St Patrick's College

Background

St Patrick's College is a regional all boys boarding school in Ballarat, Victoria with 200 staff and 1,300 students.

They are committed to creating and maintaining a compliance culture with a mission to provide excellence in education for all boys in a nurturing Catholic community in the spirit of Edmund Rice. St Patrick's College have used Ideagen CompliSpace for over 6 years, which has transformed the way they manage and approach compliance.

We spoke with St Patrick's Director of Risk and Compliance Jamie Bobrowski, who was an early adopter of CompliSpace and implemented the system at the College 6 years ago. Jamie went on to work at CompliSpace as a National Lead for Education for over 3 years before recently returning to the College. 

“Returning to a school environment armed with the skills and understanding of CompliSpace, having it is a no-brainer. The PLAR methodology of bringing together policies, learning, assurance and reporting to an all-in-one system provides everything you need in a risk managers role. The contextualised content allows us to easily meet the College's needs, and the PLAR framework helps bring compliance culture to life in our school."

Why Ideagen CompliSpace 

“Before CompliSpace, we had excess policies kept in PDFs, lots of paperwork, and minimal training. Our training sessions were usually conducted in staff meetings, but there was no way to validate what was taught and who attended. Originally, I looked to CompliSpace for a solution to take away the headache of mundane and repetitive processes. I was frustrated at the lack of compliance and looking for a cloud-based solution to solve these challenges."

Embedding Frameworks and Bringing Policy to Culture

Embedding the PLAR framework at St Patrick’s has helped the College with comprehensive policies, their depth of knowledge and content, learning, and risk registers, working together to transform their approach to risk management and compliance. The College has also recently implemented SafeExcursions which will become a regular tool for helping staff and school leaders plan and manage risk assessments for school activities including excursions, sport days and trips outside the school. 

Before returning to the College, the Learning platform was underutilised. Equipped with the knowledge and understanding of CompliSpace’s platforms, the Learning Management System is now a resource that staff embrace.  

“The learning is so simple and there’s clear evidence that the staff are really embracing the model of training. The policy platform provides us with a framework that is kept up to date, so staff have access to what they need when they need it. From an operational perspective, CompliSpace’s Learning platform and SafeExcursions allow us to upskill staff on the complex environment of risk and compliance.” 

Transforming Risk Management

“From a strategic and operational perspective, Assurance allows us to see the school through a different lens. Now that staff and leadership can see what Assurance can do, Assurance has become an integral part of leadership discussions. It gives us a framework and the opportunity to become strategic and granular when discussing risk at leadership meetings.”  

Peace of Mind

“I knew CompliSpace had amazing support staff, and now I’m on the other side I’m even more impressed with the depth of their knowledge. The customer service I receive is amazing – I always feel supported. I’m glad I have something to take away the heavy lifting. I couldn’t achieve my potential in the role without CompliSpace and wouldn’t deliver what the College needs me to deliver without the CompliSpace suite. CompliSpace allows me to be a better risk manager."

.