E&OE TRANSCRIPT
LORALEA TRAVIS, CENTRE FOR INCLUSIVE SUPPORTS PROGRAM FACILITATOR: My name is Loralea Travis. I'm from the Centre for Inclusive Supports, we run a program for autistic young adults. We're so grateful that the Minister has come along to visit our program today. We've had a SARC grant given to us by the Minister, and we've used that money to expand our program from just being in the Logan District to also being here at South Bank and we've got a program at Bracken Ridge and at South Point, which has been absolutely wonderful because of the money that we've received, so thank you very much Minister.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: It is wonderful to be here looking at the programs run by the Centre for Inclusive Supports. What really was inspiring to me, was the message that parents had more aspiration for young autistic people than the options that were given to them. So, the Centre for Inclusive Supports is offering programs post-school to ensure that young autistic people can learn, can participate, can socialise and hopefully get on a path to being job ready. I'm very pleased and proud that we were able to support the Centre to expand their work and reach more places. Equally, today I'm very pleased to be announcing that we will be publishing new Scorecards for Disability Employment Services. I've been very clear since becoming Minister that I want to see Disability Employment Services, in which the taxpayer puts $1.2 billion into every year, be striving for better service. I know now that people really feel they get often a mixed bag with Disability Employment Services. Some are very good, others need improvement. And that's why I'm really pleased that I'm launching today, this scorecard which will be publicly available from next month, which will rate Disability Employment Services on their quality. I was shocked, becoming Minister, that they were not being rated on quality, the way that they handled complaints, the way that they treated a participant. They will also be measured on effectiveness and this is obviously very important, not just their effectiveness in achieving short term job outcomes, but their effectiveness in providing ongoing support and longer term job outcomes, and of course, efficiency, making sure that they are quickly putting people on their books and providing the supports they need. Services will be rated on improvement required, meets expectations or exceeds expectations. It will be provided in an easy to understand format, so that any person that wants to use a Disability Employment Service can easily understand where their Disability Employment Service meets or exceeds expectations and make decisions based on that. In the Budget we also announced that we will drive through a new Disability Employment Service that will come into effect on 1 July. This is an incredibly important new specialised disability service that is looking to meet the needs of people with disability to provide tailored support to improve the relationship and importantly put the goals, the individualised goals and aspirations of people with disability at the centre of the work that they do. But in the meantime, we're not going to just accept business as usual. We want Disability Employment Services to be striving for excellence. We want them to all exceed expectations on each of those three measures. And I look forward to continuing to see Disability Employment Services improve. What will also help them with that is the announcement in the Budget of the Centre for Excellence of Disabilities Services and this will provide expertise not just to Disability Employment Services, but to more general employment services about how to be more inclusive and provide the right supports to ensure someone with a disability can succeed and thrive in a workplace.
JOURNALIST: You may have mentioned this but who will be assessing the employment services and making that determination as to where they fit on the Scorecard?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: It will be an independent assessment that will look at a number of different domains. We will continue to work with people with disability to make sure that we have the settings right in terms of the domains, but we think it's really important that there's independent assessment. For example, on how organisations handle complaints I hear a lot from participants from certain disability services that their complaints aren't taken seriously. So one of the measures will be on how they handle complaints. So there'll be independent assessment, there'll be self-assessment as well, and that will all feed into a rating system.
JOURNALIST: Will they be working closely or at all with the NDIA, say if they find someone whose performance is low quality, they refer them to the NDIA?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: The NDIS and NDIA is a support system. The Disability Employment Services system sits outside the NDIS. It is funded by the Federal Government. If providers are not meeting expectations and it will be very public and Disability Employment Service participants will be able to choose which employment services they go to based on their performance, because often in a community, there's a variety of disability employment services that someone can choose from. This will make it public and make sure that it's transparent and really does sit separate from the NDIS.
JOURNALIST: So this is basically a mechanism to allow people to make their own decisions about the employment service they go to, but in some communities there isn't much of an option and maybe they have to go to someone who is low quality. Is there anything that will happen then?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Absolutely. We are looking at how we drive best practice and improvement. We will be continuing to look at how we drive best practice. The new arrangements that come in on 1 July will incentivise and reward best practice. It will incentivise and reward continuous improvement. So not only does it allow participants choice, but it ensures that Disability Employment Service providers know where they need to improve and will be incentivised to improve.
JOURNALIST: How quickly do you expect those providers to improve after next month when these are published?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I would say that there's already been discussion about how service providers can improve, and I do think that we will see improvement over time. Where the improvement I think will be particularly driven though will be with the new disability service system for employment that will come in on 1 July next year.
