Our culture and leadership

This year, we’ve made significant strides in enhancing our team’s skills and leadership capabilities. Additionally, we are focused on diversity and inclusion, with ongoing efforts to support and develop high-potential leaders and create a more equitable workplace.

We celebrated the opening of our new community office at Blacktown Exercise and Sports Technology Hub (BEST), which not only strengthens our collaboration with partners, but also demonstrates our dedication to community wellbeing.

Empowering Our Teams

Our dedicated People and Culture team lies at the core of our organisation, and they are committed to enhancing staff skills and knowledge to support the delivery of the work we do. This dedication not only boosts employee motivation and job satisfaction but also drives superior performance.

To achieve our mission, we need high-performing leaders who can effectively implement our strategy and cultivate an engaged, empowered workforce. Leadership, a fundamental value at WentWest, requires a focus on our organisational purpose and the ability to bring out the best in our team, delivering meaningful value to the community.

This year, our Ignite Leadership Program placed a strong emphasis on leadership and coaching fundamentals, empowering our leaders to better manage change and drive innovation. By honing these skills, we are equipping them to lead with greater impact and advance our strategic objectives.

Recognising the significant number of women within our organisation, we dedicated 30% of our total learning and development investment to support a select group of high-potential female leaders through Women in Leadership Australia’s leadership course. This initiative is designed to provide these leaders with the skills, behaviours and mindsets essential for advancing into senior health management roles in the future.

Values in Action

The WentWest Innovation and Engagement Collective (IEC), comprising of select leaders from across our organisation, is dedicated to driving positive change, empowering internal stakeholders and fostering innovative solutions.

This year, the IEC organised our annual Team Day, renewing our commitment to our core values: Creativity, Leadership, Equity, Excellence, and Respect. During the event, staff had the opportunity to highlight examples of programs, projects, initiatives or individuals that exemplify these values in action.

We received many outstanding submissions, but the top five winners, representing our values in action were:

We commend the vision and leadership of those who were instrumental in establishing the Urgent Care Initiatives. Their forward-thinking approach exemplifies true leadership by setting a new standard for national health care reform. By demonstrating how health services can work together more effectively, they’ve ensured that hospitals remain focused on the most critical needs. Their proactive and innovative advocacy embodies our leadership value, inspiring transformative change where it is needed most.

This initiative exemplifies excellence through a place-based approach across all four local government areas. By partnering with the health care neighbourhood and co-designing patient-centred solutions, this project showcases our commitment to delivering superior health care through collaboration and innovation.

An innovative health care model born from a long-standing idea, Healthicare represents creativity by challenging traditional norms. It promotes collaboration between patients and health care professionals to support patients at every stage of their health journey.

Last year, we launched our first digital Annual Review, featuring our health programs and commissioned services. This report underscores our commitment to equity by demonstrating how we support the diverse community of Western Sydney, ensuring everyone has access to essential health services tailored to their unique needs.

The Citizens’ Juries showcased respect and appreciation for the diverse voices within our community, incorporating statistical representation of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and First Nations communities. This inclusivity allowed them to express their aspirations and vision for health care in Western Sydney. By embracing a wide range of perspectives, this approach exemplifies respect and aims to deliver the most robust outcomes.

Celebrating Diversity and Inclusion

A diverse staff that reflects our stakeholders and community is vital to our success. It enriches our organisational culture, provides a range of perspectives and enhances our ability to understand and meet community needs. By mirroring community diversity, we build trust, strengthen connections, and deliver more culturally-competent services, ultimately improving outcomes for those we serve.

At WentWest, we take pride in having over half of our Senior Management Team and Board members as women, and several of our employees are engaged in the Women in Leadership program.

44%
of Board are women
66%
of Senior Management Team are women

Our staff

25%
Male
74%
Female
1%
Identify as Other

We are actively working on diversity and inclusion policies to create a safer, more equitable workplace. For example, our paid parental leave policy supports male, female and those identifying as other, employees, representing a positive, inclusive approach to parental leave across all genders.

100%
of men who could take paid
parental leave utilised the leave
67%
of staff – full-time
32%
of staff – part-time

1%
of staff – other (casual/contractor)
43%
of staff have been at
WentWest longer than three years
23%
countries represented
amongst our staff

This year we launched several initiatives to celebrate the diverse backgrounds of our team and the communities we serve. A key focus has been aligning with the Respect@Work changes to reinforce our commitment to a respectful and inclusive workplace. We aim to maintain a respectful and harassment-free environment through effective leadership, a strong culture, comprehensive training, robust support, continuous monitoring and evaluation, and transparent reporting.