Social Enterprise News

News from the Community Management Solutions team (our partners in HR and IR support)

The Fair Work Commission has today announced that Award wages are to be increased by 5.75% from the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2023.

This means that employees who are being paid Award wages are entitled to an increase of 5.75%. 

If, however, your employees are being paid wages higher than those specified in an Award, the increase can be absorbed into that higher rate of pay.

Employees who are being paid the Adult Minimum Wage have received an increase of 8.65% from the same date.

Meanwhile, for employers who operate in the Aged Care Sector, the 15% wage increase announced last month will commence from the first full pay period to commence on or after 30 June.  This means that the 5.75% increase handed down today will be paid in addition to that 15% increase.  Today’s announced increase will have to be calculated on the rates following the 15% increase.

If you have any queries relating to the above, or any other employment related matter, please give us a call and we can provide further assistance.

07 3852 5177

info@cmsolutions.org.au

It’s time to nominate your business for the 2023 Lord Mayor’s Business Awards!

Nominate here!

Now in their 18th year, the Lord Mayor’s Business Awards are an important platform to showcase and champion Brisbane’s best and brightest.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the awards were a chance to uncover ground-breaking ideas changing the way we live, work, and do business.

 

“We encourage businesses of all sizes, from all industries, to apply to celebrate the innovation that’s transforming our city for a brighter future,” Cr Schrinner said.

This year they're excited to announce 11 categories, including a new award for Business Transformation to recognise game-changing strategies, innovation, and technological achievement.

Entries for the 2023 awards are open now and close on Friday 7 July.

Don’t miss your chance to celebrate with your team at Brisbane’s most anticipated business awards night!

2023 Categories open for nomination

Business Chamber Queensland Small Business Award

Virgin Australia Micro Business Award

Accenture Australia Product Innovation Award

Australia Pacific LNG Business Transformation Award

Hutchinson Builders Social Enterprise Award

ANZ High Growth Business Award

Urban Utilities Environmental Sustainability in Business Award

Cisco International Business Award

ISPT Investment in Brisbane Award

Port of Brisbane Award for Young Business Person of the Year

The Courier-Mail Award for Business Person of the Year

Find out more here!

Our friends at Westpac Scholars Trust have announced the 10 social innovators to be awarded a 2023 Westpac Social Change Fellowship.

Valued up to $50,000, the fellowship gives recipients the opportunity to focus on their own personal and professional development to enhance their leadership capabilities. 

Communities of focus among this year’s Social Change Fellows are at risk youth, people with disability and First Nations people, each of which are still significantly impacted by disadvantage.

Congrats to the 2023 Fellows and welcome to our changemakers community!

Read more here about Audrey & read the article announcing her here.

White Box Enterprises is determined to strengthen the jobs-focused social enterprise movement in Australia, announcing today its plans to co-design a new financial wellbeing program in collaboration with selected social enterprises to enhance the vital wrap-around supports these businesses provide.

The three-year program, made possible through the support of Ecstra Foundation (Ecstra), aims to equip social enterprises with the necessary tools and knowledge to help their employees improve their financial literacy and wellbeing, ultimately leading to improved financial decision making and independence.

A vast number of research studies undertaken by public, private and social sectors demonstrate that improving financial literacy and resilience with people experiencing disadvantage can reduce financial stress and inequality, and improve health and relationships.

“We know that if someone is equipped with the knowledge, tools and confidence to manage their money, this can lead to more positive outcomes in other areas of their life.” said Kelly Taylor, National Programs Manager, White Box Enterprises.

Read more here.

White Box, in collaboration with ASA, has officially opened a new office in Cairns today with a clear mission to create more jobs for First Nations people, autistic young adults, refugees and other groups experiencing disadvantage in the region.

White Box, ASA and Feraliser are the first to call the social enterprise jobs hub home, with fast-growing data analytics business, ASA expected to create 20 new jobs for autistic adults in its first year.

ASA is a unique onshore data-oriented professional services provider, founded by White Box, that harnesses the exceptional talents of autistic individuals. Focused on providing high quality data analysis for businesses and governments, the mission-driven organisation has had rapid growth since it was launched in 2020, securing contracts with Ventia, Department of Foreign Affairs and Queensland Department of Resources.

“ASA shows you what is possible when you align business with a clear social purpose,” said Alex McDonald, Chair of ASA and Chief Entrepreneur for White Box Enterprises.

Read more here.

We, alongside many of our friends and colleagues across Australia welcome a range of initiatives released by the Federal Government's budget announcement 9/5/23.

We are excited to see the diversity of the initiatives, which we will be working with our national counterparts to demystify in the months ahead.

