News

What should I do in preparation for transition to CBF on 1 July 2006?

FOFMS has now been updated with the 1 July 2006 Conversion Capacity figures. By 1 July 2006, all services must have transitioned all BGF cases to CBF.

You must complete two important tasks by Friday 26 May 2006 to ensure that your service has transitioned all remaining BGF cases by 1 July 2006.

By 26 May 2006 you must:

1. Complete DMIs for clients who are Block Grant Workers and that you are planning to transition at 1 January 2006. Please note that you cannot transition a client who does not have an authorised DMI.
2. Mark the cases for transition. Once DMIs are completed you must select each of the required number of cases for transition. You do this by using the "Select for Transition" option in FOFMS. Please note that you cannot transition more cases than specified in your conversion capacity.

How do I determine how many cases I have to transition?

• Your conversion capacity, which is recorded in FOFMS, is the number of clients you need to transition and reflects the number of BGF cases your service had on FOFMS on 1 January 2006. Please note that if, on 26 May 2006, your service has less BGF workers than your conversion capacity, to satisfy your funding obligations just transition all your BGF workers.
• You must transition all BGF workers. You cannot transition BGF Job Seekers or cases recorded in FOFMS under a separate Targeted Support Agreement Schedule.
• Cases that are trialling Targeted Support but are still recorded under an Employment Assistance Agreement Schedule in FOFMS still need to transition to CBF. The transition to CBF will not affect the trial of the case under Targeted Support. The case will continue to trial Targeted Support after the transition to CBF.

What happens to cases I do not transition?

• Any BGF case under an active Employment Assistance Agreement Schedule that is not selected for transition by 26 May 2006 will be automatically exited from the service in June 2006. You will be able to restart the client from July 2006 as a New Job Seeker under CBF.
• Cases listed under a Targeted Support Agreement Schedule should not be selected for transition. All cases under a Targeted Support Agreement Schedule will continue to receive Targeted Support.

Important Information about the 1 January 2006 Transition (T2)

At the last Transition Point on 1 January 2006 more than 90% of services met their Transition obligations. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for a great effort. We look forward to a successful transition on 1 July 2006.

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Disability Maintenance Instrument (DMI) Reimbursement

Many services have recently received a $160 lump sum DMI reimbursement payment, for each DMI authorised for Block Grant Workers between 1 September 2005 and 30 November 2005. DMI reimbursement payments are paid to services that complete and authorise DMIs for eligible Block Grant Workers to assist with the cost of transitioning to CBF. Services are not paid for the same worker more than once. This means services are not paid for DMI assessments or reassessments when they have already been reimbursed for that worker.

The next quarterly reimbursement payment is due in March 2006, covering 1 December 2005 to 28 February 2006. If you have any questions regarding the DMI reimbursement payment please contact your FaCS Contract Manager.

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Monitoring DMI assessment and reassessment dates - clarification from e-News Issue 54 (21 November 2005)

FOFMS - Updating your case records

To help you monitor critical dates for your cases, FOFMS now automatically generates activities reminding you to complete certain actions such as Disability Maintenance Instrument (DMI) assessments and or DMI re-assessments. These automated processes rely on the case records being correct and up to date, including the correct case worker recorded on each of your case records. The case worker recorded in FOFMS will receive the automatically generated activities, so you need to ensure the correct person is identified and that person regularly logs on to FOFMS.

If you haven't already updated your case records to identify the case worker could you please do so as soon as possible.

Monitoring DMI assessment and reassessment dates

To help you monitor DMI assessment and reassessment dates, FOFMS has begun to auto-generate activities to notify case workers, based on the information that is entered in the case worker field on the case record. The activities are generated when:

• a case with an active status and a phase of 'Employment Assistance' has had 12 employment assistance payments and has not had a DMI assessment authorised; and
• a case with an active status and a phase of 'Maintenance' has had 24 maintenance payments.

You will have two months to complete the DMI assessment or reassessment, from when the activity is created, before the assessment date falls due. Please note: a case will be suspended if an assessment or reassessment is not completed 3 months after the due date. The case will be exited if the assessment or reassessment is not completed 4 months after the assessment or reassessment due date.

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Quality Assurance Update

Disability Employment Organisations continue to be audited by accredited Certification Bodies under the Quality Assurance System. All organisations should have completed their first surveillance audit (which was due 12 months from the date of completion of the initial certification audit) prior to 31 December 2005.

