The College’s implementation of CompliSpace Education has vastly improved policy, training and incident management and this has become a catalyst for cultural change. Policy and practice are now closely aligned – thereby reducing many risks.
St Michael’s College is a leading Catholic school in the western suburbs of Adelaide with a population of 1840 students and over 230 staff. The College comprises two campuses offering primary education to boys from Reception to Year 6 at Beverley and secondary education to girls and boys from Year 7 to Year 12 at Henley Beach. The St Michael’s College community is comprised of a diverse range of cultural, social and religious backgrounds, all aspiring to a common purpose – for young people to flourish and be the best they can be.
It is a college in the Lasallian tradition which is committed to the human and Christian education of the young, especially the poor, through community, challenge and choice. St. Michael’s has also worked in close partnership with the Missionary of the Sacred Heart Fathers (MSC) throughout its history and they continue to act as Chaplains to the College.
St Michael’s is one of four Institute Colleges of the De La Salle Brothers in Australia. The Lasallians have another 15 associated schools and colleges, including an indigenous school in the Balgo Wirrimanu Community in WA, offering Catholic Education in most Australian states and territories. They also run the ‘Lasallian Foundation for Positive Change’ and are involved in ‘Kid’s Helpline’ and ‘Yourtown’.
St Michael’s engaged CompliSpace to help bring consistency and transparency to the way it managed its policies, risk and compliance. They were looking for a single source of truth to ensure that all staff knew where their policies could be found and that the policies were regularly updated, ensuring ongoing compliance. In addition, they were looking for an online solution that would allow them to remove paper-based forms, save time logging incidents and submitting reports and a system for ensuring compliance tasks are completed when required.
CompliSpace worked with St Michael’s College to implement CompliSpace Education, which included:
Policy Management System
Before implementing Policy Management, Dominic explained that policies were stored in numerous places at the school – from the website, to the hard copy handbook, to paper copies in files in the staff rooms or to staffs’ own hard drives. This created confusion among staff about where to find policies and uncertainty about which policies were the most updated versions. The whole process has been made smoother through the appointment and the work of Julia Azzolini Safety, Risk and Compliance Coordinator.
Now, the school simply publishes a Policy Management link, which directs staff to the latest version of a policy quickly. Dominic said that the College is hoping to eventually use the CompliSpace Policy Management platform as the landing page for their School’s intranet.
The College now has easy access to risk and compliance related content covering:
Dominic shared that one of the most challenging parts of the implementation was the preparation work staff did to find and review all their policies. This work was time consuming, but essential, for a smooth implementation. In addition, he noted that it took time to get the teachers on board. Many staff saw this as an imposition on their already taxed work time. But as Dominic quoted, “We didn’t create the compliance requirements, we are just trying to solve them in the most effective way we can.”
Assurance
Prior to the Assurance implementation the school relied on paper-based forms and the process was cumbersome with limited reporting and analysis capabilities.
The following processes and records are now fully managed within the CompliSpace Assurance platform:
Now, staff have access to Assurance on their mobiles and laptops, and “...it’s become second nature, which is fantastic.” Dominic added that it took very little training for all staff to adopt Assurance. “If a teacher is on the oval and a student gets injured, he or she can complete the form on the spot. We can act immediately on the incident because the process is quick and accurate. Relevant key staff, including the Principal if necessary, are notified immediately. Assurance saves so much time and improves accuracy as well.”
Reporting
Dominic has found the reporting function of the systems in CompliSpace Education to be very helpful. The reports provide the information he needs for staff, management, committee and Board reports.
"We were excited about the project because it would give us a one stop shop make sure we know where our policies are and that they are updated. Getting rid of paper-based forms has saved us so much time logging incidents and submitting reports. Staff have found the systems easy to use and have been quick on the uptake."
Dominic LoBasso,
Business Manager.
"CompliSpace has provided us with a holistic approach to Risk and Safety and Management. We have all of our policies and procedures in one place – the single source of truth - to make sure we know where our policies are and that they are regularly reviewed and updated by legal and legislative experts."
Dominic LoBasso,
Business Manager.
"St Michael’s are using Assurance brilliantly and have set up their WHS and they love Boardroom online. They have been an unofficial Reference Client for us for ages and they always speak highly of our product."
Joylene Leaney,
Regional Manager, CompliSpace.