News

Cases Left in Draft Status Cost your Service Money and Outlet Capacity

The Client must sign a Client Consent Form before you complete and authorise their Intake Assessment. The consent information package, including the Client Consent Form, is on the Literature site in FOFMS.

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.

If you create a Client and Case record in FOFMS and do not complete and authorise the Intake Assessment not only are your payments affected, but the total Cases and vacancies of your Service are also affected. When you create a Case record in FOFMS it is considered an active case and included in the count of your total Cases, which reduces your number of vacancies. If you do not complete and authorise an Intake Assessment you will not receive funding for the Client, but they will be occupying a place in your Business Service that could otherwise be filled and funded by another Client.

Cases that have been created but do not have an Intake Assessment completed or authorised have a status of 'Draft' in FOFMS. You should review your case list for any cases with a ‘Draft’ status and either complete and authorise an Intake Assessment or exit the record.

Important Advice Regarding Case Creation

You should create a client case record on the day that a potential employee first presents for work. Creating a case on the employee’s first day will ensure that your service receives the funding it is entitled to. This will save you time if the employee fails to attend your service and will not cost your service a unit of outlet capacity.

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FOFMS Security

It is important that Service Providers with access to FOFMS keep their personal login information secure and private as the system contains sensitive information. FOFMS access is provided to users on the understanding that they alone use it to access records on the system and they will be held personally responsible for any work conducted under their login ID. It is also best practice to change your password approximately once a month and avoid writing it down to prevent unauthorised persons from accessing the system using your login information.

It should also be noted that it is the responsibility of the service provider to notify the FOFMS Helpdesk (1800 020 283) of staff members who have left the organisation and no longer require access to FOFMS.

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FOFMS End of Financial Year Shutdown

FOFMS will be unavailable from 7pm Monday 25 June 2007 until 9am Monday 2 July 2007 due to end of financial year processing. Please note that no new clients can be started on FOFMS, and DMI and Intake functionality will be unavailable for existing clients during the shutdown period. Users are advised to organise their workload around this period to ensure continuity of funding. We apologise for any inconvenience and if you have any further questions please contact the Case Based Funding Helpdesk on 1800 034 887.

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Clients Not Maintaining a Minimum of Eight Hours per Week Employment

Clients who are not maintaining employment for at least eight hours a week as defined by the DEA Funding Agreement should be either exited or suspended until they are able to satisfy this requirement.

If you determine in your reasonable opinion that a Client is unable to continue in employment because of medical or personal reasons, or reasons related to the Client's disability, then they must be exited or suspended until this requirement can be satisfied.  If you have any queries relating to employment please contact your local FaCSIA Contract Manager.

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Monitoring DMI Assessment and Reassessment Dates

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:

• Cases are exited if a DMI assessment is not completed after 12 months of the Intake Completion date.
• Payments will be suspended if a DMI reassessment is not completed after 3 months of the DMI reassessment date.
• Cases are exited if a DMI reassessment is not completed after 4 months of the DMI reassessment date.

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:

• ‘Case due for DMI Assessment’
  or
• ‘Case <3 months past reassessment due date’.

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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Payment Reconciliation on FOFMS Made Easier for Finance Managers

FOFMS has reports available to help you identify and reconcile your FaCSIA payments.  These reports allow service providers to view:

• Payments made against an Agreement.  This report will be useful for larger organisations that have multiple Agreement Schedules, as it will be broken down by Agreement Schedule.
• Payment made against an Agreement Schedule.  This report will show you all the payments that have been made in respect of a specific Agreement Schedule.
• Payments made against a Case.  This report will show you all the payments that have been made in respect of a specific case or multiple cases.

For all reports, you can select a specific period that you're interested in—i.e. one month or a quarter. 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 have subtotals and totals, are printable, and can be exported to Excel for further manipulation.

You can also use the 'Consolidated Payment Request Line Items' screen view (available under the existing Payment Request view) to help reconcile your payments.  From this screen view, you can 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 [RCTI]).

How do I use these reports?

Information to help you use this payment reconciliation functionality is available on the FOFMS Literature site.  Copies were also emailed directly to FOFMS users on 15 March 2006, and hard copies posted to the mailing address recorded in FOFMS for your Organisation.  If you have not received your information pack please contact the FOFMS helpdesk on 1800 020 283.

