Issue 41 | 23 May 2005
To make sure BSWAT assessments achieve the right outcome, CRS Australia is happy to consider making adjustments to wage assessments if a service provider or a person with a disability does not agree with the outcome of the initial wage assessment.
About 10 per cent of wage assessments require adjustment or reassessment. These adjustments and reassessments usually occur because Business Services provide additional information or because CRS Australia's quality assurance process checks identify inconsistencies in the assessment.
The CRS Wage Assessment Team encourages service providers and workers to contact them about any concerns they have with assessment outcomes so they can be resolved informally.
Should Business Services or workers be unable to resolve their concerns through informal means, it is open to either or both parties to lodge a Post Assessment Query with the CRS Wage Assessment Team. Service providers and workers have 21 days after receipt of wage assessment reports to lodge Post Assessment Queries.
For further information about Post Assessment Queries, follow the link below to the CRS Australia Website and select "Administrative Guidelines - Wage Assessment Tool for People with Disabilities Working in Business Services": www.crsaustralia.gov.au/bswt/bswt_forms.htm#top
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In late February 2005 the New England North West Disability Services Group got their new website exchange underway. The seven organisations participating in the secretariat have been working together on a site that will provide information to people with disabilities seeking employment with their Business Services units.
The site also provides product and services information for customers wishing to purchase from the business services units.
The benefits to the public are clear, and the member groups - Challenge Armidale, Forward Personnel (Moree Glen Innes, Inverell and Narrabri), Glen Industries (Glen Innes), Northaven (Inverell), Gwydir Industries (Moree), Gunnedah Workshop Enterprises, and Challenge Disability Services (Tamworth, Narrabri, Muswellbrook) - will now also be able to share resources via an intranet.
This facility allows them to exchange information, conduct online discussions and help each other with administrative and management considerations such as policies and procedures, corporate governance, human resources and training for staff and employees with disabilities.
Individual organisations have provided content for their own pages, and in this way each organisation has retained its own identity
The new website: http://www.nenw.dislink.org.au/ will go live to the public on 27 May 2005 with a launch held in Tamworth, and will be promoted across the region to ensure that all those who might need access to the site are aware that it is now available.
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We have now finished collecting information about your business and the products and services you provide, in preparation for the eCommerce application. We appreciate you taking the time in this busy period to provide information about your service.
Our supplier, Polymorphic Solutions, has now started work on the analysis and design phases of the eCommerce development. We expect that the first stage of the application will be available online in August 2005.
In conjunction with the eCommerce project, we have also funded Polymorphic Solutions to build websites for business es without a current web presence. The first group of new Business Service websites is expected to also go online in August, and it is anticipated that others will follow progressively until every Business Service has a professional and functional web presence.
Once the eCommerce and individual Business Service website designs are available, you will be able to see the draft designs online and choose the features that best suit your business. More details will be available soon[ top ]
A 2.1 per cent increase in block grant funding for disability services was included in the 2005 Budget on 10 May.
As outlined in Annexure A of your Funding Agreements, the following items will be increased by 2.1 per cent from 1 July 2005:Case based funding (CBF) prices are already fixed at 2005-06 levels. The 2003 Budget outlined that all CBF fees have been fixed at the 2005-06 (that is, mid-term) price for the three year duration of the CBF transition period until 30 June 2007. This provides more certainty for services as they move from block funding arrangements to CBF.
The 2.1 per cent indexation will also be applied to 2005-06 funding for non-employment programs including Advocacy and Targeted Support.
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The Disability Services Act 1986 stipulates that financial assistance from the Commonwealth is conditional on the disability employment organisation holding a current certificate of compliance against the Disability Services Standards. Reassessments of certified organisations are undertaken at least every three years.
The purpose of the reassessment is to verify in its entirety the continuing effectiveness of a certified organisation and to examine the organisation's commitment and actions towards continuous improvement. The reassessment should review how the organisation's quality assurance system has performed over the certification period.
A number of disability employment organisations were first certified against the Disability Services Standards in mid-to-late 2002. These organisations need to ensure that they hold a current certificate of compliance. If the certificate's validity is due to expire, then the organisation must make arrangements for a second certification audit (or reassessment) as soon as possible.
Organisations' certification bodies will be able to assist with the complete details of certification, including the effective date of certification and the expiry date.
For further information on certification reassessments, please contact Mark Heywood, National Disability Operations on (07) 3005 6094 or Toll Free on 1300 653 227.[ top ]
The first FOFMS DEA Working Group Meeting for Business Services was held in Sydney on 11 May. The Working Group has been established so that service providers can advise FaCS on the user requirements and performance of FOFMS. The 10 service providers who took time out from their busy schedules to attend the meeting in Sydney provided valuable feedback on performance and functionality as well as aspects such as frequency of payments, user roles, training and communication. In particular, we would like to thank the following people:
Robert Styling, Phoenix Society Inc, Adelaide SAIt is proposed that the next Working Group Meeting will take place in July.
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Providers have given mixed responses to the first six weeks of FOFMS - while the extra functionality it offers has been welcomed, the slowness of the system has been frustrating.
The FOFMS team has been working hard to identify the causes of the slow response times and have put in a number of fixes over the past 10 days. Encouragingly, response times improved five-fold since an enhancement to the data encryption functionality was installed on 12 May. The team will keep working to improve the response times. In the interim, we appreciate your patience during this roll-out phase.
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Case IDs comprise a mixture of both numeric and alpha characters. All Case IDs are uppercase . When doing a search by Case ID, note whether it includes the number "1" or the capital letter "I" (i). These two characters look very similar, however correct case details will not be returned unless the correct ID is entered.
All FOFMS enquiries should be directed to the FOFMS Helpdesk or you can contact them on their Toll Free number: 1800 034 887.
Service providers with multiple organisations are asked to take care when entering new clients onto FOFMS. Please ensure you enter client details against the organisation that will be supporting your client. Client and case details cannot be deleted on FOFMS.
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You were advised in disAbility e-news Issue 39 (26 April 2005) that you can view the funding level of authorised DMI assessments for block grant funded (BGF) cases migrated from the Interim Disability Maintenance Instrument System (IDMIS) to FOFMS, in the DMI view of the client's case.
Please note that the status field of these DMI assessments is blank. You are asked not to change the status of these DMI assessments to ' authorised', as doing so will default the DMI funding level to Level One. FaCS will update the status of DMI assessments on your behalf.[ top ]
Service providers are reminded that DMI reassessments are due within two years of a client's original DMI assessment. For example: if a client has a DMI assessment authorised on 20 March 2003, an authorised DMI reassessment is due by 20 March 2005.
DMI reassessments can be submitted up to three months in advance of the due date for reassessment. If you are unable to complete a DMI reassessment by the due date, please notify your STO Contract Manager before the reassessment is due.
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The end of the financial year is fast approaching and for many services this means it is time to start a new funding agreement with FaCS. Business Services whose current funding agreement expires on 30 June 2005 will soon receive a new offer of funding.
Services that were utilising 90 per cent of their Outlet Capacity (as required in the current funding agreement) and had completed the right number of DMIs by the 1 January 2005 transition point will be offered two year agreements from 1 July 2005 that will end on 30 June 2007. Other services will be offered one year agreements that will end on 30 June 2006. Please contact your Contract Manager if you have any questions.
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Email disAbility e-news if you'd like more information on a particular issue or program or to let us know what you think of this e-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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