Issue 86 | 23 April 2007
The Australian Government is a large potential market for business services. All types of business services are eligible to register with AusTender. AusTender is used by all government departments to purchase a huge variety of goods and services.
As a supplier wanting to sell to the government, you need to know how this purchasing is done, who to contact and, importantly, how to find the opportunities and submit a competitive tender.
Go to www.tenders.gov.au and find out more about the subscription service that allows you to register your area of business interest. You can then receive free automatic email notifications of the latest opportunities as they are advertised.
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In July 2006, a pilot of the Audit and Compliance Strategy was tested in ten business services located in Western Australia and South Australia. The focus of the strategy was to ensure taxpayer funds are spent as intended and to ensure accountability in program delivery. The compliance approach had three main components:
The Strategy focuses on 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 who are not suspended or exited in a timely fashion.
The success of the pilot means FaCSIA will now be rolling out the Audit & Compliance Strategy across the sector. Each business service outlet will be audited at least once over the next two years.
Sites will be contacted via letter prior to their audit date, and will have time to prepare the selected cases and paperwork necessary for the audit.
On the day of the audit, FaCSIA staff will visit your service and perform the audit tasks on site. Audit results will be recorded and given one of three ratings; Major non conformity, Non conformity, or Conformity. The overall audit will be rated using the same ratings scale. Business services will receive a written audit report containing findings and recommendations.
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Work Based Personal Assistance (WBPA) is available to supported employment services to help meet the recurrent costs associated with the provision of personal care services to workers with very high support needs. This includes assistance with personal care tasks such as personal hygiene, feeding by mouth, or assistance from a Registered Nurse to administer medical interventions. An Allied Health Professional assessment and written report is required to confirm the high support needs of individual service users. Section 30 of the DEA Program Procedures outlines the conditions to qualify for WBPA.
WBPA is paid to providers in arrears upon receipt of a claim. Providers have three months in which to make a claim from the time services have been provided to the individual. WBPA can be claimed for a maximum of 40 hours over a four week period. Two rates of payment apply:
or
If you have a worker who qualifies for WBPA and you wish to make a claim, WBPA Claim Forms are available under the ’Literature’ Tab on FOFMS. These should be completed and sent to:
The CBF Helpdesk
GPO Box 9820
Brisbane QLD 4001
or faxed to the CBF Helpdesk on 07 3005 6097.
In order to assist with processing of WBPA Claim Forms you should ensure that:
If you require any further information on WBPA please contact your Contract Manager or the CBF Helpdesk on 1800 034 887 or Helpdesk.CBF@facsia.gov.au
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There are currently a large number of clients who are overdue to have a DMI re-assessment completed. Re-assessments are due on the two-year anniversary of when they were first completed. If the DMI re-assessment is not completed, authorised payments will be suspended and the case will ultimately be exited. The following rules are automated in FOFMS:
It is your responsibility to monitor DMI assessment and DMI re-assessment dates. If your clients have their payments suspended or their cases exited as a result of DMI assessment or DMI re-assessment 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 re-assessment 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:
You should run these queries each month to help you monitor and plan your services DMI re-assessment workload.
If your clients are exited because a DMI assessment or DMI re-assessment 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.
To help you monitor DMI assessment and re-assessment dates, FOFMS also auto-generates an activity to notify case workers, that a DMI re-assessment is due. You need to ensure that you keep the case worker current in FOFMS otherwise the notifying activity will be sent to the wrong person.
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Following a recent investigation of Client data on FOFMS, it was found that many Client records are missing important information such as Centrelink Reference Number, origin details, date of birth, address, and contact details. It was also noted that in some instances information recorded is incorrect or no longer current such as the correct Case Worker of the Client.
FaCSIA uses the information on FOFMS for a number of purposes, including making decisions about Disability Employment Assistance policy that affects Business Services and Clients. In order to maintain the integrity of this policy process it is important that all records on FOFMS be kept up to date with accurate details.
Information in FOFMS is also used to manage workflow regarding DMI Assessment and Reassessments.
Please ensure that your Client’s case records are updated to reflect their current circumstances and details and that all appropriate fields are completed. Please note that the new Audit and Compliance Strategy considers, amongst other items, the accuracy of Case and Client records.
If you have any further questions please feel free to contact the Case Based Funding Helpdesk on 1800 034 887.
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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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