NMHCCF Business Plan: public summary version

This is a public summary version of the NMHCCF Business Plan 2009. The NMHCCF members agreed that the Business Plan would be an internal working document of the NMHCCCF and the key points would be publicly released in this summary. The Business Plan is the intellectual property of the NMHCCF and it retains the right to determine its direction pending financial information and review.

This Business Plan was prepared for the National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum by Insight Business Solutions Pty Ltd. The NMHCCF Planning Working Group and Executive provided guidance on preparing this document for endorsement by NMHCCF members. The NMHCCF Secretariat undertook considerable work to finalise this Business Plan.

The NMHCCF thanks the Australian Government Department of Health & Ageing for additional funds to develop this Business Plan.

SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS

The NMHCCF has a Forward Plan 2009-2011 and a 2009-10 Work Plan that outline the activities the NMHCCF would like to achieve in this time (both of these documents are available on the NMHCCF website, www.nmhccf.org.au). It is clear from this Business Plan and its associated costings that the NMHCCF cannot meet its aspirational activities under current resources. Its current funding arrangements are almost guaranteed to keep the NMHCCF ‘muddling along’, rather than setting it up to flourish as an important mental health consumer and carer entity.

An urgent review of funding arrangements should be considered by the states/ territories, Department of Health & Ageing, and the stakeholders with which the NMHCCF works.

Much of the outlined costs are already provided by members on a volunteer basis. The costings provided are only human resources (ie. staffing) costs and those member costs that are already identified as being funded (such as sitting fees for working group activities). It is these member costs that will be in jeopardy under current funding arrangements or the NMHCCF may be forced to change its planned activities. These costings are considerably easier to consider under the current structure as there are very minimal costs to be considered other than human resources, the remaining costs being funded by MHCA.

The costs listed in this Business Plan do not include other costs such as those incurred were the NMHCCF an autonomous entity.

A key principle missing from the costings is any acknowledgement of NMHCCF members’ time (outside of meetings, for which members do receive sitting fees and these costs are known). There is no recognition of the amount of volunteer time members provide to achieve the NMHCCF strategic objectives, nor any remuneration for the time the Executive Committee members in particular provide to the NMHCCF. Adding these costs to the human resources costs already captured, would give a much greater picture of what it costs for the NMHCCF to do business.

Please click here to download the full Business Plan public summary