Issue 58 | 20 February 2006
Following the changes announced by the Prime Minister on 24 January 2006, we are now known as the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and will use the acronym FaCSIA. The new portfolio is made up of the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination (OIPC) and the old Department of Family and Community Services. The Hon Mal Brough MP will become Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and will also become Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs. The Hon John Cobb MP will become Minister for Community Services. Minister Cobb will have responsibility for disability services.
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There was an error in the article on Understanding Disability Employment Assistance (DEA) payments in the last issue of the disability e-news (Issue #57). In the article, we said that the Business Service Funding Subsidy payments were made at the beginning of each month ‘in advance’. This was incorrect, as Business Service Funding Subsidy payments are made to services in arrears.
The relevant paragraph should have read: “Business Service Funding Subsidy – This is paid to services to help them with the transition from BGF to CBF. This is an ‘in arrears’ payment made at the beginning of a month. For more information please see Paragraph 39 of the Programme Procedures.
FaCSIA apologises for any confusion or inconvenience this error may have caused. For any queries relating to DEA payments, please contact the CBF Helpdesk on 1800 034 887 or email Helpdesk.CBF@facsia.gov.au
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Please note that when DMI assessment and DMI reassessment dates are not met, FOFMS will suspend payments and exit cases in line with the DEA Programme Procedures. The following rules are automated in FOFMS:
It is your responsibility to monitor DMI assessment and DMI reassessment dates. If your clients have their payments suspended or their cases exited as a result of DMI assessment or DMI reassessment dates not being met, you will not be back-paid.
You can monitor when your service’s clients are due for a DMI assessment and DMI reassessment by simply using the predefined queries that are built into FOFMS. To access the predefined queries you will need to be in the ‘Cases’ view. Then, from the ‘Queries’ drop down menu you can select either:
To help you monitor DMI assessment and re-assessment dates, FOFMS now auto-generates activities to notify case workers, based on the information in the case worker field on the case record.
If your clients are exited because a DMI assessment or DMI reassessment was not completed and authorised within the due dates, you will need to contact the FOFMS Helpdesk to request that the case status be reset to 'Return from Suspension'. Once the case status is reset you will have one month to complete and authorise the required assessment. If the required assessment is not completed within that one-month period the case will be exited again and you will need to create a new case. You will also need to complete and authorise an Intake Assessment to receive payments for supporting this client.
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Please note that you will not be paid an Intake Payment for new cases until their Intake Assessment has been completed and authorised on FOFMS. It is your responsibility to ensure that Intake Assessments are authorised on FOFMS once you have completed them. FaCSIA will not backdate Intake Assessments, or make back-payments. Please note that normal case rules for DMI assessments still apply, ie you must wait 13 weeks after the Intake Assessment authorisation date before a DMI can be completed and authorised .
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Sometimes when you are entering in new client details on FOFMS you may receive the error message ‘CRN is not unique’. This happens when the client details you are trying to enter are already on FOFMS, that is, the client already has a record on the system. If you receive this error message, please contact the CBF Helpdesk.
The CBF Helpdesk can be contacted by email at Helpdesk.CBF@facsia.gov.au, or by phone on 1800 034 887.
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If you believe a client’s disability or medical condition requires access to Work Based Personal Assistance (WBPA) you can ask for an assessment of the client by a qualified assessor. Please note: only clients receiving Cased Based Funding are eligible for WBPA; clients receiving Block Grant Funding are not eligible for WBPA. If the assessment determines that the client needs WBPA you will need to record the requirement in the client's Employment Assistance Plan.
To claim WBPA you will need to complete the WBPA claim form in the Literature section in FOFMS. Once you have completed the form, please fax it to the CBF Helpdesk on (07) 3005 6097.
If you have any questions about WBPA you should contact your local Contract Manager or State and Territory Office contact. For more information about WBPA please see section 30 of the Disability Employment Assistance Services Programme Procedures.
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When the BSWAT assessment process was introduced it was anticipated that an employee’s first wage assessment would need to be reviewed within twelve to eighteen months.
During the second half of 2005 CRS Australia conducted reviews of wage assessments to ascertain how much wage outcomes for individuals varied over the 12 months since the initial wage assessments. This trial demonstrated that there was negligible change to wage assessment outcomes on review.
Given this outcome, FaCSIA has decided that BSWAT assessments will be revisited once every three years. It will remain open to either business services or employees with a disability to seek a review or reassessment at any time if, for example, there is a change in job/role or a change in individual circumstances.
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In 2003 ARTD Management and Research Consultants conducted a mid-term review of the Quality Strategy. One of the findings of the review was:
“The longer-term credibility and reliability of certification audits requires greater control over the training undertaken by lead auditors and consumer technical experts. This could be achieved by making it a requirement in Procedure 18 that all audit team members have completed an accredited training course on certification audits for disability employment services.”
The recommendation made out of this finding was that FaCS makes accredited training a compulsory requirement for all audit team members. As a result, JAS-ANZ Procedure 18 Number 2 now includes a requirement that all audit team personnel do training that is specified by FaCSIA.
To progress this recommendation, FaCSIA decided to pursue a personnel certification process through RABQSA International, a Personnel Certification Body accredited under JAS-ANZ. Invitations were sent to all key stakeholder groups to nominate to join a Sub-Scheme Committee to develop competency requirements for all levels of personnel in audit teams.
The outcome is a developed set of competencies (skill and knowledge) for three grades including Consumer Technical Expert grade, Auditor grade and Lead Auditor grade. Personal attributes are also to be examined. All audit team personnel will have to be certified as individuals by RABQSA in order to continue auditing in disability employment services.
The Scheme is likely to be implemented between March 2006 and June 2007.
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As part of the November 2005 release of FOFMS the 'Case Worker' field was added to the case record in FOFMS. This field allows FOFMS to generate automated activities to notify the case worker when DMI Assessments and Re-assessment are due, which makes it easier for you to monitor and manage assessment dates. In a significant number of instances, however, the 'Case Worker' field is either blank or has defaulted to the client's name and has not been updated with the correct FOFMS user within your organisation.
Please note that you will not be able to access a case record until the 'Case Worker' field is populated. Also your organisation will not receive the FOFMS automated activities reminding you that a DMI assessment or DMI reassessment is due for a particular client. Having the 'Case Worker' field updated with the correct FOFMS user will assist you manage and monitor case activity.
To update the 'Case Worker' field, navigate to your case list and update the case worker field with the appropriate FOFMS user's name. If you would like to enter specific case workers on your case records then you need to do this by 10 March 2006. Updating this field yourself will allow you to nominate the actual FOFMS user who looks after each case.
Any 'Case Worker' fields which are still blank or contain the client's name after 10 March 2006 will be updated by FaCSIA with the name of the last case worker or authorising officer who accessed FOFMS from your organisation – that person will then get all the notifications about assessments or reassessments due.
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