JOURNALIST: I have a question from Canberra and I think you may have already answered this, but what practical difference will the performance Scorecards make within the Disability Employment Services?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Firstly, I think it will clearly highlight to services themselves in areas that they do need to improve and support them with that continuous improvement. And the Centre of Excellence which will we are establishing will support them in that journey. But also for participants, this Scorecard provides very clear visual information on the three important domains that need to be measured; quality, effectiveness and efficiency. These are really important domains that are linked to better job outcomes. Therefore participants will be able to choose and understand where their Disability Employment Service providers sit and what they need to improve on.
JOURNALIST: Do you have any idea currently of how many providers are not up to scratch?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: This is a new performance framework that we're implementing. Previously providers were only assessed on a very narrow number of effectiveness measures. This is a new assessment that is much broader and takes in much more qualitative information. So we are yet to see, but I don't want this just to be a once off, I want this to drive continuous improvement in the Disability Employment Services.
JOURNALIST: If this was a system, I guess that isn't working with the NDIA and there's no kind of real repercussions for someone who is a low-quality provider, I guess, will it become a bit of a toothless tiger?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: It is correct to say it's a separate system. It's not correct to say there are no consequences. If you're a low-quality provider, your contract won't be renewed. I mean, we actually procure these services and so understanding where providers sit, how do we incentivise service from the providers, but also of course, we procure these services. So with our new disability specialist service provider that will be starting from 1 July next year, you will see us going out to find the services that are best performing to provide that right across the country.
JOURNALIST: How will the Scorecard be done? Is it a one-off or is it going to be done yearly that they're reassessed?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: There will be updates on a regular basis so that those providers that have improved over time, that will be reflected in the Scorecard. So it's not a one off. There'll be an ongoing basis of actually providing updates of those Scorecards.
JOURNALIST: The Australian Institute of Criminology study revealed one in five Australians have perpetrated some form of sexual violence. How concerning is that to you?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: The perpetration of sexual violence is concerning and these figures reinforce other figures that we have seen. The Australian Government takes the perpetration of sexual violence very seriously and that's why we have firstly elevated sexual violence in our National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children. But also to back that up with investment, you may see on your TVs the new Consent Campaign. This campaign has been a really important investment, encouraging people to check their understanding of consent and take action whether it is in community environments or other environments. So this campaign, along with our other investments, we've been investing in training for medical professionals to better understand how to respond to sexual violence. We have looked, through the Attorney General, at better justice responses for sexual violence, particularly when we are seeing such high numbers being reported. Also Teach Us Consent and other innovative models to address sexual violence. These are all incredibly important responses and we'll continue to work with the community about how we addresses and reduce those numbers of perpetration.
JOURNALIST: There's been significantly more domestic violence related murders this year than this time last year. Your Government’s previously said that a Royal Commission isn't needed. Has your mind been changed following the weekend?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Look, let's be really clear. The National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children is a 10-year plan that was developed in partnership with victim-survivors, and it outlines a range of different important measures. It also outlines the action items, justice systems, for example, are one part of that. These are systems that we do need to change, we do and we've seen from, for example, the New South Wales Government action on bail laws. There is constant work to be done. I just need to be clear this is not a new issue. It's not a new issue. We have seen too high levels of domestic and family violence for a long time and we need consistent and persistent work in this area and we need to respect the voices of victim-survivors and make sure that they're front and centre.
JOURNALIST: And also there's been calls for a national emergency to be announced and also to trigger national emergency funding there as well. Is this something that your government will consider and I mean, how many more women have to die before this is something that is considered?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I have to be really clear that this is not a new issue when it comes to family and domestic violence. There are many frontline workers that have been working in this area for a long time and part of the reason of recognising this as a long-standing problem is why we announced the Leaving Violence programs will be made permanent. That is funding of up to $5000 of financial support, along with important risk assessment and casework. That was a temporary measure. This can't be temporary. This is why we've put it in as a permanent measure. National emergency funding is for a short period of time. We need systems that are put in place for longevity to actually change the way domestic and family violence is responded to, but importantly when it comes to things like prevention, we've just started our new Stop it at the Start Campaign, which is looking at particularly the influences online that are encouraging and indeed condoning violent behaviour towards women. We need to look at all the areas of prevention, early intervention, response and healing and recovery if we're going to change what is a very distressing, very difficult, long-standing situation where we've had too high levels of family and domestic violence.
JOURNALIST: Just back on sexual violence. You mentioned that Consent Campaign, the Attorney General reviewing justice responses, do you think those initiatives go far enough to crack down on what is a rampant problem in Australia?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Obviously there's joint responses. The Commonwealth can run programs in its area and the states and territories have a responsibility as well. There is a large number, and I haven't gone through, but I am happy to provide you the large number, of initiatives that the Commonwealth is taking. And there are also a large number of initiatives taking at the state level as well. So we'll keep working with our state counterparts, but it's in workplaces, it is in community organisations. This is not a problem that governments alone will fix. This is about bystanders, this is about having conversations, equipping schools and others with conversations about what respectful relationships look like, so this is across the board. And we all need to work together if we're going to see the end of this.