Issue 144
30 November 2009
On 23 November 2009 the Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd MP, announced that, as part of the National Disability Strategy, the Productivity Commission has been commissioned to investigate the feasibility of new approaches for funding and delivering long-term disability care and support.
The inquiry forms part of the Australian Government’s ten year National Disability Strategy being developed with State and Territory Governments and in consultation with the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council.
The Productivity Commission inquiry will examine the feasibility, costs and benefits of replacing the current system of disability services with a new approach which provides long-term essential care and support for people with severe or profound disabilities however acquired.
The inquiry will examine a range of options for long-term care and support including consideration of whether a no-fault social insurance approach to disability is appropriate in Australia. It will also examine if a scheme would fit with Australia’s health, aged care, income support and injury insurance systems.
For more information, please visit the People with Disability page of the FaHCSIA website.
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Six exceptional Australians have been announced as recipients in the 2009 National Disability Awards, held at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday 23 November. The recipients were selected from 15 outstanding finalists across the five award categories.
All recipients are remarkable individuals who have improved the lives of people with disability. The 2009 National Disability Award recipients are:
Business Award
Local Government Award
Social Inclusion Award
Disability Rights Young Leader Award
Minister’s Lifelong Achievement Award
More than 230 guests attended the ceremony, including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD) and National Disability Awards Patron Ms Thérèse Rein, IDPwD and National Disability Awards Ambassador Kurt Fearnley, Minister Jenny Macklin and Parliamentary Secretary Bill Shorten.
For information on the 2009 National Disability Awards, the recipients and finalists, please visit the IDPwD website.
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In the last edition of disAbility e-news we went through some of the findings from the e-news survey, this week we’ll be taking a closer look at the Australian Disability Enterprises website survey.
Some of the things respondents like about the website include:
Some of the things that respondents thought could be improved:
Respondents were also asked if they promote the website on their own marketing material, the majority or respondents answered no but many stated that they would do so once they created new marketing materials.
The department will be using the responses from the survey to continue to improve the Australian Disability Enterprises website.
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To promote Australian Disability Enterprises to potential purchasers, we will be profiling some of their businesses on the Australian Disability Enterprises website.
A new Australian Disability Enterprise will be featured on the website each fortnight.
Do you have an article about your Australian Disability Enterprise you would like featured on the website? We would like articles to include details around what goods and/or services your business provides, what your organisation is all about and any recent successes you have achieved. Images of your business can also be included in the articles.
Articles will need to be restricted to a maximum of 150 words.
The Australian Disability Enterprises website is currently attracting approximately 1,500 visits a month and is a great way to promote your business. If you would like your Australian Disability Enterprise featured on the website, please email Australian Disability Enterprises (australiandisabilityenterprises@fahcsia.com.au).
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Earlier in the year the Australian Government announced a new Jobs Fund that would provide $500 million to maximise job and training opportunities and improve facilities in local communities. The Jobs Fund forms part of the Government’s Jobs and Training Compact and has been established to support families and communities most affected by the Global Economic Recession.
The Jobs Fund has been retargeted to include a number of broader initiatives and to align with the recommendations from the final Keep Australia Working Report, released on 16 October 2009. The Local Jobs stream and the Get Communities Working stream have also been tightened to focus on green jobs and training outcomes and effective Intermediate Labour Market models, including social enterprises.
More than $90million will be available in Round 2 of the Jobs Fund:
Projects will support and create jobs and skill development and provide sustainable employment and training opportunities for the most disadvantaged Australians. The Jobs Fund works alongside the Keep Australia Working Service, which outlines the many programs available to help employers recruit, train and retain staff. More information about the Keep Australia Working Service is available at the Keep Australia Working Service website or calling 13 17 64.
Guidelines for applications can be downloaded from the DEEWR website. The closing time and date for applications is 11.00pm AEDT, Friday 11 December 2009. Queries about the Jobs Fund can be emailed to Jobs Fund (Jobs.Fund@deewr.gov.au).
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FaHCSIA Secretary Jeff Harmer has launched an 18 month pilot Traineeship Program to help staff with intellectual disability develop their administrative skills.
