Recovery following a natural disaster does not follow a set timeline. Long after the immediate impacts of a disaster, many individuals, families and communities continue to face challenges as they rebuild their lives. Throughout the year, we continued to support people affected by disasters through our recovery support and enhanced intake services, helping them navigate what is often a long and complex journey. Through strong partnerships with local councils, community organisations and government agencies across Victoria, we worked alongside communities to ensure support remains available. 

One of the most significant outcomes this year was the extension of bushfire recovery funding until June 2027, allowing support to continue for people and communities still feeling the impacts of disaster. This provided greater certainty for those accessing services, enabling them to continue receiving assistance as they progressed through their recovery journey, rather than continuing their recovery journey alone. 

During the year, our recovery teams supported residents across the state in more than 25 Local Government Areas. Behind the scenes, strong financial stewardship helped ensure services remained sustainable. The program maintained an operating surplus, allowing resources to be managed effectively while continuing to deliver vital support to communities. This financial stability strengthened our ability to respond to future needs, helping ensure support remains available when people need it most. 
  
 We also continued to strengthen how we support through ongoing staff development, improved response times and a focus on delivering a positive experience for people accessing support.

Across our NDIS services, we continued to focus on delivering consumer-centred support that helped individuals and families make informed decisions, build their confidence and achieve their goals. Improvements to practice, systems and service delivery were all guided by a simple objective: creating a better experience and better outcomes for the people we support. 

In addition, our disability icon continues to support greater inclusion and representation by acknowledging the diverse range of visible and invisible abilities and conditions that shape individual experiences of disability for our consumers and NDIS participants. 

During the year, we also launched a dedicated NDIS and disability sub-brand, introducing new branding for our Plan Management, Support Coordination and Early Intervention & Therapy Services. The new identity made these services easier to recognise and navigate, helping individuals, families and referrers more clearly identify the support they need. The branding was introduced across brochures, digital resources and website content, creating a more consistent and accessible experience across our NDIS services. 

Throughout the year, our Plan Management team strengthened, documented and embedded key processes, creating greater consistency across the service and supporting high-quality practice. This work helped improve accuracy and compliance with NDIS regulations and guidelines to help ensure the individuals and families we support received up to date and personalised support. 

We also continued to strengthen our partnership with our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) vendor, proactively enhancing the product through increased automation and functionality features to support quality and compliance. 

Through monthly budget expenditure monitoring and regular check ins the individuals and families we support gained more confidence and control over their plans. Our ongoing focus on consumer-centred practice also contributed to strong consumer retention and positive experiences.   

Support Coordination continued to help people connect with the services, supports and opportunities that enabled them to live the life they choose. During the year, the development of new workflows and guidance for our Support Coordination Consumer Response team streamlined key processes and strengthened consistency across the service. 

This meant a smoother onboarding experience, clearer communication and more efficient support from the very beginning of a participant’s journey with Windermere. By reducing administrative burden and improving coordination behind the scenes, Support Coordinators were able to spend more time focused on helping people navigate challenges and work towards their goals. 

More children and families were able to access high-quality therapy and early childhood intervention support this year through the Department of Education's Continuity of Supports program, helping ensure children in our region received support when and where they needed it. 

A significant milestone was the commencement of our Practitioner Coaching Framework into Early Intervention & Therapy Services. Rather than focusing solely on resolving immediate concerns, the coaching approach supported parents and caregivers to build practical skills, confidence and strategies to best assist their child and family in everyday activities. 

By strengthening the capability of families themselves, the benefits extended beyond individual appointments. Families were supported to recognise challenges, problem-solve and respond to future situations with greater confidence, creating lasting positive outcomes for children and those who care for them. 

Every child deserves the opportunity to grow up in a safe, supportive and connected community. Through Communities for Children (CfC) Cranbourne, we worked alongside local organisations, schools and community members to strengthen the support available to children and families, helping create the conditions for children to thrive. As a place-based initiative, CfC is shaped by the needs and strengths of the local community, ensuring support is relevant, accessible and responsive to local families.  

In 2025-26, CfC reached more children, parents and caregivers than in any previous year. Through increased access to support, improved community participation and greater equity in service reach for priority cohorts, more families were able to engage with services and activities designed to support children and family wellbeing.  

One of the year's highlights was the launch of the first Voice of the Child project, endorsed by the City of Casey. The initiative enabled children and young people to share their perspectives on issues that affect them, ensuring their voices informed community programs, services and decision-making. By creating meaningful opportunities for children to be heard, we helped build communities that are more inclusive, responsive and child-focused.  

