Issue 148
22 February 2010
FaHCSIA has joined forces with the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) to increase awareness of workplace opportunities for people with a disability.
The Paralympic Diversity Workplace Program is a new joint initiative that will be officially launched next month by the Hon Bill Shorten, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services, and Mr Greg Hartung, President of the APC.
The launch will take place on 2 March 2010 in Sydney.
An increased number of people with disability in the workforce will be a key objective of the program, which will see Paralympic athletes act as 'ambassadors for diversity' within the Australian business community.
Jason Hellwig, Chief Executive of the APC, said the Paralympic Diversity Workplace Program will produce a range of benefits for participating Paralympic athletes and business organisations around Australia.
'The APC has invited each member of its Paralympic Preparation Program to signal their interest in becoming involved in the program, because we see it as a very useful mechanism for career enhancement outside of Paralympic sport,' Mr Hellwig said.
'The program will provide current Paralympic athletes with flexible employment arrangements to support their training and competition commitments. Such an arrangement would be of huge benefit to many athletes as we head towards the London Games in 2012.'
'And as part of their roles, the athletes will act as 'Diversity Ambassadors' within the organisation to deliver key diversity messages among their work colleagues.'
Expressions of interests from business organisations and Paralympic athletes are still welcome, and can be submitted by calling 02 9704 0515.
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A review of the National Disability Services Standards is underway. The review aims to address gaps in the current National Standards, as well as consider the inclusion of contemporary language and concepts.
The Disability Studies and Research Centre at the University of New South Wales have commenced work on a consultation package to support people to have a say on the National Standards. As part of the design and testing of the consultation materials, the Disability Studies and Research Centre is working with Self Advocacy Sydney and Vision Australia to ensure the materials meet the needs of stakeholders from a diverse range of backgrounds, and for people with physical, sensory and cognitive disabilities.
The consultation package will include materials to support:
Individual jurisdictions have commenced planning for consultation on the National Standards. A state-by-state approach to consultation will allow each jurisdiction to plan for their local context, such as specific stakeholder needs and major events occurring in 2010. Whilst each jurisdiction is running their own consultation, the consultation methods and materials will be the same across Australia.
Consultation feedback will be independently analysed by the University of New South Wales, and will result in findings for Disability Services Ministers to consider.
Information regarding the revision of the National Standards will be regularly uploaded onto the project website at National Quality Framework (www.dhs.vic.gov.au/disability/improving_supports/national-quality-framework) as it becomes available.
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Approximately $900,000 per year is available to benefit rural and remote communities under the Small Grants for Small Rural Communities program. Funded by the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, the program is available to not-for-profit organisations to fund projects that provide a clear benefit to regional and rural communities. Approved projects will contribute to the development of social and community welfare, or provide community benefit in economic, environmental, health, education or cultural areas. Funding of up to $5,000 per project is available, with priority given to towns with a population of under 10,000. To be eligible, projects must be for a charitable purpose and benefit the whole community.
Closing dates for funding proposals in 2010 are 29 March and 30 September 2010.
For more information visit the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal website (www.frrr.org.au).
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As mentioned is this edition and an earlier issue of disAbility e-news, work is currently underway on a review of the National Disability Services Standards. Although the outcome will depend on the feedback and recommendations that result from the consultation process, we expect that some changes may be made to the current Standards.
FaHCSIA fields requests on a regular basis from Australian Disability Enterprises for hard copy versions of the Easy English Disability Services Standards posters and booklets, which were developed several years ago, and are now out of print. Although the material contained within them is still accurate and useful, the posters and booklets need to be modernised. With the review underway, we believe that now is not the time for the development of new Standards material, or reprinting of current material, that could become obsolete within a very short period of time.
In order to meet requests in the mean time for the Easy English Disability Services Standards posters and booklets, we have organised for the current versions to be made available for download from the FaHCSIA website.