The program will enable five new staff with intellectual disability to develop skills to assist them in their future career aspirations—with the support of on the job mentoring from their supervisors. The five trainees have commenced work in branches across the department. Disability and Carers Program Branch, of which the Disability Employment Assistance Program is a part, is supporting a trainee.
FaHCSIA’s Diversity Team worked with the Australian Employers’ Network on Disability (AEND) to develop the program, and the trainees are supported by local Disability Employees Network.
FaHCSIA’s traineeship pilot program has been developed in response to the Australian Public Service Commission, Management Advisory Committee Report 6 (MAC 6), Employment of People with Disability in the APS. Specifically, the program enables the Department to apply special employment measures to engage people with intellectual disability. FaHCSIA has now implemented all eight objectives from the MAC 6 Report.
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2010 is the ‘Year of the Girl Guide’ when Girl Guides Australia celebrates a Centenary of Guiding. The department would like to acknowledge the contributions the Girl Guides have made towards the development of confidence and leadership in young Australian girls and women over the past one hundred years.
As part of their celebrations the Girl Guides will be participating in the Australian Service Challenge “Heads Held High”, which aims to help Guides to gain a practical insight into the every day challenges facing people with disability and the organisations that support them.
As part of the Australian Service Challenge, which will commence in January 2010, Girl Guide units all over Australia will be involved with:
If your organisation would like to be involved in this initiative, or if you would just like more information, please contact Ms Fiona Krautil, National Executive Officer, Girl Guides Australia, on 02 9319 7206 or email centenary (centenary@girlguides.org.au).
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IDPwD was established in 1992 by the United Nations General Assembly, at the conclusion of the United Nations' Decade of Disabled Persons (1983-1992), to promote awareness of disability issues and the abilities of people with a disability. It is celebrated worldwide on 3 December each year. Since 1996, FaHCSIA has been responsible for the promotion and awareness raising of the day. The IDPwD website is the central source for all information about IDPwD 2009 in Australia, including the registration of events, promotional materials and the National Disability Awards.
The theme for IDPwD 2009 is “Making the MDGs Inclusive: Empowerment of persons with disabilities and their communities around the world”. The MDGs are the ‘Millennium Development Goals’. More information about the theme is available at the United Nation’s website.
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Case Based Funding Payments due for processing on 31 October 2009 did not run until Monday 2 November, 2009 due to a systems issue.
Payments processed at the end of the each month are paid in the first week of the next month, but for October 2009 the Recipient Created Tax Invoice (RCTI) will advise a due date of 2 November 2009, instead of 31 October 2009. Services will need to take this into consideration when reconciling payments for October and November 2009.
If you have any questions regarding your end of month payments, please contact the Case Based Funding Helpdesk on 1800 034 887 or at Helpdesk (Helpdesk.CBF@fahcsia.gov.au).
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You should create a case on FOFMS on the day that an employee first presents for work and not before.
Creating a case and completing and authorising the intake assessment on the employee’s first day of work will ensure that your Disability Enterprise receives the funding to which it is entitled.
If you create a draft case prior to the first day of work and the employee fails to attend your service, the draft case will have added to your workload. If a case is left in draft you are not being paid and you are also using up your outlet capacity and preventing the supported employee from starting at another Disability Enterprise.
You should review your case list for any with a draft status and either complete and authorise an intake assessment or contact the Case Based Funding Helpdesk on 1800 034 887 to exit the record.
FaHCSIA will not backdate payments to Disability Enterprises that have not authorised Intake Assessments.
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In August 2009, a series of instructional videos were designed and provided to you (as FOFMs users) by FaHCSIA to assist you with your FOFMS obligations to deliver the Disability Employment Assistance (DEA) Program. This is the first time that FaHCSIA has developed a multimedia training solution to assist external users with their FOFMS activities under the DEA Program and your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
If you have not yet had the opportunity to view the videos you can access them through the Australian Disability Enterprises FOFMS Training Resource Centre
An electronic survey, Australian Disability Enterprises Training Package Evaluation [RTF 144kB], has been developed to assist FaHCSIA to ascertain the effectiveness and ease of use of the training product as well as to identify any possible improvements that could be made to future training products.