Surveillance audit activity in the last three months of 2005 was significant due to the large number of organisations that achieved certification towards the end of 2004. A small number of organisations also underwent their second certification audit (triennial reassessment) over this time, as these organisations were initially certified towards the end of 2002.

The Standards frequently not satisfied at surveillance audits are Standard 2 – Individual Needs, and Standard 8 – Service Management. The Standards frequently not satisfied at organisations’ second certification audit are Standard 8 – Service Management, and Standard 9 – Employment Conditions.

The FaCS publication, Continuous Improvement Handbook Version 2 contains many useful suggestions on how organisations can improve service delivery in order to comply with the requirements of the Quality Assurance Standards. Additional copies of the Continuous Improvement Handbook Version 2 can be obtained by calling 1800 050 009, and quoting Product Code 1159. Please call National Disability Operations Branch in FaCS on (07) 3005 6094 for any other queries relating to the Quality Assurance System.

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The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Supports and Promotes BizAbility

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) is providing strong support for the innovative FaCS BizAbility website.

ACCI, through its State/Territory Chamber and Industry Association membership, represents over 350,000 Australian businesses and is providing ongoing promotion of the BizAbility e-commerce site to Business and Industry.

ACCI promotion of the BizAbility site will provide significant marketing reach and develop increased business opportunities for supported employment services.

Business Services are encouraged to engage in the BizAbility system and ensure their online information is accurate, up to date and accessible, and that contact information and processes provide a streamlined system of engagement for business related enquiries.

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BizAbility - Disability Business Services On-Line

Stage 2 Focus Group

We are now working on Stage 2 of the BizAbility website which will add the eCommerce transaction capability. For BizAbility to be successful, organisations and their business services need to actively support the website. To make sure that Stage 2 of the website fits the needs of disability business services and their customers, we recently called for membership of a Stage 2 Focus Group. Thank you to those businesses that have already nominated.

Members of the Stage 2 Focus Group will be actively involved in the design of the functionality and business processes. They will trial the eCommerce function for their individual business on the BizAbility website.

In the last eNews (Issue 55), we invited 7-8 business services to be members of this group. We are still seeking another two businesses to be part of this important group. If you are interested, please contact us through the mailbox at Bizability@facsia.gov.au and mark your email “Stage 2 Focus Group”.

Images for BizAbility

We are still looking for images to feature on the BizAbility web site sub-categories, including photos of product packaging, food vans and mailhouse services. We would like to hear from any business services that would like images from their services (eg. photographic images that you have on your own web site or in publications) to feature on the BizAbility site. Please email the BizAbility@facsia.gov.au mailbox and we will contact you to discuss this further.

Access to the BizAbility Administration Area

For BizAbility to present a professional image it is important that all information on the website is accurate and up-to-date. As a business service listed on BizAbility, it is your responsibility to maintain and update your organisation’s details. To do this you need to have completed a User Access Form. If you have not already done so please contact the mailbox at Bizability@facsia.gov.au.

Creation of Individual Websites

If your organisation does not have a website, one can be created for you through the BizAbility project. Take the opportunity to get your organisation on-line at no cost. Contact the mailbox at Bizability@facsia.gov.au for details.

Promote Your Goods and/or Services

With Christmas now over, Valentine’s Day and Easter are fast approaching. Do you have any specially priced products and services that you would like to place in the “Specials” area of BizAbility? Why not take advantage of this as an additional promotional tool for your business service by advertising specials not just for seasonal celebrations and special occasions but at any time throughout the year?

To advertise, send any specially priced products or services and your trading name, email address and contact details to Bizability@facsia.gov.au.

Feedback

BizAbility is for business services to promote and market their products and/or services. We welcome your feedback about the website. Please forward your feedback to Bizability@facsia.gov.au.

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Interruption to CBF Helpdesk Services

Due to circumstances beyond FaCS' control, the CBF Helpdesk message bank was out of operation between Friday 13 to Wednesday 18 January. If you contacted the CBF Helpdesk during this time and left a message and you have not heard from the Helpdesk, please contact the Helpdesk immediately on 1800 034 887 so that we can assist you with your enquiry.

FaCS would like to apologise for any inconvenience during this disruption.

In the event of any future disruption to phone services, please note the CBF Helpdesk can be contacted by email on helpdesk.CBF@facsia.gov.au

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Feedback

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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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Contributions

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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