Issue 70 | 7 August 2006
Minister John Cobb released the Evaluation of the Quality Strategy for Disability Employment and Rehabilitation Services at the ACROD Conference on 31 July 2006. The evaluation report demonstrates the Quality Strategy has been successful in ensuring funded services meet the legislated requirement to comply with the Disability Services Standards, and has resulted in an increased focus in quality management in general across the sector.
The Quality Strategy Evaluation Final Report is available in three formats:Printed copies of the Executive Summary were available at the conference and copies of the full report will be sent to funded organisations in the coming weeks.
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The first three information and training products developed by Wodonga TAFE in conjunction with Aware Industries, were launched by Minister Cobb at the recent ACROD conference. The products are the first of a series being developed by Wodonga TAFE, focusing on training and information needs identified by the sector during consultations earlier in the year. The first three training and information topics are:
In the coming weeks, business services will also receive four colour coded hard folders to store the products according to the target group.
Work has also commenced on the next series of products, due to be finalised by the end of the year. These products include:
For more information about the project, visit the Wodonga TAFE Training Design website.
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Peta Winzar, National Program Manager for Disability Employment Assistance, presented an update on the Business Services Assistance Package at the ACROD Conference. Her speech focused on the progress of the implementation of the Full Capability Reviews (FCR) to date. Ninety six per cent of all business services have requested to participate in the FCR process, with 184 being completed and 45 still to be finalised. The full text of the presentation will be available in the next few days on the ACROD website.
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If your service had workers who transitioned from Block Grant Funding to Case Based Funding you would recently have received the final Cash Flow Adjustment payment from FaCSIA. At each transition point to Case Based Funding, FaCSIA has assisted business services to manage the change from ‘payment in advance’ to ‘payment in arrears’.
The value of the Cash Flow Adjustment payment is calculated as the equivalent of one month’s CBF maintenance fee for each client who transitioned to Case Based Funding at the 1 July 2006 transition point.[ top ]
Eligible business services would have received their first monthly Rural and Remote Supplement Payment last week. The payment will automatically be made at the beginning of each month.
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Sometimes when you are entering in new client details on FOFMS you may get 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 do get this error message, please contact the CBF Helpdesk on 1800 034 887 or email Helpdesk.CBF@facsia.gov.au Please ensure you have your Agreement Schedule Number on hand when contacting the Helpdesk.
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Since July 2002, FaCSIA has outsourced the monitoring of service quality against the Disability Service Standards to the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ). JAS-ANZ ensures that the Certification Bodies which assess service quality are competent, impartial and have the required expertise in Quality Assurance. This is done by assessing Certification Bodies against General Requirements for Bodies Operating Assessment and Certification of Disability Employment Services, Procedure 18.
The JAS-ANZ certification process was tailored to the requirements of the disability sector. The purpose of JAS-ANZ Procedure 18 is to set down the requirements of Certification Bodies to assess service quality in disability employment services. Although Procedure 18 is primarily aimed at Certification Bodies, there are a number of sections of Procedure 18 which are of interest to disability employment services. Procedure 18 specifies the requirements of certification and surveillance audits including audit duration, consumer sampling requirements and the content of audit reports. The definitions of a major nonconformity, a nonconformity and the stipulated timeframes for actioning those nonconformities are also covered in Procedure 18.
The original Procedure 18 was included at Attachment A of the Quality Assurance Handbook Version 2. Procedure 18 was subsequently revised and Issue 2 was released on 17 November 2004. Procedure 18 is available on the FaCSIA website.
The Evaluation of the Quality Strategy, released on 31 July 2006 and now available from the FaCSIA website, made recommendations in relation to Procedure 18. Recommendation 4 suggests Procedure 18 should be reviewed again, and this is planned to take place in early 2007. Recommendation 6 identifies that plain English, user-friendly information on the key requirements of Procedure 18 should be made available to service providers. It is expected this project will be finalised by the end of the year.
If you have any questions on JAS-ANZ Procedure 18, please call National Disability Operations (Fran Cole on 02 8255 1022 or Mark Heywood on 07 3005 6094).[ top ]
It is critical that business services maintain their business information on the Bizability website. BizAbility is an initiative to exclusively promote business services and their products, not your competition! Please amend your details if your business is sold, your details change, or your products alter - the website is only a useful tool if the information is accurate and up to date. This will become even more crucial as we move into the next development phase of the website.
If you require assistance to do this, or have any feedback, please email BizAbility@facsia.gov.au[ top ]
All of our contact information for you is kept electronically on FOFMS. Any contact with you, including form letters, emails and funding agreements, are generated from FOFMS. For this reason, it's essential that you let us know when your contact details change so we can alter them on the system - this will mean you will receive communications when we send them, and if we pass on your public address details to agencies such as Centrelink we can be confident we are providing them with the right information. If any of your details have changed - please advise your contract manager and the FOFMS Helpdesk on 1800 020 283 or email FOFMS@facsia.gov.au
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The recent ACROD conference provided FaCSIA staff with the opportunity to present and discuss the pilot Audit and Compliance Strategy, which was tested in Western Australia and South Australia last month. The focus of the strategy is to ensure taxpayer funds are spent as intended and to ensure accountability in program delivery. The compliance approach has three main components:
The pilot Strategy has looked at the timeliness, completeness and accuracy of business services processes against the programme procedures - for example, DMI evidence collection, capture of client consent, development of Employment Assistance Plans, where DMIs have been completed early, or workers are not suspended or exited in a timely fashion.
Ten services had site visits in June and July as part of the pilot. Primary findings are as follows:
With regard to the DMI evidence collection process, FaCSIA identified through the pilot that examples of good practice included:
Examples of poor practice included:
The next steps for FaCSIA include ensuring providers are clear in relation to their obligations for supported employee consent, working with Wodonga TAFE to develop information products for collecting evidence, creating a template for employment assistance plans, revising, strengthening and communicating the rules about when a case should or shouldn't be suspended and/or exited and scheduling further DMI training in this financial year.
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The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has developed and released JobAccess, a new one-stop information shop for all matters relating to the employment of people with disability.
JobAccess includes a comprehensive, easy to use web site and a free telephone information advice service that provides confidential and expert advice to:The JobAccess website has step-by-step guides and checklists on recruitment, job searching, adjusting a workplace, employer incentives, understanding rights and responsibilities at work and much more. The web site also contains case studies and success stories as well as information on the full range of services and incentives available for people with disability and for current and potential employers.
In addition to providing ideas for workplace modifications and adjustments, the website provides secure online forms for the Workplace Modifications Scheme. For employers, the Scheme aims to make accommodating employees with disability in the workplace easier by paying the costs involved in modifying the workplace or purchasing special or adaptive equipment for eligible employees with disability.
For more information, visit JobAccess on the web at www.jobaccess.gov.au or contact the JobAccess Advisers by calling 1800 464 800 or by submitting an online enquiry form.
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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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