ABOUT TANDEM

Tandem is a not for profit, non government community organisation incorporated under the ACT Associations Incorporation Act 1991.

Tandem is a primary provider of respite, personal care, and other support services to more than 600 children, young people and adults with disabilities, people with mental illness, frail older people, and their families and carers living in the ACT community. 

Tandem's mission is to promote independence and quality of life by providing high quality, innovative and tailored support services.  Flexible and ongoing services are provided to meet the individual needs of clients both within the home and the wider community.

Today, the organisation has a staff of more than 200 support workers, 30 volunteers, and coordination and administration teams to support the delivery of services with an operational budget of over $5.5million.

Funding

Funding for Tandem’s programs comes from a variety of areas such as Home and Community Care (HACC), Disability ACT, ACT Health and sponsorship.

As part of these funding agreements, each funding body has a set of Standards by which organisations receiving funds must comply with.

Additional funds are provided from membership subscriptions, donations and fee for service payments where Tandem provides services purchased by other organisations.

Support through sponsorships, partnerships, donations and volunteering is vital to our ongoing ability to develop and improve the services we provide in supporting our individual and family clients. If you would like to make a donation to Tandem, or discuss a possible sponsor or partnership opportunity please telephone Chief Executive Officer Cheryl Pollard (02) 6288 0955 or email cheryl.pollard@tandem.org.au

History of Tandem

Tandem was created in February 2008 following an amalgamation of Respite Care ACT and FaBRiC.  The amalgamation combines the long history and experience of both agencies in supporting people in their home and in the community.  Respite Care ACT was established in 1989 and FaBRiC a few years later in 1991.

In May 2007, the Boards of the two agencies announced their intention to consider the potential benefits of an amalgamation.

To inform their decision, a report was commissioned by a consultant to evaluate the benefits of an amalgamation.  This report argued there was a strong case because of the ongoing and close association between the two organisations, a similar vision, values and service delivery philosophy, as well as similar IT and database systems, employment arrangements, and the fact that they were of similar size and in reasonably strong financial positions.  In addition the report identified other major benefits including:

• Improved services for clients with a doubling of the number of support workers available across all programs;
• A seamless transition of clients from the children/young people's programs to the adult programs;
• Savings in management and administrative costs thus enabling more resources for services to clients;
• Opportunities for improved career structures, training and professional development for all staff; and
• Being in a stronger position to obtain additional government funding and develop partnerships and sponsorship opportunities within the business sector.

After consideration of the Evaluation Report, a Combined Boards Meeting agreed to pursue an amalgamation and then members of both organisations agreed to an amalgamation at Special General Meetings in November 2007.