Client profile

Deaf Children Australia (DCA) has a 150-year history and heritage in providing disability support services and engagement to deaf and hard of hearing children and youths across Australia (VIC, NSW, QLD, NT, WA). The organisation acts as a pivotal part of many families’ lives and strives to help every deaf or hard of hearing child and young person reach their full potential.

Project context

With the introduction of NDIS, DCA was unsure of the sustainability of the organisation, should it continue to operate as per the status quo. Furthermore, the organisation was struggling to determine the effectiveness and impact of a range of its programs and services. Over 12 months, Spark were engaged to guide the Board and Executive through a strategic planning process, translate this plan into a transition plan for the whole organisation, and provide ongoing transformation support in setting a path for the future.

Solution

Through this multi-stage process, Spark designed a bespoke and innovative process that guided the organisation through reflection, inspiration, analysis and decision-making. Through understanding the ecosystem and focusing on the deaf child as the centre of the strategy, the organisation understood that its property assets provided the potential to fund others who were providing services that DCA

was duplicating. In addition, DCA also understood that to drive ongoing sustainability, the organisation need to restructure its program portfolio and invest in new capabilities.

In a bold leadership move, DCA pivoted a key element of its role to sell some assets, build a corpus, and transition its model from solely service delivery to a mixed model of service and funder to enable the best outcomes for the deaf and hard of hearing community. This fundamentally shifted the business model, has led to an operating model shift, created internal cost savings, and generated free cash flow, ultimately enabling more deaf children across Australia to receive the right support at the right time.