Special Issue 11 | 19 December 2005
November and December certainly have been busy! Following the Minister’s announcements of a further $3.5 million of a Rural and Remote Service Supplement to disability business services, grants of up to $75,000 to help business services create partnerships and joint activities and grants of up to $2000 to help business services attend events like community and industry days and trade fairs, 270 new places to disability business services have now been announced.
On Friday 9 December 2005 Draft Variations to Funding Agreements were mailed to business services operating at 100% outlet capacity and who were not wage phase-in organizations. We would like to encourage you to sign the Variations and return them as soon as you can.
Thank you in advance for your co-operation.
[ top ]
Congratulations to all the winners of the 2005 Prime Minister’s Employer of the Year Awards announced in Canberra on 1 December 2005.
The Prime Minister’s Employer of the Year Awards recognise excellence in the employment of people with disabilities and acknowledges the contribution made by large, medium and small employers, as well as all three levels of government, in providing employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The Awards also promote the efforts of Australian Government funded disability services in helping people with disabilities gain employment in the open labour market.
A list of the 2005 Award winners is available on the DEWR website.
[ top ]
On 30 November 2005, the Minister for Family and Community Services, Senator Kay Patterson announced a $2.4 million Rural and Remote Services Supplement. By now, many of you will have received your information kit about this simple five-band payment structure.
You do not have to do anything to receive the Rural and Remote Service Supplement paid in December provided that your disability business service has an outlet in an ARIA location of Accessible, Moderately Accessible, Remote or Very Remote. For more information about the level of payment please refer to your information kit, the fact sheets on this Department’s web site or talk to your local FaCS contract manager.
If your service is a sole provider and you are in the ARIA classification of Highly Accessible, you may be eligible for a sole provider payment. Please feel free to contact your local Contract Manager to talk this over.
While we recognise that certain historical factors, such as running an open and supported employment service prior to the transfer of open employment services to the Department of Workplace Relations in December 2004, the Rural and Remote Services Supplement is intended to alleviate local disadvantage in an individual site. Only one payment per site will be made to an organisation that has more than one outlet in a single site.[ top ]
2005 has been a busy year for us all. We hope that you will take the opportunity over the festive season to relax, wind down and refresh yourself for 2006. May we wish you all a safe and happy festive season and a happy new year. We look forward to working with you all then.
[ top ]
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.
[ top ]
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.
[ top ]