CDEP Consultative Group Communiqué 26 – 27 October 2011 | Australian Government Department Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

Remote Participation and Employment Services Review

The CCG provided the following feedback on the consultations into remote participation and employment services review:

The consultations successfully engaged the provider sector but were less effective in some locations at involving Indigenous community members.
Members agreed with a one-stop model of service delivery for remote Australia.
The new model should: enforce participation requirements; be economical and efficient; be regionally focused; accommodate the transitory lifestyle of some participants; and, be realistic about employment opportunities including part-time and seasonal options.
When the model is close to finalised, further community consultation should follow a community by community process.

CCG noted that there are many successful models where providers have engaged youth. Under Regional Initiative Peer Learning (RIPL) funding, several providers will be working together to explore new ways of working with and engaging youth.
The Department provided seed funding to deliver six Social Ventures projects in designated remote service delivery areas through a competitive EOI process. The CCG can use the moodle to distribute information about replicable outcomes.
The Department advised the Australian Public Service (APS) is seeking to increase the number of Indigenous employees and to up-skill existing Indigenous employees. CDEP providers may encourage their participants and other suitable people in their communities to apply for positions in the APS online gazette.

The CCG endorsed the new CDEPRUs as an effective medium for providers to access training underpinned by literacy and numeracy, to share information, resources and learning methods.
The CDEPRUs deliver several initiatives such as the ‘Getting There’ pilot program for literacy and numeracy skills and prevocational subjects to support effective participation in accredited vocational employment programs. Information sharing occurs through the Moodle website– an IT platform for sector-wide access to training and learning resources, current CDEP projects and related employment matters. TAFESA has delivered workshops on the Australian Core Skills Framework in regional centres to enable providers to benchmark participants’ literacy and numeracy needs.

The Department funded SMS to undertake a training needs analysis for providers and Agreement Managers.
The CCG’s view is that they are responsible for training their own staff; not the Department. Training is, however, valuable when new programs, significant changes or staff turnover occurs. The CCG supports the Department to continue providing CDEP Manager training.
The CCG advised that workshops delivered by the Department should also contribute to capacity development for providers.

World Vision is teaching 5 CDEP services nationally skills in participatory monitoring and evaluation. The aim is to raise sector awareness and capacity in use of qualitative assessment tools to gauge program effectiveness and social impact. CCG members were positive in their feedback on the project and recognised the community capacity building benefits.

Community Action Plan (CAP) and Work Readiness
The CCG asked if work readiness activities have to be identified in the CAP before the Department will approval of the activity. The Department advised that work readiness activities do not have to be included in a CAP for approval.
Extension funding
The CCG discussed the extension funding, its management and proposed time frame. The Department will keep providers informed as appropriate.
National Data Trends
National data trends showed significant improvement in utilisation and outcomes across the sector. Refer to Attachment A national data trends as at 4 October 2011.
Other Business
The next CCG meeting will be in Sydney on 1 – 2 March 2012.

There were 10,643 participants active in the CDEP program
44.1% of all participants were Wages Eligible (i.e. 4,692).
27.3% of all CDEP participants were active in the Work Readiness Stream and 72.7% were active in the Community Development Stream.
The average utilisation rate of the CDEP program monitored across the last financial year (2010-11) was 69.6% and at 4 October 2011 the point in time utilisation was 73.2%.
Over the financial year 2011-2012 (up to 4 October 2011) 487 CDEP participants were placed in off-CDEP employment and 751 CDEP participants commenced accredited training.
There were 1,358 participants in non-accredited training.