Disability Services Census 2012

What is the Disability Services Census?

The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) provides funding to a large number of organisations who provide services to help people with disability.

The Disability Services Census collects information each year from certain disability services funded by FaHCSIA:

  • supported employment services (also known as Australian Disability Enterprises)
  • advocacy services
  • respite services
  • print disability services
  • disability information and captioning services.

What information is collected?

The Disability Services Census collects information about services, such as hours of operation and staffing hours. Supported employment services are also asked to provide certain information about each of their service users.  Information for service users appears below, under the heading Information for Supported Employment Service Users.

How is the information collected?

Services are sent a service outlet form via email.  Services fill in the information on this form and submit it electronically.

Supported employment service providers provide information about their service users directly onto FaHCSIA’s administrative funding system, the FaHCSIA Online Funding Management System (FOFMS).

What do services need to know to complete the Census?

Services need to refer to the Data Guide. This provides definitions, classifications, comments and justifications for each information item required for services and  service users. The Disability Services Census 2012 collects information which relates to the 2011-12 financial year.

When is the information collected?

The collection period starts on 1 July 2012.  Services need to provide the required information by  20 July 2012.

Contact details

If you need further information or assistance about the Census, you can contact the Disability Services Census Helpdesk on 1800 550 244 or email disability.census@fahcsia.gov.au.

What is the information used for?

The services that FaHCSIA collects information on are delivered under the National Disability Agreement (NDA).

FaHCSIA is required to provide information on these services for the Disability Services National Minimum Data Set.  The purpose of the National Minimum Data Set collection is to:

  • collect nationally comparable data about specialist disability services funded under the Agreement
  • obtain reliable and consistent data
  • meet performance reporting requirements set down in the Agreement
  • assist in service planning and monitoring by Australian jurisdictions.

The information collected by FaHCSIA has also been used for the Disability Services Census Reports, which provide detailed information on Australian Government funded specialist disability services and their service users.

Information for supported employment service users

The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) provides funding for supported employment services under the National Disability Agreement.

Each year, FaHCSIA needs to provide information about the services it provides under the National Disability Agreement to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) to be included in the Disability Services National Minimum Dataset.

FaHCSIA needs to provide some information to AIHW on supported employment services and the people who use these services. The information that FaHCSIA provides to AIHW about people who use supported employment services includes some of the information FaHCSIA receives from service providers.

When you start with a supported employment service, you sign a form to allow your service provider to give certain information to FaHCSIA. The form says that FaHCSIA may provide some information about you to other Government departments and research bodies.  When this happens, only limited information is provided, and FaHCSIA removes details that could identify you.

Your first and last name are not given to anyone else except FaHCSIA. Your name is replaced with a special code, called the statistical linkage key, so no-one is able to identify you.

You can ask your supported employment service provider to give you a copy of what they tell FaHCSIA about you. You have the right to update or correct this information.

How do we protect your information?

Government departments must obey very strict rules called Information Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988. These rules tell government departments how they are allowed to ask for your information and what they are allowed to do with it.

The Federal Privacy Commissioner can check on the way that government departments look after your information if you think that your privacy has not been protected.

Who can tell me more about this?

If you would like further information, first talk to your supported employment service provider. If you still want more information, you may call FaHCSIA directly and ask for the Disability Services Census Help Desk. Your service provider can give you the contact number for the Help Desk.

If you are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment, you can use the National Relay Service to contact any of FaHCSIA's listed phone numbers.

The statistical linkage key

The statistical linkage key is a code that replaces a person's first name and last name, to protect people's information.

The statistical linkage key has a number of important purposes. Its use enables:

  • the record of individual consumers to be confidentialised
  • the identification of multiple service episodes by individual consumers
  • the identification of duplicate consumer records
  • the number of consumers to be counted at the service outlet level.  

The statistical linkage key contains 14 characters that comprise:

  • the second, third and fifth letters of a person’s last name
  • second and third letters from a person’s first name
  • date of birth
  • sex code.  

Where the surname of the consumer is not long enough to supply the requested letters (i.e. a surname of less than five letters), then the number ‘2’ is substituted to reflect the missing letters. The placement of a number ‘2’ corresponds to the same space that the missing letter would have within the three-digit field. The placement of a number ‘9’ is used to indicate that a name is absent. Spaces and apostrophes are not included as part of the statistical linkage key. For Asian names where the last name is written first, the last name is included in the last name field. Where a consumer has only one legal name, the single name is considered the last name.

For example, if a male person’s name was John Brown, and his date of birth was 01/01/1990, the Statistical Linkage Key would be RONOH010119901.

How does the Department collect the linkage key?

For the Disability Services Census 2012, the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) will use information stored in the FaHCSIA Online Funding Management System (FOFMS) to compile the statistical linkage key for each consumer. Disability service providers do not need to supply this data for the Disability Services Census 2012.

 

Content Updated: 23 November 2012