Issue 111
14 July 2008
A Pandemic Planning Toolkit has been created to assist organisations to develop a tailored business continuity plan. A business continuity plan provides an opportunity to not only plan for, respond to, and recover from, specific events, but to develop more robust operational processes to improve overall business operations and processes.
Every organisation will benefit from a business continuity plan to improve their organisational and community resilience to adverse events such as natural disasters, terrorist threats, human error, product recall or an influenza pandemic.
To ensure that you are prepared to meet the challenge of a pandemic, it is vital that you plan and prepare in advance. Developing a business continuity plan now will help you and your organisation if a pandemic occurs, and will assist you in the recovery phase.
Service Providers can access an electronic version of the Toolkit on the FaHCSIA Website. Requests for hardcopies of the Toolkit can be emailed to the Case Based Funding Helpdesk.
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We are pleased to announce that the final Consumer Training and Support products are now available! Copies have been sent out to all Business Services, Advocacy Services and peak bodies during the first week of July, with the resources soon to be available on the FaHCSIA website.
A comprehensive range of material has been produced for use with supported employees, including retirement planning, working on a committee, being healthy, team work, using a computer, employee induction, and more. Some useful resources have also been developed for supervisors and managers working in business services, such as leading teams and being an effective manager. There is also a very useful resource guide which gives an overview of the content of every product, provides links to related products within the suite and includes some sample training and information session plans.
The 'When I'm at work: Implementation Guide' was printed with the word 'DRAFT' on each page. We apologise for this error. This is the final version of the guide.'
Due to limited availability of the Consumer Training and Support products it is not possible for the Department to respond to requests for additional copies. Extra copies can be printed from the CD ROM that has been included with each product, or downloaded from the website.
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Do you like to celebrate? Do you like spending time with people who enjoy the same things as you? Are you passionate about raising awareness of International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD), promoting inclusion and celebrating achievements? If so, then why not register an event and celebrate IDPwD the way you want to!
The type of event you could host is limited only by your imagination—from a morning tea to an art exhibition or street fair—the choice is yours. This is a great opportunity to get a group of people together and celebrate the achievements and contributions of people with disability. You can help strengthen the spirit of IPDwD 2008 with your unique event.
Event registration for IDPwD 2008 is now open, so visit www.idpwd.com.au to register your event!
If you register an event through the IDPwD website you can order free promotional products to help promote your event and make it even more exciting! This year, promotional products include new temporary tattoos and stress balls, as well as wristbands, balloons, badges, stickers and posters. There are also IDPwD bandanas as a special extra for event organisers! There are limited quantities available so get in quick. Start planning and register your event today!
If planning an event is not your style, then why not check out the schedule of events on the website to see how you can get involved.
Check out all the details at the International Day of People with Disability website today!
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Under sub-Item E2.2 of the Schedule to your DEA Agreement 2007-10, you must provide FaHCSIA with an Annual Audited Financial Acquittal Report for the 2007 08 financial year. You must provide us with one hard copy and one electronic copy in MS Word and/or Excel format of this report by 30 September 2008, and it must contain the following as a minimum:
As outlined above, any unspent BSAP Funding as at 30 June 2008 must be identified in the statement by the Approved Auditor. You must also identify the amount of any unspent Funding relating to the one-off marketing payment in late June 2008 if you had not spent it on marketing and promotional activities during 2007‑08. Any unspent funding as at 30 June 2008, must be used as Funding under the DEA Agreement during 2008-09 for the same purpose it was paid.
Please contact your FaHCSIA Contract Manager if you have any queries about these requirements.
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To facilitate effective management of the Employment Assistance Program it is important that the data contained in FOFMS is accurate, clean and reliable. Updated information also ensures you receive timely advice in respect of:
It is important that you notify your state/territory agreement manager of any changes to your organisation’s details. Your agreement manager will complete a FOFMS – Request to change an existing Organisation record form and submit to the FOFMS Helpdesk to enable the changes to be processed.
There are a number of areas under your Funding Agreement that relate to providing information including:
Under the Schedule sub-item P7, if we believe that an organisation has not complied with any aspect of the agreement, we may take any one of a number of actions, including suspending payments until the organisation has complied with the agreement
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Paragraph 18.1 of the Additional Procedures and Information states ‘You must…suspend a supported employee if the supported employee is temporarily unable to continue receiving activities from you, and/or is unable to maintain Employment for at least eight hours a week for a minimum period of 1 month to a maximum period of 12 months’.
Under paragraph 18.4 this period is increased to two calendar months to cover what we term as involuntary leave—for example, sick leave (including workers compensation) and any Christmas shutdown periods. Involuntary leave has also been extended to include maternity leave.
In all other situations, including annual, long service, paid or unpaid leave, where a supported employee is unable to maintain employment for a minimum period of one calendar month he or she must be suspended by the service.
In all cases of suspension you must update the supported employee’s case record on FOFMS immediately when a supported employee is suspended.
What is immediately?
In this context, the word ’immediately’ means the same date as the known last day of employment.
Examples:
A payment equal to what would have been paid to the business service at the next anniversary date of the case is made to cover support costs for that month and the administrative requirement of suspending a supported employee on FOFMS.