Families and community members also benefited from workshops partially delivered by leading child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, who shared practical strategies to support children's wellbeing and build resilience. These sessions provided parents and carers with practical strategies, insights and resources to support the wellbeing and resilience of children and young people. 

Importantly, the program continued to reach a diverse range of community members, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, people with disability and culturally diverse communities. Participation across these groups exceeded program targets and, in some areas, reflected engagement levels above local population benchmarks, demonstrating the program's ability to connect with families who may otherwise face barriers to accessing support and opportunities in their local community. 

Every family deserves to feel safe, supported and empowered to create positive change. Through our Integrated Family Services (IFS) program, we worked alongside children, young people and parents facing complex challenges, helping them build on their strengths and create safer, healthier family environments. 

During the year, the team strengthened their practice through training in the Safe & Together™ model, an internationally recognised framework that improves responses to Family Violence. This evidence-based approach focuses on understanding perpetrator behaviour patterns, supporting the safety and wellbeing of children and adult survivors and improving accountability for those using violence. Research shows the model helps keep children safely connected with their protective parent, while also equipping practitioners to work more effectively with the whole family. Through this training, the team enhanced their ability to provide more coordinated, child-centred and survivor-focused support for families experiencing Family Violence. 

A key achievement this year was the introduction of a father-focused practitioner, enhancing the service's capacity to engage and support fathers. The role provided tailored pathways for fathers to access support, promoting stronger family relationships and greater involvement in their children's lives. This dedicated focus helped ensure families received more inclusive support that recognised and built on the valuable contribution fathers make to children's development and wellbeing. 

Together, these initiatives helped ensure children and families received support that was focused on safety, relationships and long-term wellbeing, helping build the foundations for positive and lasting change. 

People experiencing family violence, sexual assault, trauma or homelessness often face multiple and interconnected challenges. In 2025-26, we strengthened the integration of our Family Violence, Family Violence Counselling, Sexual Assault and Homelessness services, creating a more connected experience for our community and reducing the need to navigate multiple services separately.

By bringing specialist expertise together, people could access coordinated support that responded to their individual circumstances, whether they needed assistance finding safe accommodation, counselling to process trauma, support reporting sexual assault or help navigating complex family violence situations. This integrated approach helped ensure people received the right support at the right time, while reducing barriers to accessing services.

During the year, our counsellors strengthened their understanding of specialist family violence practice and deepened connections with the specialist sexual assault sector through SASVIC membership. Alongside greater collaboration between family violence, counselling and homelessness services, these improvements strengthened the support available to people experiencing family violence, sexual assault and related trauma.

For people affected by sexual assault, this included tailored support and practical assistance with navigating reporting processes when required. The integration of services also supported collaborative initiatives such as the Healthy Women Healthy Relationships program, co-facilitated by a Family Violence Case Manager and Counsellor.

For individuals and families experiencing housing insecurity, the integration of homelessness services with specialist family violence, sexual assault and therapeutic support created more seamless pathways to assistance.

Our involvement in the South East Homelessness and Housing Alliance (SEHHA), together with the appointment of a Senior Practitioner, further strengthened our ability to support those who needed it most as they worked towards safety, stability and recovery.

For young mothers experiencing homelessness, family violence or significant life challenges, having a safe place to live can make a life-changing difference. Our Mums & Bubs program continued to provide young mums and their babies with medium-term accommodation, along with the support and guidance they needed to work towards long-term independence.

During the year, a review of the program reinforced the value it provides to young mothers and highlighted the strong commitment resident mums had to creating positive outcomes for themselves and their babies. Towards the end of the year, the recruitment of a dedicated Mums & Bubs worker helped ensure each mum continued to receive support tailored to their individual circumstances and goals.

One of the program's greatest strengths was its focus on sustainable outcomes beyond a resident's time at the house. As rising housing costs continued to create challenges for young families, Mums & Bubs supported residents to explore safe and sustainable housing options. For some mums, shared accommodation proved to be an important stepping stone, providing an opportunity to establish rental history, build confidence and take the next step towards independence.

During the year, we continued to strengthen the systems and frameworks that support safe, compliant, and consumer-centred services.

The completion of the Consumer Consultation Framework in December 2025 marked an important step in strengthening how consumer voices are heard and used across the organisation. As part of the broader Consumer Centricity Framework, it will support more consistent consumer input into planning, governance, service improvement and decision-making.