Please forward completed surveys to Helpdesk (Helpdesk.CBF@fahcsia.gov.au).
Thank you in advance for your cooperation and we look forward to your feedback.
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Many Australian Disability Enterprises will be closing down for the Christmas holiday period. This is a period of involuntary leave for supported employees and is subject to the two month suspension requirement on FOFMS. As with the usual suspension rules you should suspend a supported employee’s case when you become aware that the employee will be absent for longer than two calendar months.
Please refer to the following examples:
There will be other circumstances when a supported employee has requested annual holiday leave around this Christmas shut down time. If you are unsure of how to apply the Suspension Rules in these circumstance, please call the Case Based Funding Helpdesk on 1800 034 887 or at Helpdesk (Helpdesk.CBF@fahcsia.gov.au) to seek individual advice.
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It is very important to note and understand the rules and responsibilities that you agree to every time you access FOFMS. Failure to adhere to these responsibilities could constitute a serious security breach. FOFMS access is provided to users on the understanding that they alone will use it to access the system. These individuals are personally responsible for any work conducted under their Logon ID and this work can be monitored by FaHCSIA.
Service Providers must only access facilities that they have been authorised to use, and no attempts are to be made to bypass or defeat the security systems nor to obtain the use of privileges issued to other contracted employees of Service Providers (for example, never use/share another person’s User ID, never disclose your password). This includes cases of using another person’s access whilst your own is temporarily unavailable.
Should security breaches of this type occur the offending User ID(s) will be suspended pending an investigation.
If you have any questions or seek any clarification about FOFMS access and the responsibilities involved, please feel free to contact the FOFMS Helpdesk on 1800 020 283 or email FOFMS Helpdesk (Helpdesk.FOFMS@fahcsia.gov.au).
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Brunswick Industries Association was recognised as a champion of diversity and inclusion at the 2009 Diversity@Work Awards held on 18 October. Brunswick Industries was runner up in the Employment and Inclusion of People with a Disability (Small to Medium Organisation) category. The Diversity@Work Awards celebrate organisations and individuals that implement strategies to embrace the diverse community within their workplace.
Darrell Robinson, CEO of Brunswick Industries Association, which provides training and employment for people with a disability, said that he was very proud of the recognition received by the organisation. Mr Robinson acknowledged the challenges faced by the global financial crises but added that Brunswick Industries had tackled the financial crisis head-on.
“One of our biggest challenges over the past 12 months has been to maintain the balance between consumable price increases, wages, cost of production and the price charged to our customers,” said Mr Robinson. “However, with careful consultation between our business partners we are managing to maintain that balance.“
The company recently installed a second filling line as part of its liquid fill operations to cope with a surge in customer requirements. Two automated labellers and a faster, four-head filling line complement Brunswick Industries Association’s existing liquid filling capacity.
“The Brunswick Industries Association Board has seen fit to invest over $180,000 in semi automated machinery that provides a faster turnaround for customers and further assures delivery to customers of a retail-quality product.” said Mr Robinson. “Not only do Brunswick Industries Association’s customers benefit from this investment, so too do our people.”
“New skills are being learned and applied and at times, operating hours of the facility have been extended to satisfy customer orders.”
Brunswick Industries Association also works closely with clients such as Wise Employment in Northcote to broaden the employment and training opportunities for its people. This year, over 400,000 show bags destined for the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane shows were packed as part of such a partnership.
“We were able to provide short term jobs for an additional 30 people on top of the 60 people already employed at Brunswick Industries Association.” Said Mr Robinson.
“But even more importantly, Brunswick Industries Association and Wise provided formal training in warehousing and packaging skills as part of our aim to assist our people with integration into open employment.”
For more information on Brunswick Industries Association check out their listings on the Australian Disability Enterprises website.
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Email disAbility e-news if you'd like more information on a particular issue or program in disAbility e-news or to let us know what you think of the newsletter.
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Your contributions to disAbility e-news are welcome. Do you want to let others know about your successes? Or how you engage with local businesses to create employment opportunities for people with disabilities? Email your story idea to disAbility e-news.
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