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These new fields in the case record require specific formatting when entered. Please use the following format to avoid error messages:
Wages $dd.cc
Hours hhh:mm
The ‘Hours’ field must have three digits, a colon and then two digits for the ‘Minutes’. For example, if your supported employee works 9.5 hours a week it must be entered as:
Hours 009:30
When updating changes to weekly wages and hours, a new record needs to be created in much the same way that addresses are. Once a record for wages and hours has been saved it cannot be edited and another record needs to be created.
Create a new record and enter the updated details. Select the new record so that it is highlighted and enter the tick in the ’current’ column. Then select the old record so that it is highlighted and enter the end date into the ‘end date’ column and then save. You should now have an old record with a status of inactive with an end date and a new record with a status of active and a tick in the ‘current’ column.
After entering this information initially, business services will only be required to update these fields when a change in wages or hours worked occurs—for example, after a new wage assessment is completed or there is an increase or reduction to the weekly hours. If your supported employee’s working hours vary widely from week to week, please calculate an average. The weekly wage should be entered for gross weekly wage and not net.
The new weekly wage and hours fields in the FOFMS Case Record are mandatory fields and will need to be completed and saved in a case record prior to starting a DMI Assessment or DMI Reassessment.
If a DMI Assessment or DMI Reassessment is completed and authorised prior to saving the weekly wage and hours fields, then no funding level will be returned for the case and a maintenance payment will not be made. Case Managers will need to contact the CBF Helpdesk so that the DMI can be reset to ‘In Progress’. The Case Manager can then re-authorise and complete the DMI.
It is recommended that Case Workers update the weekly wage and hours fields as soon as a new case is created in FOFMS. This practice will ensure that your cases have these mandatory fields already completed before you start your DMI Assessments.
If you would like assistance or further information on these mandatory fields, please contact the Case Based Funding Helpdesk on 1800 034 887 or helpdesk.cbf@fahcsia.gov.au
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HPA incorporated has been supporting people with disability in the Darwin area for over 40 years. Founded in 1963 by local school teacher Harold Garner, the organisation commenced operation in 1963 with a preschool, prior to establishing a hostel, sheltered workshop and training centre.
Today, HPA employs 66 people with disability across two business services—Kokoda Industries manufacture pallets, garden edging, lattice/trellis and parkland furniture, while ausdesigns™ manufactures souvenirs, designer handbags, conference bags and satchels, unique napery and co-ordinates from aboriginal print fabrics.
HPA Incorporated also operates Darwin Accommodation Services, providing full-time supported accommodation options, cluster housing and an outreach service to people with disability living in accommodation of their choice in the community.
Products made at Kokoda Industries can be viewed at www.kokoda-industries.com and ausdesigns™ products can be viewed at www.ausdesigns.com.au
Further information on any of HPA's products and services can be obtained by contacting (08) 8947 0681.
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The Nursery Group is an organisation that brings together, supports and represents charitable organisations running horticultural businesses that employ people with disability. The Nursery Group has 24 members, who are located across northern New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. These organisations employ over 500 individuals with disability, over 130 support staff and have a combined turnover in excess of $10million in horticulture activities.
The activities of The Nursery Group members range from small wholesale nurseries through to substantial retail outlets. The Nursery Group has been established to bring these individual organisations together and to represent them for the purposes of buying and marketing.
Group member Challenge Southern Highlands operates Welby Garden Centre, employing 43 people with disability. “Working together we can expand the potential of each member of the group through coordinated marketing and collective bargaining, in addition to the benefits that arise through the exchange of information & expertise,’ said Tony McElhinney, General Manager of Challenge Southern Highlands.
The Nursery Group was conceived by Tony McElhinney, and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
The Nursery Group’s aim is to help its members to improve the quality of their output and to improve their profitability to support their activities through collective bargaining and joint marketing. Its goal is to help its members to grow their horticultural activities and in turn grow employment opportunities for their employees.
The Nursery Group works to develop closer working relationships between services to:
The Nursery Group is currently undertaking a campaign to promote the greater awareness of the activities of its member organisations. This will focus on the quality of the products grown and the abilities of the individuals involved, rather than their disability. It will however highlight the triple bottom line concept that purchasing from members of The Nursery Group enables consumers to value add their spend by helping these social enterprises to further their mission of providing supported employment to people with different abilities. 
The campaign includes both advertising and direct approaches to major suppliers. Although early days, The Nursery Group has received favourable responses and offers of support from many suppliers.
With the support of Peter May, Executive Manager of Ecosystems Management Services in WA, a website www.thenurserygroup.org.au has been established to provide information about The Nursery Group, to act as a conduit for the exchange of information between members, and to provide profiles of the group’s members.
To find out more about the group contact Tony McElhinney on 02 4872 6603 or email thenurserygroup@challengesh.org.au.
Employees of Welby Garden Centre – a supported employment
service operated by Challenge Southern Highlands Inc., at Welby
in the Southern Highlands of NSW.
Front Row – Left to Right,
Sally Hills, Katie McGannon, Joel Hunt,
Amanda Elliott and Mathew Aiello.
Back Row – Left to Right
Bill Crawford and James Sadlier
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