Q&A Issue no. 3 (Wednesday 28 November 2012)
PHaMs Employment
Q. Can you please clarify how many PHaMs Employment workers are expected to be employed within a PHaMs Employment site?
A. Five (or six in the case of Specialist PHaMs Employment services in Western Australia).
Q. In Specialist PHaMs Employment sites, is the requirement for 1 or 2 employment experienced specialists?
A. As detailed in section 4.5.2 of Part C1 of the Program Guidelines, FaHCSIA expects PHaMs services to employ a team of five. In a Specialist PHaMs Employment service, all five workers are expected to be employment personal helpers and mentors. PHaMs Employment services are required to employ workers with a background in delivery of both community mental health and employment services. While it may not be possible to recruit five workers with both of these skill-sets, it is important that the Specialist PHaMs Employment team as a whole has a mix of these skills and experience.
Q. The Program Guidelines indicate that, for Specialist PHaMs employment workers, it is expected they will provide intensive support to 10 to 12 participants and less intensive support to a further 10-12 participants. Does this mean that each Specialist PHaMs Employment worker will work with up to 24 participants, (with a 50/50 mix of intensive support and less intensive support) and that. therefore, a team of 5 may have a caseload of around 100?
A. We would expect the Specialist PHaMs Employment team as a whole to carry a minimum caseload of 45 intensively supported participants and 45 less intensively supported participants. This reflects the Specialist PHaMs Employment workers having a minimum caseload of 20 participants each, and the PHaMs team leader having a lighter caseload.
Q. Could you please clarify whether funding for the Brisbane City Region (as identified in the funding table for PHaMS related specialist employment services) will only go to an existing PHaMS service provider operating currently in this region?
A. The new Specialist PHaMs employment service covering the Local Government Area of Brisbane is open to all eligible organisations.
Coverage Areas
Q. Being located in the Hume LGA, I see that all funding is directed to metropolitan areas, so I can only assume that the regional and rural areas of Wangaratta, Benalla and Seymour will not apply. Can you confirm that this is correct?
A. FaHCSIA is not seeking to establish new services in these areas. In Victoria, three sites in which FaHCSIA is seeking to establish new services are in non‑metropolitan areas.
Q. Can you please advise if and when PHaMs funding will be made available to services located in the Goldfields/South East Coast Region of WA?
A. At this time PHaMs funding is only available for the Local Government Areas listed on the FaHCSIA website and in the Application Form.
Q. There will be a cross over with the new PHaMs site and one postcode within the Maryborough PHaMs region and one postcode within the Bundaberg PHaMs Region. Do you see the new PHaMs site focusing primarily on rural areas within the region?
A. FaHCSIA expects services to provide access to eligible people living within their defined site Coverage Area. More information on service Coverage Areas is available in Part 6 of the Resource Kit.
Q. Could you please describe the envisaged relationship between existing PHaMs programs, (one at Maryborough and one at Bundaberg) and the new PHaMs program?
A. PHaMs services should complement and intersect with other services in the local area. PHaMs service providers are expected to form partnerships and establish links with a range of local services, including other PHaMs services.
Q. Do you have maps in relation to the specific PHaMs sites, in particular Sunshine Coast, Fraser Coast and Burnett? Boundaries for these areas seem to vary somewhat from map to map and I just wanted to ensure we were responding to specific areas as per FaHCSIA guidelines.
A. Boundaries of the Local Government Areas are available through the Australian Local Government Association at www.alga.asn.au.
Q. Is there a map available that defines the boundaries for service delivery? eg Mid North/Yorke and Barossa/Gawler?
A. Boundaries of the Local Government Areas are available through the Australian Local Government Association at www.alga.asn.au.
Q. Can you please outline which suburbs cover Brisbane?
A. Boundaries of the Local Government Areas are available through the Australian Local Government association at www.alga.asn.au.
Q. Is funding available in the Kimberley Region of WA?
A. No. At this time, PHaMs funding is only available for Local Government Areas listed on the FaHCSIA website and in the Application Form.
Q. I understand that there has been no delegation for the Gold Coast area in the funding. Are you able to give some clarity around the reasons for not allocating funds in this area?
A. Sites for new PHaMs and expansion of existing PHaMs services have been prioritised on the basis of filling geographic gaps in service coverage in high need areas where PHaMs is not currently operating.
Q. Can you please advise whether PHaMs and/or TCC (MH) Programs are provided in the LaTrobe Valley or Gippsland areas?
A. The location of all services provided under the Targeted Community Care (Mental Health) Program is available on the FaHCSIA website.
Q. Are organisations from within the “targeted areas” the only organisations that can apply for that area?
A. Any eligible organisations can apply for funding to deliver PhaMs services in the Coverage Areas listed in the Program Guidelines and Application form.
Q. Are agencies able to focus on specific age ranges that are most in need in the geographical Coverage Area?
A. Services must be accessible to all potential participants within the PHaMs target group. As specified in clause 4.5.1 of Part C1 of the Program Guidelines, service providers are required to prioritise and actively target the special needs groups listed or other high need groups identified in the Coverage Area.
Q. Are you able to advise whether there are currently any applicants for the North and South Burnett site?
A. The Department is unable to release this information.
Application Form
Q. In the Budget – Staff Costs section, what does the salaries and oncosts line item refer to? Is it manager salaries and oncosts or total staff salaries and oncosts? Do we include oncosts to the Service Delivery Staff line items?
A. The salaries and on-costs line item should be a total of the service delivery staff salaries listed beneath this line item. Management Fees and Staff training and development are separate line items. Oncosts should be included in the Service Delivery Staff line items.
Oncosts should be included in the Service Delivery Staff line items.
Q. Can you please advise whether we can use attachments to support our PHaMs application, and whether there are any restrictions on the use of attachments?
A. In accordance with section 3.6 of Part C1 of the Program Guidelines, Applicants should only include attachments where requested to do so. Unless special circumstances apply, the Department will not consider attachments that have not been specifically requested.
Q. Are the response limits, (i.e. 1000 characters), inclusive of spaces?
A. Yes.
Other Issues
Q. Has FaHCSIA identified how the roll out in February, May and August will be accomplished (ie which services will be rolled out in each period)?
A. No. Final decisions are yet to be made.
Q. It is mentioned that some organisations will be offered the opportunity to extend their existing services. We were hoping that we would have an opportunity to extend our existing service. Are we likely to get a request from the Department to do so?
A. All existing PhaMs providers identified for expansion in the current round have been notified.
Q. We are seeking clarification on section 4.1.6 of Part C1 of the Program Guidelines. Does having an acquired brain injury, intellectual disability, neurological condition, Alzheimer’s or dementia and physical disabilities make a person ineligible for PHaMs services? Can you have a severe mental illness plus one or more of these conditions and participate in the PHaMs Employment service?
A. People with a severe mental illness, and a severe functional impairment as a result of that mental illness, are eligible to participate in PHaMs. This is regardless of whether or not they have any other conditions.
Q. Are the funding amounts listed in the selection documentation inclusive or exclusive of GST?
A. The funding amounts for both new PHaMs services and expansions/extensions of existing PHaMs services are exclusive of GST.