E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Topics: Disability Employment Service provider scorecards; Disability sector reforms; NDIS Ministry; Commonwealth Bank surcharges.
TOM ORITI, HOST: Thanks for joining us. Tom Oriti with you this morning. The Federal Government's released its first public report cards on Australia's largest disability service providers. It's painted a positive picture of how many are performing. In fact, these report cards show that more than 90 per cent of providers are meeting or exceeding expectations based on three key performance indicators: quality, effectiveness and efficiency. But some in the sector have questioned how these numbers were put together and how accurately they actually represent how service providers are actually doing. Around a quarter of a million Australians currently use disability service providers. The Government's hoping these scorecards will help participants make an informed decision when selecting a preferred provider. The Federal Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth joins us now. Minister, good morning. Thank you for your time.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Good morning. Great to be with you.
TOM ORITI: For listeners who don't know what these scorecards are for, can you explain to us firstly how they work and what they show?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, firstly, this is for disability employment service providers. So, these are people that job seekers might go to if they live with disability, to help them find a job. And what we're putting out today are two particular scorecards. One is on the type of quality service they provide. That hadn't really been measured in the past. And so what we're putting out is a scorecard on that. And the effectiveness, the effectiveness of them supporting someone into a job. So, these two scorecards will put out very clearly a number of different collections of data so that people can understand how their local service is performing and where they could go if they want to get a better service.
TOM ORITI: Ok, so that was two of the indicators. Efficiency. Is that coming later? The third one, just for my clarification.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Efficiency is coming later. That is the third one. We intend to have a scorecard on efficiency. We're still refining what the most appropriate measures will be. We'll continue to refine that and we hope to have that out in future quarters to come because these will be released every quarter.
TOM ORITI: Now, they appear to be doing pretty well. More than 90 per cent of providers doing well. I'm just interested in the KPIs that we're used here. How did you land on those numbers? Because I'm just wondering, if so many of them are doing well, why are we talking about an overhaul of the sector?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, firstly, I'd say that while 92 per cent met expectation, there were none that exceeded expectations. So, we want to see more exceed expectation. And so that is what we want to see the reform of the sector doing is driving those that are meeting expectations, to exceeding expectations.
TOM ORITI: And none, Sorry, none exceeded. You said none of them. None of them exceeded expectations.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: None of them exceeded across the [quality] domains.
TOM ORITI: So, is that a good result? Because 90 per cent looks good, but when we hear actually only 90 per cent met them, they didn't exceed them, is that actually a good report card in your view?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, I think it is a start, but we need to see improvement and that's what these new measures do. Previous measures only measured people in relation to other services. These measures that we put out today set benchmarks, absolute benchmarks that we want people to achieve. So, while I am pleased that a vast majority are meeting expectations, my expectation is that many more move into exceeding expectation into the future. So, I think it does show that there is more work to be done.
TOM ORITI: Okay, now I just want to play you a little snippet of audio because we spoke with Catherine McAlpine from Inclusion Australia a couple of hours ago and she expressed concern because she said, she welcomed it, but she's not sure how the new system is meeting its purpose because the scorecards are actually self-assessed by providers. Just have a listen to this.
CATHERINE MCALPINE, CEO INCLUSION AUSTRALIA: And it only rates providers in relation to other providers. So, you can end up with a situation where if the majority of providers are low quality, then the overall standard of quality will be lower.
TOM ORITI: So, it measures providers against each other rather than against a scale.
CATHERINE MCALPINE: That's right, which has always been the case in this system and it's something that Inclusion Australia has long recommended a change to. So, we would like to see the quality rating system to be reduced in complexity and remove the relative nature of the current rating system.
TOM ORITI: Just keen to get your response to that, Amanda Rishworth. The idea that she feels it's a bit complex and there's this sort of self-assessment going on.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, firstly, I'd say Catherine is a great advocate. She's not quite right, however, that these new measures are measured relatively. We've actually changed this. We've listened to organisations like Inclusion Australia and these new benchmarks are based on benchmarks that we've set. So, they're not measured in relation to other providers anymore. That's part of the new change that we've made. In terms of self-assessment, self-assessment is only one element of the measures. There's also independent audits that contribute to the measures of quality and effectiveness as well. And so we will be obviously, though, looking at other ways that we can and include more data points, more assessments, to make sure that we're getting a very clear picture for people with disability about what type of quality service that they have.
TOM ORITI: Ok. Now, just on disability, we don't know when the federal election is going to be yet, but we're hearing speculation that a Cabinet reshuffle could be on the cards in the new year and that you could be tapped to take over the NDIS portfolio from Bill Shorten. Or on top of that, some speculation it could be sort of absorbed into social services. Can you give us any clarity on that? And is that something you'd be interested in?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I would say that is entirely a decision for the Prime Minister and I don't have anything to add. I've worked very closely with Minister Shorten when it comes to supporting people with disability in this country. His focus has been on improving the NDIS and making sure that the participant is the person getting the support. He's been doing a lot of work kicking out dodgy providers. What I've been focused on is implementing Australia's Disability Strategy and looking across mainstream systems and making sure our society, including employment, is more inclusive. So, whoever takes on the responsibilities of NDIS is someone I'm very keen to work with to keep making sure we make progress for people with disability in this country.
TOM ORITI: Before I let you go, I just. I know this is a strange question, But Commonwealth Bank $3 cash withdrawal fees being announced, quite controversial. I'm just keen to hear where you might stand on that. I mean, your Social Services Minister, something like that could impact people who are already doing it pretty tough.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Oh, absolutely. This is an appalling decision by the Commonwealth Bank and we've been really clear as a Government – we asked them to reverse this decision. This will have a big impact on people. Our Government's been very clear that if people want to use cash in our society, our economy, they can do so. And so we are calling on the Commonwealth Bank to reverse this decision. This is a bad decision and we hope that they will listen and they will reverse this decision.
TOM ORITI: Got to head to the news, Minister, thanks, as always, for joining us. Appreciate your time.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Thank you.
TOM ORITI: That is the Federal Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth. And this is ABC News Radio across Australia.