Issue 71 | 21 August 2006
Under DESQA, disability employment organisations are periodically re-audited by certification bodies (the timing depends on the date of the organisation’s initial certification). The normal three-year audit cycle is a full certification audit every three years (the triennial reassessment audit), and two surveillance audits in each of the intervening years. The integrity of the Quality Assurance (QA) system is dependent upon organisations’ audits being conducted according to JAS-ANZ Procedure 18.
JAS-ANZ, which operates the QA certification system on behalf of FaCSIA, has confirmed the following audit schedule:
If an organisation wishes to vary an audit date from the above, it should discuss this with the organisation’s certification body. The certification body may need to inform JAS-ANZ if there is a delay to the audit schedule. FaCSIA does not grant extensions to the due date for surveillance or certification audits.
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The Hotline and CRRS are currently delivering training sessions for supported employees and staff of Business Services within Sydney and surrounding areas. A summary of the training content is listed below. You can expect a call from the Hotline/CRRS in the coming weeks or alternatively, call 1800 880 052 or email crrs@pwd.org.au to register your interest. All sessions are free and tailored to meet the needs of your service.
The accessible Hotline training session will cover:
The accessible CRRS training session will talk about:
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Full text reports of the Quality Strategy Evaluation for Disability Employment and Rehabilitation Services will be mailed out to organisations’ head offices in the next fortnight. If your organisation does not receive a copy, please advise your FaCSIA State Office contact.
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In the last edition of e-news we told you about the major review of the case based funding model that will result in a report to Government in early October 2006.
This report will pull together data and information from a range of sources. This includes data from FaCSIA’s own IT systems as well as canvassing the views of key stakeholders.
ARTD Consulting have been appointed to canvass the views of service providers, families and carers, and business service workers. They will be gathering this information by way of surveys and focus groups. A letter advising providers and many families and carers of this opportunity should have arrived in the last few days.
Please take the opportunity to participate in the Review - whether in a survey or focus group, or by written submission. Your views about the case based funding model will form an integral part of our work.
In the meantime, if you have any questions about the Review, or would like to provide written comment, please contact Linda Young by email Linda.Young@facsia.gov.au
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FaCSIA has engaged N-CARTA Consulting Pty Ltd to carry out a review of the Respite Support for Carers of Young People with Severe and Profound Disabilities program. This is a routine review required by government. It will examine the effectiveness and efficiency of the program and ascertain whether or not the program is meeting its objectives.
Questionnaires and focus groups will be conducted for this review and some stakeholders can expect to receive a letter telling them about the focus groups in the next few days.
In the meantime, if you have any questions about the Review, please feel free to contact Linda Young by email Linda.Young@facsia.gov.au[ top ]
The Full Capability Reviews (FCR) for business services are nearing completion with 172 Full Capability Review reports already considered and a further 49 Reviews yet to be completed.
If your Business Service has completed an FCR you should now be working with your State and Territory Contract Manager on progressing the Recommended Business Strategy. If you have any outstanding quotes for recommendations please forward them to your Contract Manager for payment.
Wage Phase-in organisations that have a Wage Phase-in Milestone plan, should be monitoring their wage phase-in points and preparing for the next wage increase. After implementation of your next wage phase-in milestone please advise your State or Territory Office Contract Manager that it has been achieved.[ top ]
The recent FaCSIA audit and compliance pilot isolated some issues about the way business services capture client consent. A client consent information pack, including a form and take away section for the client is attached to the literature site of FOFMS for you to use. If you chose not to use the FaCSIA client consent form and to incorporate FaCSIA's client consent requirements with your own, it is important that you cover the following FaCSIA requirements accurately:
Client consent should be captured either when a client first requests assistance from you or before the Intake Assessment is authorised. The Intake Assessment should not be authorised until client consent has been captured.
Section 10.4 and 10.5 of the Funding Agreement provide additional information about client consent. If you have any questions about capturing client consent you should talk to your State and Territory Contract Manager.
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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.
Clause 17 of the Standard Terms and Conditions of Funding defines an Employment Outcome 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 started 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[ top ]
FOFMS has reports available to help you identify and reconcile your FaCSIA payments. These reports 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 that will also help you reconcile your payments is a screen called 'Consolidated Payment Request Line Items'. This view will be available under the existing Payment Request view. From this 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).
How do I use the new reports?
An information pack to help you use the new functions is available on the FOFMS Literature site. Copies were also emailed directly to FOFMS users on 15 March, and hard copies 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. Organisations that receive mail on behalf of their outlets should pass on the information to each of their outlets as quickly as possible.
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Please note that the $500 Intake Fee and monthly Employment Assistance payments for new cases are not payable until an Intake Assessment has been completed and authorised on FOFMS. Case Based Funding payments do not begin until the Intake Assessment has been authorised. FaCSIA will not backdate Intake Assessments, or make back-payments. If you do not authorise the Intake Assessment your service risks a reduced funding flow for that client.
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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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