within efficient operations, are vital for sustaining the optimism of staff and delivering services of value.

A Great Workforce, A Great Place to Work

We will listen to what is important for staff about what best supports their capacity, resilience and good practice in the work place. We will listen to what is important to consumers in terms of staff practices that are supportive and enabling. We will ensure our workplaces honour the diversity of lived experience and respect the value of evidence-informed practice, continuous learning and reflective practice.

Fit for Purpose, Flexible Organisation

We will adapt to deliver our purpose and implement new structures to support financial sustainability, flexibility, greater mobility and personal choice for staff and  consumers. We acknowledge that this may require changes to our operational systems that may have worked in the past but are no longer proving useful.

Explore Earned Revenue

Revenue from outside traditional funding sources will support research and implementation of a reform agenda to meet the current and emerging expectations of consumers.

We know that there are many components to a system that enables consumers to access the right kind of support at the right time. Our reform agenda will support consumers and carers to voice their needs and aspirations and we will also strongly advocate for system reform that delivers on these.

Our system reform activity is informed by deep connections in service delivery, solid data / evidence and strong partnerships (for insight, extra capability and the impression of not being self-serving).

Data Led Service and Policy Development

We will purposefully improve our own systems and services and collaborate and work with others to combine data to build better insights and richer evidence of what works, and use this to inform policy and influence stakeholders. Sharing context-rich data with funders and policy makers can assist the development of holistic policy responses that address the sources of adversity and distress, as well as their impacts.

Proactive Government Engagement and Advocacy

We will work to embed lived experience perspective and choice within policy and funding decisions. Our collaborations, partnerships and approach to evidence will be utilised to advocate for change that empowers consumers.