Client Reference Committee (CRC)

The Client Reference Committee (CRC) is a peer group of people with disability who are supported by Bedford services, including; employment, residential, and Learning and Experience programs. Each CRC member brings their individual lived experience of disability to the committee, along with learnings from shared discussions with a wide range of their Bedford peers.

The voices of the CRC are an invaluable contribution to the decision-making and consultation process for Bedford services, communications, strategy, and policy. In line with the CRC principle of inclusion and participation - ‘nothing about us, without us’ – we have asked the CRC to define who they are, what they do, and their recent achievements.

We are a group of people with disability connected to Bedford.

We come from different parts of Bedford:

• Employees – some members are employees in different departments like cleaning, packaging, manufacturing, or hospitality. They work at different Bedford sites.
• Residents – some members live at Bedford’s Supported Independent Living residence, Balyana, at Clapham.
• Learning and Experiences Clients – some members participate in Bedford Learning and Experiences. That is a range of programs and experiences, like social and outdoor activities, the arts and life skills.

We talk to the people we work with, live with, and go to Learning and Experiences with. We are the voice of people with disability at Bedford. We give advice and feedback to Bedford, and share our thoughts and ideas.

We are the 6 Committee members of the CRC :

We work with people and groups at Bedford, like:

• Bedford Clients - supported employees, residents, and Learning and Experiences clients.
• Bedford Services and Advisory Leadership Team – this team looks after NDIS support services Learn more
• Bedford Executive – this is seven Bedford managers who are in charge of different areas at Bedford. Learn more
• The Board’s Service Governance Committee (SGC) – this committee helps the Bedford Board to review things.
• The Bedford Board – the Board makes big decisions for Bedford. They watch over Bedford’s activities and results. Learn more

We meet once a month and do things like:

• Talk about issues that are important to Bedford, like open employment.
• Suggest changes to things that may not be working.
• Give feedback on things like:
  • forms
  • policies
  • procedures
  • different topics
• Share our ideas and thoughts.
• Work on projects for Bedford.
• Learn new things.
• Join workshops.
• Get information from Bedford Business units like Safeguarding, WHS, Learning and Experiences.
• One of our members goes to the quarterly SGC meetings to update on what the committee has been working on.
• One SGC member comes to the next CRC meeting to give updates on what the SGC is working on.

We have done a lot of interesting work. Here are some of the things we have done in the last year:

• Writing and presenting a proposal on how the CRC could work with the Board’s SGC.
• Writing and presenting a proposal on how a Family and Carers Reference Committee could work at Bedford.
• Reviewing flyers, forms, policies and procedures for Bedford.
• Giving advice about how to make sure the documents are easy for us to read and understand.
• Presenting at Bedford Community Connect about CRC.
• Completing capacity-building workshops where we learned about self-advocacy, human rights and decision-making.
• Participating in Our Voice’s SA advocacy conferences.

"If you are a client of Bedford and want to make a difference, you may be able to join the CRC. If you are interested in talking to us about it, please contact XYZ on phone number or email."