Publication:Sea Talk Winter 2007/Give us your thoughts

Sea Change is an ongoing program which has been in place since September 2004. The aim remains to improve retention in the Navy by improving the work environment across key areas ranging from geographical stability to workforce renewal and conditions of service. This will provide Navy people and their families with a better balance between work and home.

Community Feedback

The Sea Change Implementation Team (SCIT) uses local area focus groups (FGs) as the primary source of community feedback. Local Sea Change FGs have been established throughout Australia. The FGs are made up of volunteers from all ranks and seek to be representative of the local Naval community. A nominated FG chairman acts as the FG coordinator and point of contact.

There are formalised focus groups located in HMAS Cerberus, Albatross, Stirling, Watson, Kuttabul, and Coonawarra. In addition, informal groups have formed on occasion to provide input to Sea Change on important issues, such as the recent review of conditions of service for Australian Defence Force members who have shared parental responsibility and superannuation.

The information provided by FGs is used by the Sea Change program and those responsible for implementing initiatives for a number of purposes, including:

Monitoring the success of the initiative;
Identifying issues that may not be readily apparent;
Seeking alternative ways of doing something; and
Providing an informal quality control function.

Each FG member seeks out community views on the matter being considered and they collectively agree on the response most appropriate to the issue being addressed. This view is then forwarded to Sea Change for consolidation into a comprehensive Sea Change response. The amount and quality of information provided by the focus groups into the recent review of the entitlements for members with dependents (unaccompanied) was influential in creating a significantly better outcome for Navy members and their families. Individual Feedback

Individual views from members can be forwarded separately as feedback either via e-mail to navy.scit@defence.gov.au or through the Sea Change implementation management and reporting system (SCIMARS) database at:

http://navy.defence.gov.au/SCIMARS/index.asp or from members, family or just an interested person, via the internet at http://www.navy.gov.au/npo/seachange

When addressing an issue, it is essential that both individual and community feedback are considered. This will provide decision makers with a balanced understanding of the issues and offer the best opportunity to make an informed decision.

So if you have a burning issue you want to find out more about or to make a suggestion, find someone in your local area who is a member of a focus group, form your own focus group or get onto the SCIMARS database. There is heaps of information on the SCIMARS database as well as Navy People Central, so take the time to have a look at what is there.

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