Our Services

Strategy and Service Direction

We help leaders diagnose issues within their organisations and provide unbiased independent advice on critical business decisions and objectives. We work with executives and boards to develop organisational strategies that are grounded while focussing on future aspirations across clear time horizons.

We also have the expertise to project your service demand into the future to enable more accurate service planning and in the development of leading service provision models.

Having worked on large national and state level program and service strategies through to local and regional strategies for service delivery organisations, we have the ability to tailor your strategy, develop new and clear insights and set clear actionable directions for your service.

Governance and Structural Reviews (inc. clinical and quality and safety)

With a depth of governance review experience, at Dempster Consulting we have a nuanced appreciation of the differences in Governing health and human service organisations. Including the need for clear clinical and service delivery decision making, accountability and the interconnectedness between operational and business governance.

We approach each review with a laser focus on the organisation, services provided, consumers, clients and the funding and contractual environment in mind, noting that often services we work with are also accountable to state/territory and/or national statutory authorities, registration boards and accreditors’. We have the ability to work through this myriad of complex interdependencies and provide clear advice on mission critical structures and reporting to ensure appropriate management of potential risks and how to best drive a clear quality enhancement agenda across the organisation.

Leadership, Executive and Board Workshop Facilitation

At Dempster Consulting we work with leaders in both direct training and as a facilitator depending on need.

Leadership training

We work with leaders 1:1, collectively as an executive group or board; conducting leadership workshops, offsites and training programs. While always grounded in the latest leadership theories and evidence our support for leaders provides practical tips and approaches, builds individual and collective critical self-reflection. Our programs are also tailored to the industry and context in which leaders operate.

We have a structured suite of leadership topics for training executive, directors and managers in organisations including (for example):

Building and promoting psychological safety
High performing teams
How to have difficult conversations
Building culture and becoming an employer of choice

Specialised facilitation

When organising workshops, forums, and symposiums, we begin with the end goal in mind. We focus on what leaders aim to achieve from the event and then work backwards to craft the perfect approach for the day.

We are experts in working with multiple stakeholder groups, often with different views and aspirations in sensitive and challenging subject areas such as Drug and Alcohol Service Planning, Suicide Prevention, and Mental Health Reform.

We are culturally aware and ensure we use culturally safe and appropriate approaches when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities and stakeholders – whether that be in remote communities or in large multi-stakeholder forums. As a principle we will partner and co-facilitate and ensure that the appropriate cultural authorities and approvals are in place before commencement.

Our approach to facilitating any forum or workshop is generally one of identifying the purpose and outcomes desired from the outset. Once clear, we plan and further test and refine our approach, remaining agile and adapting as needed on the day.

Organisational and Service/Program Review and Evaluation Across The Spectrum Of Health and Human Service Industries

We have been conducting complex, multi-year, mixed methods evaluations for over twenty years and understand the need for evaluations and reviews to look at the past and present state of service delivery and outcomes being achieved for clients. Our focus is on the need to look forward and deliver practical recommendations and improvements to enhance and transform what is currently delivered.

We never lose sight of the fact services exist to deliver outcomes for your clients, consumers or patients – with the best of intentions this can still be at times lost in creating access points, service programs and delivery approaches. At Dempster Consulting we ensure this focus is never lost and work tirelessly to ensure this focus pervades our findings and recommendations for improvement.

Coupled with our focus and experience we have a comprehensive and sophisticated set of tools to draw on depending on the timeframes, size and scope of the evaluation or review. We have expertise in co-design and development of evaluation methodologies and frameworks, different quantitative and qualitative approaches and multiple examples of successful Human Research Ethics applications. Importantly we’ve conducted state and national level evaluations that have helped inform future government investment and service directions.

For times when service direction decisions need to be made more swiftly, we conduct ( 3- week) ‘Rapid Reviews’ of a program or service area you are concerned about. These commonly include interviews, surveys, workshop, better practice research and key data analytics.

Workplace Mental Health and Wellbeing Approaches For Executive Leaders, Business Owners and Employees

Organisations, large and small and their leaders are facing increasingly complex workplace mental health and wellbeing challenges every day.

Promoting mental health and wellbeing programs, training, and translating these into everyday team, leadership and management actions
Trying to address increasing workplace stress and related work cover claims…in the context of new workplace OH&S legislation… a trend that was already prominent prior to the pandemic and legislative changes
Wrestling with the right settings for flexible, FIFO and hybrid work arrangements while wanting to build an exceptional and unique workplace culture
CEO’s and leaders grappling with their own wellbeing in a time of 24/7 public scrutiny, decision fatigue, burnout and balancing the art and science of psychological safety

These challenges or tensions and opportunities to build our collective workplace wellbeing and ultimately the nations productivity, have never needed more focus and attention.

While we have been helping leaders and boards to build and promote the mental health and wellbeing in their employees for a number of years there is an increasing amount of what we would describe as ‘noise’ in this area…with a plethora of new ‘advisors’ ‘wellbeing apps’, ‘measurement tools’ ‘EAP providers’ and the like. While elements of these are undoubtedly important and having the right supports, measurement and reporting in place are critical, often these approaches in isolation miss the point.

We have studied national, global and research evidence for the most appropriate and comprehensive way to consider organisational level ‘wellbeing’ and take the view that leaders need to consider the following domains at a minimum:

Prevent harm: reducing work-related risks to employee mental health and wellbeing, including psychosocial risks
Promote wellbeing: engaging in capability building to promote the mental health and wellbeing of employees
Management and recovery: reducing stigma in the workplace and developing strategies to support employees to manage mental health issues
Culture and capability: developing leaders and managers who are well-equipped and invested in workplace mental health and wellbeing, and fostering a supportive workplace culture
Monitoring and evaluation: implementing monitoring and evaluation strategies to engage in continuous improvement of the workplace MH&W framework

Our approach to workplace mental health and wellbeing reviews and development takes this holistic approach.