West Wimmera during COVID-19 - Managing remotely in a small rural shire
David Leahy, Chief Executive Officer
Despite the relative safety of being so remote, West Wimmera is not immune to the restrictions in place to manage the spread of COVID-19.
Some of the challenges faced in the early lockdown stage was to upskill a Council to enable meetings to continue in a virtual capacity. It is fair to say that some Councilors are less “tech savvy” than others, but we did manage to get everyone connected and all Councilors have become quite adept at the virtual meeting.
One of the great benefits that have been realised through the lockdown period has been that Councilors are able to be kept more up to date than they were prior to the lockdown. This is due largely to their willingness to take up the technology and all the benefits that go with it.
Weekly formal update meetings with the CEO, access to finance team members to complete the budget, and participation in regional meetings via video have very quickly become standard practice.
Every function of the Council has undergone a rapid change and thanks to having an agile and very adaptable workforce, all of the services have continued to be delivered. This has enabled us to maintain the workforce, continue with the capital works program, continue to provide home care and provide appointments for VicRoads licence and registration services.
High praise must go to our community services staff, who have all displayed great initiative in their respective fields. Activities such as the kindergarten students providing artworks for the elderly care residents, and the residents responding with letters to be read out at the kindergartens. The home care staff are providing verandah catch-ups while exercising social distancing and the early years staff are providing story time via Facebook to ensure that all sections of the community are looked after.
Staff have also been redeployed to undertake welfare checks both on the vulnerable in our communities and on staff working remotely whilst also home schooling. This has enabled us to discover just how resilient the West Wimmera community is and how much everyone across our shire is prepared to help each other out.
Council has held one meeting that was streamed over social media to include public participation and while the initial plan met some hurdles, the social media streaming had over 1,000 views, which demonstrated the willingness of the community to embrace the new normal. Council has also held two budget workshops and two Councilor Assemblies via video and have adapted very quickly.
Post the pandemic, West Wimmera is looking forward to a fresh approach to how we do business by utilizing workplace flexibilities and working with a community more inclined to embrace technology to complete their business with Council.
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