We transitioned to a new incident reporting system, including updated tools, documentation, responsibilities and processes. This system will improve the accuracy and completeness of incident data, providing greater visibility of trends, emerging risks and recurring themes. This will enable us to translate findings into meaningful service improvements and better outcomes for our community.

The NDIS mid-term audit provided an opportunity to review evidence, reflect on current quality and safeguarding practices and identify areas for improvement. While results are pending, the process has reinforced our focus on keeping consumers at the centre of all we do.

Collectively, these initiatives ensure that quality improvement is not just a process, but a driver of better experiences, stronger outcomes and lasting value for consumers.

Families rely on Family Day Care educators to provide safe, high-quality care that supports their children's development and wellbeing. During the year, we strengthened support for educators to help ensure families continued to have access to quality local care.  

We realigned our structure to enhance support for our educators and ensure consistent and proactive Field Officer practices. The appointment of a Senior Field Officer also created clearer opportunities for guidance, onboarding support, professional development and day-to-day support for educators and team members.  

We also strengthened our focus on building educator capability in business practices, advertising and enquiry management. These improvements contributed to increased enrolment levels and a more responsive enquiry process, helping more families access the care they need for their children.  

To support quality and compliance, we updated processes to align with new regulatory requirements, including expectations relating to device usage, safe sleep and child centric practices. Alongside the introduction of a digital platform for Educators to support ease of access to important policies, risk assessments, forms, training and professional development and service updates. Together, these changes strengthened our educator network and supported a more consistent, capable and sustainable service for educators, children and families. 

The Board invested in our digital capability this year to strengthen the platforms that staff and the people we support rely on every day. For staff, this means easier systems, reduced administration and more time to focus on supporting individuals and families. For those accessing our services, it means smoother interactions, clearer information and a more connected experience. 

We embarked on a transformational journey to deliver a Salesforce-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for our NDIS services. It will introduce more modern features, improve staff engagement, reduce process lead times and support a better experience for the individuals and families we support. 

The rollout of Microsoft Shifts improved rostering and strengthened compliance within our OSHC service, giving families greater confidence in the reliability and consistency of care their children receive. 

In partnership with Capital Transport, we developed our first data warehouse on Microsoft Fabric, paving the way to improve data insights starting with the Finance team.   

By leveraging fit-for-purpose technologies, we continued to advance how we do business. SharePoint and OneDrive, for example, delivered improved collaboration and employee experience, while providing the foundations for knowledge management, data governance, insights and AI. We also utilised existing systems such as Fresh Service to enhance organisational incident reporting and management, improving employee experience and reducing reporting administration. 

Behind the scenes, we strengthened the way we protect and deliver services to keep information secure. Cyber security training equipped our staff with the skills to spot and avoid risks and our phish-prone score is lower than the industry-average. 

The implementation of a Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) solution and a Security Operations Centre (SOC) provided an additional layer of around the clock protection, strengthening our security capability. 

Further strengthening organisational resilience, we implemented a new Cloud 365 and on-premises backup solution.  Finally, we continued to mature our practices against the Victorian Protective Data Security Standards (VPDSS), providing greater confidence when securing future government-funded work. 

Within the digital team, we strengthened the way we work through clearer and consistent reporting, greater accountability, teamwork and a focus on innovation.   

Together, these initiatives strengthened the digital foundations that support Windermere's services today while preparing the organisation for future improvements in areas such as AI, website, intranet, enterprise resource management and more. 

We continued to strengthen the evidence and practice foundations that help ensure those we support receive high-quality, consistent and effective support across our services.

A significant milestone was the establishment of our Practice Governance Framework, creating a stronger foundation for quality practice, continuous improvement and accountability across the organisation. This work helps ensure consumers receive support that is informed by evidence, guided by best practice and focused on achieving meaningful outcomes.

During the year, we aligned Enterprise Services to the organisation-wide Theories of Change. Connecting the work of non-consumer-facing teams to the outcomes we aim to achieve for children, families and communities, strengthened shared understanding, organisational alignment and a more coordinated approach to supporting consumers.

We also continued to embed the Practitioner Coaching Framework within Early Intervention & Therapy Services. The coaching approach supports practitioners to work alongside families in ways that build confidence, capability and long-term problem-solving skills, helping create sustainable outcomes that extend beyond individual appointments.

Together, these initiatives strengthened our ability to understand, measure and improve the impact of our services. By building stronger foundations for evidence-informed practice, we are better positioned to continuously improve the support we provide to children, families and communities.