In FY2025, Northcott invested in improving some of its sites. This included opening new facilities, moving to more accessible premises and completing renovations.

Dapto Community Hub

Our purpose-built Dapto Community Hub officially opened in October 2024. This is now where we deliver all our Illawarra regional services. Customers played a huge part in the design process for the facility, contributing input to ensure the centre meets the needs of people with disability.

The building features spacious rooms to accommodate our Work & Study, Life Skills and Recreation Group Services. There are also smaller break-out rooms to allow for one-on-one support when customers need it.

Recognising that customers with neurodiverse conditions may require spaces to relax and decompress, we created chill-out rooms and recreation spaces. This included making a pool table and indoor basketball hoop available for customers.

For our Work & Study customers, grant funding allowed us to set up ‘Café-Thanks-A-Latte’ where customers can learn barista and hospitality skills.

Wagga Wagga

After months of refurbishment work, in late 2024 we were delighted to move our Wagga Wagga Group Services and Clinical Services into the historic Old Federal Brewery. Northcott invested in renovations to make the facility more accessible for customers with wide-ranging abilities, and to ensure the spaces are suitable for delivering quality services.

New Penrith location

We relocated to a new location in Penrith to better meet the needs of customers. The new centre, which was enhanced with refurbishments, is better equipped to deliver our Group Services and enable staff to work with the Penrith community to promote inclusion and support customers to build connections.

Citi Foundation Work & Study partnership

Graduates of our Work & Study program funded by Citi Foundation

In October, our three-year Work & Study project funded by Citi Foundation wrapped up.

Over the life of the program, 162 young people with disability were supported to build skills, gain work experience and take steps toward employment or further study.

Across 10 of our locations, 103 customers completed nearly 200 work placements and 58 participants completed or enrolled in vocational training.

Participants also benefited from tailored mentoring support. Partnerships with major employers, including Bunnings and David Jones, expanded inclusive job opportunities and strengthened employer confidence in hiring young people with disability.

The program also delivered longterm impact through the development of comprehensive Work & Study Service Guidelines, new staff training, and employer engagement resources that will ensure quality and consistency across all future services.

In a separate project funded by Woodend Foundation, we also created an online resource hub for our staff running the Work & Study service. From a single location, staff can now access and download shared guides, worksheets and other useful resources.

Thanks to support from Citi Foundation and Woodend Foundation, Northcott is now better placed to help young people with disability transition successfully into work and study pathways.

Northcott places a strong emphasis on delivering high quality and safe services and supports to our customers. We have welcomed the government’s focus on strengthening provider regulation and strive for continuous improvement of our services, systems and practices.

With a focus on safeguarding and investigations, healthcare and restrictive practices, our Quality, Risk and Safeguarding staff work closely with Operations to embed a culture of vigilance, clinical governance and practice support across all our services.

Complex Health Clinic

We expanded our dedicated Complex Health Coordination Clinic. This clinic provides customers with chronic health conditions and co-morbidities with better access to specialised, co-ordinated medical care.

The clinic is delivered in partnership with Dr Richard Chan, Consultant General Physician and Specialist Geriatrician. It brings together a customer’s General Practitioner, Northcott’s Clinical Governance Team and a broader network of medical and allied health professionals to improve their health outcomes.

Customers accessing the clinic have received comprehensive medical reviews, assessment of health vulnerabilities, medication reviews and geriatric evaluations, if applicable.

Each customer has also been given a tailored action plan. This is shared with their primary care physician and nominated responsible person for implementation and continuity of care.

Dental care clinic

Customers can now access dental services from our clinic at Northcott Parramatta

In partnership with the University of Sydney School of Dentistry we began offering free dental care to customers aged 18 years and over from August 2024.

In FY2025, 65 customers attended face-to-face appointments held at our Parramatta office. Early in 2025, to expand the reach of the clinic, we introduced online consultations. Four customers had accessed the clinic in this way by the time of publication.

We are committed to delivering safe and quality customer experiences in a person-centred way. We do this to actively minimise or eliminate the restriction of a customer’s human rights or freedom of movement.

Our goal is to use restrictive practices only as a last resort. Where required, we try to use the least restrictive option available, based on the risk posed by the behaviour.

When we review a customer’s restrictive practices, we involve our Restrictive Authorisation Panel. We also include guardians, allied health professionals, behaviour support practitioners and customers themselves.

Our authorisation rate of 96% indicates that restrictive practices are being requested when genuinely needed. This result also shows that staff are meeting the necessary safeguarding standards.