News
Release of the National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy
On 14 September 2009, the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services, the Hon Bill Shorten MP, and the Minister for Employment Participation, Senator the Hon Mark Arbib, jointly released the National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy.
The Strategy sets out a number of priority actions to assist Australians with disability, including mental illness, into work. It recognises the importance of education and training as a pathway to sustainable employment, and the role of employers in increasing employment opportunities for people with disability.
The Strategy has been developed as part of the Government's Australian Social Inclusion Agenda which aims to address the barriers faced by people with disability, including mental illness, that make it harder for them to gain and keep work.
A copy of the Strategy paper is available for download from the
Australian Workplace website.
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Australian Disability Enterprise Excellence Awards
Ten Australian Disability Enterprises were honoured for their commitment to employees with disability at the Australian Disability Enterprises Excellence Awards in Sydney during the National Disability Services Conferences on Monday 7 September.
The awards were in recognition of the role of Australian Disability Enterprises in providing real work to people with disability, as well as the achievements of support staff and employees with disability who work in these organisations.
Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services, Bill Shorten congratulated the winners and encouraged every Australian Disability Enterprise to showcase their achievements and nominate for an award next year. Ms Francis Davies, Group Manager of the Disability and Carers Branch, FaHCSIA and Ms Tracey Fellows, CEO of Microsoft Australia, presented the awards to the winners.
There were approximately 50 nominations this year, across five categories, with both small and large businesses recognised.
Examples of excellence included increasing the average wage of supported employees, increasing business viability, providing opportunities for supported employees to learn new skills, having more variety of work and achieve valued roles in the community.
Supported Employees Team Award
- Small business: Eloura Industries - Ground & Maintenance Team New South Wales
- Large business: Activ Business Services - Kewdale Western Australia
Achievement Award
- Small business: Finding Workable Solutions Incorporated South Australia
- Large business: Good Samaritan Industries Western Australia
Partnership Award
- Small business: Tulgeen - Spindler Street Packaging Service New South Wales
- Large business: Sunnyfield Enterprises - Kao Project New South Wales
Support Workers Team Award
- Small business: St Laurence Community Services - Art Unlimited Victoria
- Large business: Greenacres Disabilities Services New South Wales
Inovation Award
- Small business: SA Group Enterprises Incorporated - SA Wire Ware South Australia
- Large business: Fairhaven Services Ltd New South Wales
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The new Australian Disability Enterprises marketing DVD has now been sent!
The new marketing DVD has now been distributed to all Australian Disability Enterprises.
The DVD contains:
- Master logos;
- Secondary logos (alternative layout of the master logo);
- Pull-up banners;
- Lectern banners;
- Posters; and
- Style Guide.
Some files on the DVD can only be opened with Adobe Creative Suite (professional graphic design software). These files have the following extensions:
These files are to be used when printing and designing material professionally. All other files (including jpeg, gif and pdf files) can be opened on your desktop. However, these are not suitable for professional printing, or for use by a designer.
The Style Guide and all other promotional material will be removed from FOFMS from 30 September 2009. If you have not received the DVD as yet, please advise your state and territory contract manager, who will organise for another DVD to be sent to you.
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Have you got the right email address?
From Thursday 1 October 2009 FaHCSIA's only operational email domain will be:
firstname.lastname@fahcsia.gov.au.
All emails addressed to either:
firstname.lastname@facs.gov.au or
firstname.lastname@facsia.gov.au will no longer be deliverable.
To ensure your correspondence reaches the intended recipient within the department please check that you have the correct email address for all of your contacts.
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CRS Australia Business Service Wage Assessment Tool Annual Report
CRS Australia recently provided a detailed report on the Business Service Wage Assessment Tool for the 2008/2009 Financial Year.
Over 2500 wage assessments were completed, including new assessments and triennial reviews, against a total of 281 individual competency standards. One of the telling indicators was that a large number of employees did not meet the required levels on Workplace Health and Safety competencies.
Regardless of the wage assessment tool used, Workplace Health and Safety is paramount to individuals in the workplace as well as the workplace itself. It is therefore important that every Australian Disability Enterprise provides Workplace Health and Safety training to each supported employee on commencement, as well as on an ongoing basis throughout their employment.
Training material aimed at assisting supported employees to work in a safe manner is available in the Consumer Training and Support suite of products. 'Working Safely', which is located in the green employee folder, can be customised to suit individual employees and workplace needs. A copy of 'Working Safely' can be accessed electronically on the
FaHCSIA website.
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The Developing Your Board project
Developing Your Board (DYB) is a three year project conducted by The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies and the School of Accountancy at Queensland University of Technology.
