In March and April 2020, the Settlement Council of Australia (SCoA) carried out a series of consultations with its members in order to gauge the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on settlement agencies and the communities they support, following the unprecedented measures taken by Federal and State governments in Australia to minimise the spread and subsequent impact of Coronavirus. This is the report of the second set of consultations held in April, which focused on workforce retention and business continuity for settlement agencies.
An online survey was developed for SCoA members, and was open for approximately two weeks. 37 responses were received from SCoA member organisations in every state and territory in Australia. A national teleconference was also held on Thursday 23rd April, with 41 people registering for the call. The aim of the teleconference was to enable us to “dig deeper” on issues raised in the survey. This report provides a summary of the feedback received through these consultations with our members.