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National Disability Advocacy Program – Information and Consultation Sessions

Information and consultation sessions about the proposed changes to the National Disability Advocacy Program (NDAP) and the recent Budget announcement will be held around Australia from 27 June to 12 July 2007 for funded disability advocacy agencies and disability peak bodies.

The purpose of the Information and Consultation session will be to:

1. provide organisations with an opportunity to meet with, and ask questions of, representatives from National Office working on the changes to the NDAP
2. present information about the recently announced Budget measure and the revised implementation timetable for the changes to the NDAP
3. begin consulting around some key aspects of the changes following Minister Scullion’s recent announcement to extend the implementation timetable including:
   • discussing a set of objectives and principles to guide the changes
   • discussing some common understandings of the characteristics and functions of different advocacy models
   • seeking input into how the Department can most effectively communicate and work with funded disability advocacy agencies throughout the change process.

These sessions will be the first in a series of consultations to provide the disability advocacy sector with an opportunity to receive information and provide feedback to the department about the proposed changes to the NDAP and the Budget measure.

Invitations are currently being sent out from FaCSIA’s State and Territory offices.  The timetable for the information and consultation sessions is as follows:

State	City	Date	Location
VIC	Melbourne	27 June 2007	Rydges Carlton Hotel
VIC	Geelong	28 June 2007	Mercure Hotel
TAS	Hobart	29 June 2007	Hobart FaCSIA State Office
NT	Darwin	3 July 2007	Darwin FaCSIA State Office
WA	Perth	4 July 2007	Perth FaCSIA State Office
ACT	Canberra	6 July 2007	Juliana House – FaCSIA Office
QLD	Brisbane	9 July 2007	Brisbane FaCSIA State Office
SA	Adelaide	11 July 2007	Adelaide FaCSIA State Office
NSW	Sydney	12 July 2007	Sydney FaCSIA State Office

Please contact Lou-Anne Lind on (02) 6244 6120 or lou-anne.lind@facsia.gov.au if you have any questions or concerns about the up-coming consultation and information sessions.

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Market Research – Market Perceptions of Business Services

Colmar Brunton Social Research (CBSR) has been contracted by FaCSIA to undertake research into the market for business services and their products, which will feed into the development of an overall marketing strategy for the sector.

The research will include:

• consultations with business service providers to assist in gaining an understanding of what communications support is required to effectively market business services to possible customers. This will include discussions about improving the business services ‘brand’ and key messages that need to be delivered to encourage use of, and interest in, business services
• interviews with businesses (small, medium and large) and government, to test reactions to a brand overhaul, as well as identifying messages and ways of communicating that will encourage interest in, and use of, business services
• focus groups with potential users of the Bizability website to test its useability and utility, and to make recommendations for improvement.

Dates for CBSR to meet with providers for the business service consultations have been set in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Business service providers in these cities interested in attending should contact their contract manager to indicate their interest. Please note, the maximum attendance at any session will be 20 people, so be quick to register.  A limited number of providers from rural and remote areas and other states are being invited to attend.

The dates and locations are as follows:

SYDNEY: Monday 25 June 2007, 10am to 12pm

MELBOURNE: Wednesday 27 June, 10am to 12pm

BRISBANE: Tuesday 3 July 2007, 10am to 12pm

PERTH: Thursday 5 July 2007, 10am to 12pm

Updates on the project will be included in disAbility enews as the research progresses.

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Case Study – EmbroidAbility

EmbroidAbility is a computerised embroidery and logo branding service that provides supported employment for people with disability. Since opening its doors in June 2006, the not-for-profit business has gone from strength to strength, currently providing employment for 10 people with disability in the Stawell/Ararat area in Victoria.

The business is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Western Alliance, a partnership between two disability business services—McGregor House in Ararat and Stawell Intertwine Services. Both agencies operate on a not-for-profit basis. EmbroidAbility also works in partnership with Fosters Mensland (Ararat & Stawell) to provide a unique pairing of the commercial and disability services sectors.

EmbroidAbility also has 10 outlet capacity places sub-contracted from VATMI, a large business service with its headquarters in Melbourne and recycling outlets throughout regional Victoria.

The sole purpose of this venture is to create employment opportunities for people with disability, and any profit raised is used to improve services for people with disability.

For more information about EmbroidAbility, contact Brian on (03) 5352 3084, Bernie on (03) 5358 3394, or email embroida@vic.chariot.net.au

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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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