DYB is developing and testing board evaluation surveys suitable for the nonprofit sector in Australia.
DYB's approach to board evaluation
DYB aims to develop and validate surveys to study how boards, particularly nonprofit boards, work as a governance team.
Why develop new board evaluation instruments?
Board evaluation instruments need to be evidence-based and responsive to different contexts, particularly in the nonprofit sector.
There are some recognised instruments for evaluating nonprofit boards' effectiveness, but these generally come from the US and Canada. The DYB project is developing evaluation tools based around the Australian nonprofit board as a whole, as well as the major office bearers.
Once validated, the surveys will be available for free via an online link. As a databank of results builds, it will be possible for boards to assess their performance over time and also benchmark against other similar nonprofit boards.
The first surveys are in pilot testing. You can participate by contacting the project team -
Anne Overell
07 3138 6780
a.overell@qut.edu.au
Other DYB governance resources
Nonprofit boards need access to relevant information to assist them to reflect on, understand, manage and learn from the challenges they face. DYB is developing a range of online information and links to resources to assist nonprofit boards to improve their governance practices.
These are available on a
DYB website.
Each year, DYB also holds a colloquium on nonprofit governance. This free event is an opportunity for nonprofit board members and executives to come together to share their knowledge and experience, and benefit from the expertise of consultants who practise in the sector.
In 2009, the colloquium will be held on 30 November 2009 in Sydney at the CBD campus of the University of New South Wales and will concentrate on practical workshops. Registrations for the 2009 colloquium will be open from early October. Keep an eye on ‘
CPNS Seminars and Events' for further details.
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Program Updates
FOFMS Training Videos
FaHCSIA has developed the
Australian Disability Enterprises FOFMS Training Resource Centre to provide organisations funded under the Disability Employment Assistance Program (DEA) with links to instructional movies, along with additional resources and information. The five movies have been designed to provide assistance to access and operate FOFMS.
You can access the movies from your desk at your own time and pace. The movies can be played and paused to allow you to view the movie, complete activities in FOFMS then restart the movie, effectively guiding you step-by-step through each business process at your own controlled pace.
MOVIE 1
Australian Disability Enterprises Introduction to the FaHCSIA Online Funding Management System
- Login to FOFMS
- Change your password and Active Position in FOFMS
- Monitor the Capacity of your outlet
- Search for an existing Client record
- Navigate the Clients, Cases and Payments screens
- Access iHelp files
- View Disability Enterprise Literature.
MOVIE 2
Australian Disability Enterprises Create and Update a Client Record in FOFMS
- Create a Client Record
- Create an Address Record
- Create a Disability Record
- Update an Address Record
- Update a Disability Record
- Update a Phone Record.
MOVIE 3
Australian Disability Enterprises Creating and Managing a Case Record in FOFMS
- Search for a Supported Employee Record
- Create a Case Record
- Complete and Authorise an Intake Assessment
- Recording Weekly Wages and Hours.
- Managing your Case Records on FOFMS
- Updating Weekly Wage and Hours Records.
MOVIE 4
Australian Disability Enterprises Completing a Disability Maintenance Instrument Assessment
- Commencing a DMI Assessment
- Authorising a DMI Assessment
- Completing and Authorising a DMI Reassessment.
MOVIE 5
Australian Disability Enterprises View and Reconcile Payments Made to Your Organisation by FaHCSIA
- Customise your payments screen
- Search for and view payment records
- Reconcile payments using FOFMS, the remittance advice and your organisation's bank statements
- Run a report on payments made to your organisation.
If you have any questions regarding the Australian Disability Enterprises Training Resource Centre, training videos or other Case Base Funding issues, please contact the Case Based Funding Helpdesk on 1800 034 887 or
Helpdesk.CBF@fahcsia.gov.au.
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Supported Employees' Personal Information
When communicating via electronic media, for example e-mail or fax, it is important to remember to not include any information that may identify a supported employee to any outside party, should these communications be intercepted.
Only FOFMS Id's, such as Case Ids or Client Ids, should be sent via electronic media. Names, Customer Reference Numbers (CRNs) or any other personal information that may identify a supported employee should never be transmitted via these methods.
Electronic transmission of this information contravenes the Privacy Act 1988 and breaches the DEA Funding Agreement.
Paragraph 25 of the DEA Funding Agreement - Additional Procedures and Information outlines requirements in respect of Privacy and Confidentiality including:
25.3 ; You must also ensure that:
a) any correspondence by electronic mail from You to Us contains no identifying client information, such as names or Centrelink Reference Numbers
b) only the Client ID or Case ID on FOFMS, as advised by Us to You, are used in electronic mail correspondence with Us.