Here are the headlines to pique your interest:

• New Impact Fund - $100 million over 5 years from 2024 to establish a Social Impact Outcomes Fund to tackle disadvantage by making contractual payments to states, territories and service providers based on delivering agreed, measurable outcomes, following a co-design process with stakeholders, including states and territories.
• Capability Strengthening for social enterprise - $11.6 million over 3 years from 2023 for a Social Enterprise Development Initiative to provide grants, online education and mentoring for social enterprises and 'for purpose' organisations such as charities to build their capability and access to capital and social finance.
• Addressing entrenched disadvantage - The Government has also placed a heavy emphasis on better understanding and addressing entrenched disadvantage:
  • Holistic strategy to drive community development - $7.8 million to develop a whole-of-government Framework to Address Community Disadvantage that will identify strategic objectives and key principles to guide how Canberra will work in partnership with communities to enable them to build their capability to address cycles of disadvantage.
  • Data to track systemic disadvantage - $16.4 million to the ABS to implement the Life Course Data Initiative to inform long term policy responses aimed at interrupting cycles of intergenerational disadvantage.
  • Raising the voice of the inclusive economy - $8.7 million to support the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee on an ongoing basis with secretariat and research support.
• National Autism Strategy - $27 million over 4 years to undertake additional pilots of early intervention and further progress the Federal Government's election commitment to deliver a National Autism Strategy. 
• Place-based strategies for systemic change include new programs:
  • $211.7 million to provide grants for community infrastructure in urban and suburban communities through a competitive grants program.
  • $159.7 million to support investment in place-based priorities of local urban communities through a collaborative partnerships approach with state, territory and local governments and communities.
• A range of green economy initiatives include:
  • Startup Industry Growth Grants (Big focus on green economy) - $392 million will support Australian SME's and startups to commercialise their ideas and grow their operations. Support will be targeted towards businesses operating in the priority areas of the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund including renewables, low emissions tech, and value-add in agriculture.
  • Energy Upgrade Fund for households and small business -  $300 million to cut energy bills for tenants in 60,000 social housing properties by around one-third through funding energy performance upgrades, and provides a further $310 million in support through the Small Business Energy Incentive.
  • Green Bonds - $8.3 million over 4 years to develop and issue sovereign green bonds, $1.6 million to co-fund with the private sector the development of an Australian ‘sustainable finance taxonomy'
• ALSO: A new Partnership Priorities Sub-Committee of the Secretaries Board has been established to further embed partnership culture and behaviour in the APS, including place-based partnerships. The Sub-Committee is developing a Charter for Partnerships and Engagement to provide a clear statement about how the APS will work in partnership with communities and business to build public trust and drive public service culture and behaviour.
  

We are immensely grateful to the leadership and advocacy led by Social Enterprise Australia and Social Traders. The collective efforts of our national and state-peaks has elevated the voice of our members and made a historic contribution to our sector's recognition in the Federal Budget. 

Read the full budget here

State of the Sector Review 

The State of Queensland (acting through the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training) is Expression of Interest (EOI) from qualified suppliers to provide an innovative and agile response that outline how they can deliver a State of the Sector Review of the social enterprise sector in Queensland (our reference 52208).

Suppliers are required to demonstrate throughout their proposal, a real understanding of the requirements and how the solution will be delivered.

For detailed information please review 52208 Expresion of Interest - State of the Sector Review and provide your proposal using 52208 Schedule A - Response Schedule - State of the Sector Review by 5:00pm (AEST) Friday 2 June 2023

Mega Category:	General goods and services
Number:	52208
Released:	Fri, 5 May 2023 at 12:00AM Brisbane, Queensland
Closing:	Fri, 2 Jun 2023 at 5:00PM Brisbane, Queensland

	David Wilmott
	David.Wilmot@desbt.qld.gov.au

	Lorrie Lim
	Corporate.Procurement@desbt.qld.gov.au

The Federal Government has announced a $200M package to help improve services to help break the cycle of disadvantage. 

$200 million will be allocated to help improve services and establish partnerships with philanthropists to grow programs to help break the cycle of disadvantage.

The funding will establish a new strategy to partner with philanthropists to allow the government to coordinate efforts, improve data collection and distribution to help guide local decision making and embed place-based initiatives.

Intergenerational disadvantage and child and family wellbeing will be the primary focus of the package, including action in the early years.

A new $100 million outcomes fund will establish a partnership between the Commonwealth and states, territories and social enterprises to deliver projects designed to tackle entrenched disadvantage.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the package was about supporting local leaders and investing in organisations to make it easier for them to improve outcomes for their communities.

"In order to build the kind of economy that we want, we have got to align what we want to see in our economy with what we want to see in our society and in our communities," he said on Friday.

"All of my adult life, one of the things that hasn't made a lot of sense is how a country like ours, which generates the most remarkable opportunities for people in the broad, needs to do a much better job of putting those opportunities within reach of more people."

Australian Associated Press 

By Maeve Bannister

Updated May 5 2023 - 4:52pm, first published 4:48pm

Read the Full Article 

"Finding what works" is the third report in CEDA’s Disrupting Disadvantage series. It focuses on improving the evaluation of community services for their effectiveness and value. This report outlines how governments can use data collection to build more disciplined and consistent program evaluation, and how to foster a culture that enables this.

"The community rightfully expects that taxpayer funds are used to effectively improve economic and social outcomes for all citizens, but too often this is not the case...

What is holding back change is a complex system that encourages policymakers to implement rapid responses to societal problems, rather than insisting on regular, proactive evaluation of existing programs. This is compounded by challenges in undertaking evaluations and a lack of resourcing, leading to long-term atrophy of evaluation culture and capability."

Let's change the systems... let's address the policy and evaluation gaps.

Read more here: https://www.ceda.com.au/ResearchAndPolicies/Research/Government-Regulation/DD3

The United Nations General Assembly yesterday agreed its first ever resolution on the social and solidarity economy. The resolution, adopted at a meeting in New York, encourages member states and financial institutions to promote and support the work of social enterprises, cooperatives and others to achieve sustainable development.

Read more here!