Issue 61 | 3 April 2006
By the time Case Based Funding is fully phased in on 1 July 2006, funding to disability business services will be 15 percent higher than it would have been under the old Block Grant model. While many business services have already seen payments increase, some business services will have a reduction in funding under the new model.
Business services that receive less funding under the Case Based Funding model than they received under the Block Grant arrangements currently receive a special subsidy payment to make up any shortfall between their current funding and the Block Grant Funding they were receiving at July 2004. For example, if a service previously received $10,000 per month in Block Grant Funding and is currently receiving $8,000 a month under Case Based Funding, then they also will receive a $2,000 monthly funding subsidy to make up the difference.
After the transition to CBF is complete on 1 July 2006, the funding subsidy will reduce to 75 percent of the Block Grant Funding level which applied in July 2004.
Services that currently receive this funding subsidy to help them with the transition to Case Based Funding should already be planning for the pending change to their monthly funding levels. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the impact of this change on your service, contact your local FaCSIA Contract Manager.[ top ]
Under Quality Assurance Disability Services Standard Four (Privacy, Dignity and Confidentiality), service providers must not disclose personal information about service recipients without their informed consent. Informed consent and the use of consent forms in disability employment services are important considerations for organisations’ compliance with this Standard.
An organisation discloses information when it releases information outside the organisation. If the information is about a service recipient, he or she needs to be well informed about the proposed disclosure and the implications the disclosure may have. The Quality Assurance Handbook includes signed and informed consent forms as examples of evidence for Key Performance Indicator 4.1.
Where a service recipient or consumer has limited ability to make informed decisions, it would be reasonable for an organisation to take appropriate additional measures to ensure that the individual is aware of the disclosure and its implications. For a person with an intellectual disability this could mean organisations obtaining a signed consent form from the consumer on an ‘as required’ basis, at which time the purpose of the disclosure and the possible implications are carefully explained. An example of this would be consumers giving their consent for an auditor to examine their file during a Quality Assurance audit.
For a consumer whose informed consent could cover a range of disclosures over a longer period of time, and the consumer and organisation are satisfied that the consumer understands this type of consent, the consent form could be updated at the regular review of the consumer’s Individual Employment Plan.
For further information on Quality Assurance matters, please call Mark Heywood on (07) 3005 6094.
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In April 2006, FaCSIA will pilot a component of the planned Business Service Audit and DMI Compliance Strategy which will be implemented across the sector in 2006-07. The pilot will focus on Case Based Funding business processes including the accuracy of client and case records on FOFMS, and documentary evidence to support the Disability Maintenance Instrument (DMI) assessments and reassessments.
The pilot will initially be conducted in South Australia and Western Australia, before extending to the other states and territories. Services will be selected at random and given reasonable notice before the audit occurs.
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On 4 April 2006, new functionality will be released into FOFMS that will help you use FOFMS to reconcile payments made to you by FaCSIA. The release will implement three new reports which will allow service providers to view:
For all reports, you can select a specific period that you're interested in, ie one month or quarterly. The Agreement Schedule and Case report will also include the first name and surname of individual clients for whom payments have been made. All reports will have subtotals and totals, will be printable and can also be exported to Excel for further manipulation.
A further development to help you reconcile your payments is a new screen called 'Consolidated Payment Request Line Items'. This view will be available under the existing ‘Payment Request’ view. From this new screen view, you will be able to query FOFMS for payment details using the IMPACT Clearing Number (the reference number which is provided on your bank statement with each deposit from FaCSIA), as well as the IMPACT Invoice Number (the document number contained on your Recipient Created Tax Invoice).
An information pack to help you use the new functions was emailed directly to FOFMS users on 15 March and will be available on the FOFMS Literature site from 20 March. A hard copy has been posted to the mailing address recorded for your organisation in FOFMS. If you have not received your information pack, please contact the FOFMS helpdesk on 1800 020 283.
The following three taskcards available on the FOFMS Literature site have been created to assist you:
A new user guide will be available soon which consolidates all the information and user guide updates which you have received since FOFMS was introduced.
It is important for organisations that receive mail on behalf of their outlets to ensure that the information provided on FOFMS is passed on to each of their outlets.
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As part of the November 2005 upgrade 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 Reassessments 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.
In edition 59 and several earlier editions, we advised you that the ‘case worker’ field on FOFMS needed to be populated with the relevant case worker's name from your business service. As advised, any case records in which the 'case worker' fields were blank or contained 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 receive all the notifications about assessments or reassessments that are due.
