A very warm welcome to Term 4 to you! We’ve all seen our fair share of ups and downs over the past few months, but I’m thankful for your faithfulness in supporting your chaplains and your dedication to meeting the needs of our school communities.
COVID, LCCs and the Department of Education (DoE)
It’s been a difficult year with many fundraising activities and events cancelled. We are well aware that our LCCs are a vital part of the school chaplaincy system, but this year has really proven it! Your unwavering support has meant your chaplains have been able to provide extraordinary support to children and families during this anxious time, so thank you.
We are also grateful for the DoE’s support during COVID, and in particular the recent Fire Funding which was granted to schools affected by fire. SU has been able to provide support for 57 extra schools due to this funding, which is awesome!
JobKeeper 2.0
JobKeeper has been such a blessing over the past few months. However, now that we’re approaching the end of the year, there have been a few important changes to your chappy’s entitlement.
The first thing you need to know is that SU QLD has qualified for JobKeeper 2.0 for the current quarter. However, we understand we will need to re-qualify for Term 1 next year, before the scheme ends in March.
While many LCCs will be in a very strong cash position by the end of 2020, despite being largely unable to fundraise this year, those higher balances are necessary to help those LCCs carry forward into 2021, as fundraising activity gears up again.
However, LCC accounts for more than 100 schools have lower cash balances than a year ago. Those LCCs will need help next year if we are to avoid their chaplains’ hours being reduced in 2021.
SU wants to help those LCCs that need help, in the hope that no chaplain has downward pressure next year on the hours they can spend in school. Some are predicting a stormy economic future and SU wants to ensure that we are all positioned well to travel through that together safely.
As a result, SU will use surplus Jobkeeper 2.0 amounts to create a reserve fund to support chaplaincy into the future. We want to support LCCs who are heading towards a negative balance, to give them time (and with our help) to hold chaplains’ hours to at least current rates. This is consistent with the government’s intended purposes for the Jobkeeper support program.
We’ll explain the details of that fund in the new year, once we know whether SU continues to qualify for Jobkeeper through to March.
All eligible Chaplains who have given SU consent to collect JobKeeper payments on their behalf will continue to receive top-up payments, if applicable. Some of you may have noticed that from mid-October your transactions in the Our Chaplaincy Portal no longer include Jobkeeper top ups. From the start of October, we have been paying those amounts to chaplains directly, rather than through your LCC accounts.
Salary Band Changes
I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know about some changes to the Salary Band Policy for 2021. This is the most significant incremental improvement for chaplains in some years.
As you know, our policy incentivises chaplains based on qualifications attained and years of experience. In other words, the more they upskill and the longer they serve, the more they earn. This is a great win-win for both the chaplain and your school community and serves to attract people to the role and encourage longevity.
The change has been necessitated due to a large number of chaplains starting in the role on a waiver level. Therefore, these chaplains need to be on a starting band separate from those who start with their Department of Education minimum standard of a Cert IV.
Below is a simple description of each Salary Band and you can access the new policy here.
New salaries and associated changes to Chaplaincy Charges will take effect from the 18th January 2021.
SU QLD has prioritised salary increases for chaplains in our 2021 expense rates. We have not increased our charge rate since January 2019 so there is a small increase of close to 1% to cover costs in 2021. This has been necessitated due to an increase in sick leave expenses, workcover costs and the cost of providing no service fees.
We have now had our Chaplain Expense Rates approved for 2021 by the Department of Education. The good news is due to prudent stewardship of costs, our Band Charge rates have only increased slightly for 2021.
Term 4 is the time for LCCs to plan their budgets for the upcoming year. As such, last week we sent out a letter that explains these changes in more detail. In that letter we’ve included a link to the updated 2021 cost calculator. We trust that this will be helpful, but please don’t hesitate to reach out to support@suqld.org.au or phone 07 3112 6470 if you’ve got any questions.
Camps
In spite of COVID, our staff, volunteers and chaplains managed to facilitate 30 camps in September – comprising a total of 1246 campers and leaders. What a blessing to provide hundreds of young people with a holiday of a lifetime after such a big year. Very exciting!
Fundraising
2020 was a difficult year for you all with fundraising, but we’re looking forward to getting back into it in 2021. Here you can read an exciting update from our Fundraising Manager, Jon Thorne.
I recently met up with ex-football player Shaun Hart, and he shared his advocacy for school fun-runs as a great opportunity to bring joy to a community and also raise funds for school chaplaincy. The organisation which Shaun is involved in will give free colour powder to a chaplaincy school fun run, so be sure to take a look.
Click here for the website and Click here to make an enquiry
LCC Zoom Meetings
If you have any questions about JobKeeper 2.0 or the changes to the salary bands, you’re most welcome to join us in these scheduled Zoom meetings:
Tuesday 3rd November 10-11am
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87113017011?pwd=SEtVM1BKUWdmYUZjT0oxUkZienJXdz09
Tuesday 3rd November 4-5pm
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86421927033?pwd=dnN6ZXB3eFJPdTRkTFQycGxqRUVkQT09
Thursday 5th November 7-8pm
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81414587243?pwd=cFl0ZXJxL1FmcWo0dElPN1FNYWFlQT09
Thank you for all that you do to support our chappies – it’s been a big year, but together I know we can end it well.
Bless you,
Jenni Dobbin