The VHA is committed to supporting Victoria’s public health and community health services to deliver high-quality care – and to do this, we need to understand the needs, interests and opinions of our members.

We would like to thank all members that took the time to complete our member survey earlier in the year. The survey was completed by 214 people from member and non-member organisations.

We have heard you, and we are using the results to inform our activities and offerings, as well as our next strategic and operational plans.

See our infographic summary for an overview of the survey findings, or read on for more detail.

 

Overarching themes and sentiment

Members provided us with a clear message that they are seeking for support and unapologetic advocacy as they navigate through complex reforms and challenging operating environments. Members are also seeking clarity of the VHA’s role, value proposition and advocacy approach.

Some member cohorts are more satisfied with the VHA than others. Board chairs and directors are the most satisfied with the VHA’s services. We have work to do to improve our ratings with CEOs and c-suite members, as well as those from registered community health services.

 

What you want us to deliver

The survey results clarified the activities that you rate as the most important for us to deliver, with the following being ranked as the three most important activities:

1. Advocacy to government, regulators, and other industry groups on behalf of the sector
2. Projects that support the sector to respond to policy/legislative reform
3. Projects that help to build the capacity of the health sector.

Issues of importance

We asked you what issues you thought were most important for the VHA to address through policy and advocacy work.

Workforce was the most frequent response, with 64% of members selecting it as one of their top five issues. The top issues identified by members are:

1. Workforce
2. Funding
3. System reform
4. Primary and community care
5. Aged care

Professional development support

We asked you what professional development activities we could support you with. The three most frequent responses from members were:

• staying up to date with sector issues
• networking opportunities
• leadership development.

‘Other’ suggestions included board networks and community of practices, clinical and quality governance training, and less formal networking events.

 

Information and engagement

Members find our information and insights valuable, and many members are engaged through our fortnightly newsletter. Members that have engaged with our professional development programs rate them as helpful and high quality.

Members are also interested in participating in more informal networking and strategic engagement opportunities, both in-person and online.

This is great news for us as a member association – member engagement is critical to the success of the VHA’s work, especially in policy, advocacy, and projects. It is now incumbent on our team to ensure that we are defining and communicating the extent of the work we do more efficiently and effectively, and this includes developing additional opportunities for engagement across the membership.

 

Our response to your feedback

The VHA Board recently completed a three-year strategic planning process – informed by the survey results – and the VHA team is busy working on operationalising this plan. Here’s a sample of some of the activities we are undertaking to better meet your needs:

• We recently started our Rural and Regional Roadtrip to foster better engagement with, and understanding of, our rural and regional members.
• We held our first online CEO update in July. These quarterly updates aim to provide our member CEOs with timely information about our activities and an opportunity to raise issues, concerns or ideas.
• We’re aligning our community health forums with other existing sector meetings to maximise time and engagement with our community health members. We’re also working towards a celebration of ‘50 years of community health’ later in the year.
• To enhance our expertise and knowledge base, we will be establishing sector reference groups. These will provide us with swift access to the specialist knowledge within our member community, and ensure our projects and advocacy activities are accurate, represent current expertise and are member informed.
• You will hear from us more regularly, particularly in relation to our member representation and advocacy activities, and we’ll be creating more regular opportunities for members to engage with each other and the VHA.

The survey will be an annual VHA feature, providing members with the opportunity to express to the operations team and the Board on how well we are doing. Of course, if you have any questions, concerns or feedback throughout the year, do not hesitate to reach out to the VHA team on vha@vha.org.au.