On Wednesday 15 March 2006, FaCSIA successfully updated over 7,000 case records to include a case worker. It is now business services’ responsibility to ensure the correct person is listed in the case worker field.
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The National Disability Conference Funding Program round for 2006-07 was announced in major national newspapers on 18 March 2006.
Grants are administered to conference organisers to support the inclusion of people with disability at disability focused conferences. Funding is available to support national and international conferences held within Australia between 1 July 2006 and 30 June 2007.
These funds may be provided to conference organisers to:
Conference organisers interested in applying for conference funding are required to read the Guidelines governing the use of funding under the program and submit an Application Form. These documents are available on the FaCSIA website.
Applications close at 2.00pm EST, Friday 28 April 2006.
For all enquiries, please contact Judy Gorman from the Australian Government Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs on 1800 629 357.
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FOFMS has now been updated with the 1 July 2006 Conversion Capacity figures. By 1 July 2006, all services must have transitioned all Block Grant Funding cases to Case Based Funding.
You must complete two important tasks by Friday 26 May 2006 to ensure that your service has transitioned all remaining Block Grant cases by 1 July 2006.
By 26 May 2006 you must:
What happens to cases I do not transition?
Any Block Grant Funded 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 Case Based Funding.
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.
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A Disability Maintenance Instrument (DMI) is an assessment of the relative level of assistance required for a job seeker to maintain employment with your service. It determines your level of ‘maintenance’ funding for that client.
Under the Programme Procedures, a DMI can only be completed once a job seeker obtains an Employment Outcome.
Under Clause 17 of the Standard Terms and Conditions of Funding, an Employment Outcome is defined as ‘employment for at least 8 hours per week for at least 13 weeks’. This means you cannot complete and authorise a DMI until at least 13 weeks after the job seeker commenced receiving FaCSIA funded assistance from your service. The job seeker is deemed to have been receiving assistance from the ‘Intake Completion Date’ recorded in FOFMS.
For example, if you have a job seeker with an Intake Completion Date of 2 January 2006 then the earliest it would be possible for them to achieve an Employment Outcome would be 3 April 2006. This could only occur if the job seeker commenced work in their first week with your service and maintained that employment for a minimum of 8 hours per week for 13 straight weeks.
Please note: a job seeker has 12 months from their Intake Completion Date to achieve an Employment Outcome. If they don't achieve an Employment Outcome within 12 months then the Job Seeker must be exited. This is done by changing their Status to ‘Exited’ on FOFMS.
If you have any questions please contact your local State or Territory Contract Manager.
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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:
Business Services are notified two months prior to the DMI reassessment date by an auto-generated activity in FOFMS to the nominated case worker. Business Services then have five months (two before and three after the DMI reassessment date) to complete and authorise the reassessment. Business Services should use this five-month period to smooth their DMI reassessment workload to avoid peak workload periods.
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.
To self-monitor when your service’s clients are due for a DMI assessment and DMI reassessment, simply use 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:
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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Written by Leila Williams, CRS Australia
With the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games still fresh in our minds, it’s time to think about the people who made the games happen.
Julie Russell, the Western Adelaide Regional Manager for CRS Australia, was the Technical Delegate for the Elite Athlete with a Disability Powerlifting event where she advised the Commonwealth Games organisers on how to run the event.
‘It’s been a fantastic time,’ says Julie of participating at the Games. ‘It is such an honour that the International Paralympic Committee invited me to take this role.’
As a toddler, Julie contracted Polio, an acute viral disease marked by inflammation and the malfunction of nerve cells in her spinal cord, causing paralysis in her lower body. Now Julie uses a wheelchair for all of her daily activities.
On growing up with a disability, Julie says she was ‘always encouraged to put her limitations to one side and to concentrate on what she could do’.
An essential part in Julie’s life in continuing this attitude has been her experiences with CRS Australia. Starting as a client herself, and now working as the Western Adelaide Regional Manager for CRS Australia, Julie understands what it feels like on both sides.
One of CRS Australia’s roles is ‘to find people’s strengths’, says Julie, ‘then match the right business with the right person’.
After winning a total of 57 gold, silver and bronze medals at five Paralympics and other international events, as well as her commitment to CRS Australia in encouraging people with a disability, Julie has definitely found her talents.
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