If you have any questions, please contact the CBF Helpdesk on 1800 034 887 or
Helpdesk.CBF@fahcsia.gov.au.
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Returning a Suspended Client
A Supported Employee can only be ‘Returned from Suspension' on FOFMS if, on their return, they continue to receive Employment Assistance services from your Outlet.
"Employment Assistance services" means the provision of supported employment in the workplace to a supported employee of yours, which is directly relevant to their employment and results in them being paid a wage from you. This is defined on page 13 in the Terms and Conditions of your funding agreement and is a requirement of your funding agreement with the department.
You should not claim Disability Employment Assistance funding from FaHCSIA for people with disability who are not Employed at your Australian Disability Enterprise. This includes people with disability undertaking a gradual return to work program that does not include any work duties and does not meet an employment outcome of eight hours per week. This type of gradual return to work is not sufficient for a supported employee to be returned on FOFMS.
The department can take action against any organisation in breach of their agreement and there may be serious implications for organisations that are incorrectly claiming Case Base Funding (CBF) payments for purposes other than Employment Assistance.
If you are aware your organisation is claiming CBF for a worker not in receipt of supported employment, you should contact your local state and territory contract manager immediately.
If you have any questions or want to discuss any issues around CBF eligibility please contact the CBF helpdesk on 1800 034 887 or by email to
Helpdesk.
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2008-2009 Financial Acquittal Report for DEA - Due 30 October 2009
As previously advised in Issue 135 of disAbility e-news the due date for your 2008-09 Annual Audited Financial Acquittal Report under the DEA funding agreement has been extended to 30 October 2009.
Sub-Item E2.2 of the Schedule (p4) outlines what your Annual Audited Financial Acquittal Report must contain.
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Business Services in Action
Holy Cross Laundry manager wins National Laundry Manager of the Year
By Bob Campbell - General Manager Holy Cross Laundry
Holy Cross Laundry is a Ministry of the Sisters of Mercy with a mission to help the disadvantaged in the community. We employ over 200 people at our Wooloowin site in Brisbane and process 130,000 kilograms of soiled linen per week.
We are following the Department's philosophy of business sustainability which requires us to be competitive in our industry at the same time achieve our mission. As a result of the success of our current financial and operational practices, during the 2008 / 2009 financial year less than 3% of our total income came from government.
This focus on our business requires that we actively promote our mission within the laundry industry. We therefore play an active part in the Textile Rental Laundry Association of Australia at a State and National level. This participation role in the industry led to my competing in the National Laundry Manager of the Year which I was fortunate to win. The overseas study award is a round the world trip studying various aspects of the laundry industry and is sponsored by and industry supplier FilterFab.
The award commenced on the 1st June 2009 with a three day trade show in New Orleans. The show "Clean 2009" is the largest of its type in the world. It includes visits to laundries, information sessions and a large exhibition centre with exhibitors covering both the laundry and dry cleaning industries. It is a forum for new technologies to be shown. Of these one which was on the cutting edge of technology was the washing of clothes with only 10% of the normal water volume. The remainder of the volume utilised polymer beads.
The show also enabled me to establish links to the Textile Services Rental of America. This was important in how we could contribute to the industry. Key elements of the American Association were:
- Financial and operational benchmarking with their industry and across market segments;
- Establishing a survey program which enables the association to report on the impact of the industry on the environment and track progress.
- The existence of an accreditation program a part of which is their environmental stewardship program.
- Training for staff at all levels of the industry.
- Seminars and technical advice which address Workplace Health and Safety Issues.
- Production of technical support to the industry.
The trip then involved visiting laundries around England and Germany.
The trip reinforced for me:
- The developing use of technology provides greater opportunities for Australian Disability Enterprise employees.
- The protection of the environment is a key driver in a range of new technologies. However the financial motivation for these technologies to be adopted will be significantly influenced by government regulations.
- The issues we fact on a "day to day" basis in our business activities are universal.
- The building of a new Holy Cross Laundry will be an environmental showcase for a broad range of industries.
- The more professional we are in all aspects of our business from image to financial and operational management the more successful we will become in the delivery of our mission.
The engagement of Social Enterprises in the community requires a high level of participation with a vast range of stakeholders. This requires a conscious and consistent effort particularly from executives in Business Enterprises. We are the spokespeople for our business and employment program. We need to effectively utilise our skills to promote the professionalism of Business Enterprises.
Congregation Leader of the Sisters of Mercy Sandra Lupi rsm and Bob Campbell with Award.
Technology which could be used to allow for greater utilisation of Australian Disability Enterprise employees in laundry operations.
For more information about Holy Cross Laundry check out their listing on the
Australian Disability Enterprises website.
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