We will continue to provide you with updates about the outcome of the review and the availability of any new publications in future editions of disAbility e-news.
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The Australasian Society for the Study of Intellectual Disability (ASSID) in conjunction with The Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine (AADDM) and the Centre of Excellence for Behaviour Support (CEBS) has the pleasure in presenting the 45th ASSID Conference in Brisbane on September 29, 30 and October 1 2010. The conference provides the most prestigious national forum for the exposure and exchange of ideas in the field of intellectual disability. The theme of the conference is 'Seeking Excellence'. ASSID 2010 will bring together educators, researchers, service providers, practitioners, people with intellectual disability, families and carers from across Australia and New Zealand. It will inspire participants by providing opportunities to build relationships, explore intervention strategies, learn about new research developments, celebrate experience and achievements and raise awareness about the field of intellectual disability.
To find out more about the conference go to ASSID website (www.assid.org.au) or contact our conference coordinator Jude McPhee on email assid2010@optusnet.com.auor by phone 07 3163 2496. Abstract submission deadline is the 1 March 2010 and early bird registration closes on the 30 June.
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Many of the listings on the Australian Disability Enterprises website include personal contact email addresses. If your listing uses a personal email address as the contact email, a privacy consent form is required. To obtain a privacy consent form please email Australian Disability Enterprises (australiandisabilityenterprises@fahcsia.gov.au).
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The Quality Assurance Certificates of Compliance for a large number of Disability Employment Services, including Australian Disability Enterprises, are due to expire this year. In order to meet funding agreement requirements, it is essential that each Service maintains the currency of its Certificate by completing a recertification audit before the expiry date.
Although FaHCSIA has been in contact with every Certification Body to alert them to the situation, and to encourage them to work proactively with their customers, the responsibility lies with each Service to ensure that audits are scheduled early enough to meet recertification deadlines.
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When entering a new client record into FOFMS some caseworkers are receiving an error message saying, 'The CRN entered for the client is not unique' when they are entering the address details for a new client.
This is a false error message and has been reported for a technical solution.
If you are creating a client record and encounter this error message you only need to exit the client record and then go back by using the query facility. You will then be able to continue with entering the address and other client details.
If you have any questions about entering new supported employees into FOFMS please contact the CBF Helpdesk on 1800 034 887 or at Helpdesk.CBF@fahcsia.gov.au.
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Changes to FOFMS are scheduled to occur over the weekend of 20 February 2010. The FOFMS changes are designed to align FOFMS terminology with the new FaHCSIA Common Business Model which aims to standardise funding management practices across all programs and providers.
The changes that will appear in the Portal will be to the Case Activities Tab, Agreement Tab and Agreement Schedule Tab. All of these Tabs will now have new names and the screen shots below show how the new naming has been applied.
This first screen below highlights the change to the Agreement Screen Tab – which will now be known as Program Schedules. If your organisation is funded under several FaHCSIA programs you would see a Program Schedule for each one with an individual Program Schedule ID. In this example Prompt Packaging Services is only funded by FaHCSIA to provide Employment Assistance.
In the second screen shot you can see that Activities are now used to describe where each of the Employment Assistance Activities is being provided. Previously this tab was known as the Agreement Schedule Tab. Activities no longer describe a case activity that needs to be completed in FOFMS, but refers to the Activity you are being funded for under your Funding Agreement. In this example Prompt Packaging Services has Employment Assistance Activities being provided at four different outlets. Cases for your supported employees will be attached to one of your Activity outlets. Each Activity has an individual Activity ID.
These last two screen shots show that the old case activities have been replaced with Actions, on both the Actions Tab and on the Home Page. A case action is a notification to you or to FaHCSIA that an action is required on a case such as Completing or Authorising a DMI Assessment.
If you have any questions regarding the updated naming of Actions, Activities or Program Schedule, please contact the CBF Helpdesk for assistance on 1800 034 887 or at Helpdesk.CBF@fahcsia.gov.au.
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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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