Consultation period

17 June 2024 - 4:00 pm To 30 October 2024 - 12:00 pm

A new specialist disability employment program – Request for Tender

Open

Closes in 24 days

4 people sitting holding empty speech bubbles, one person is in a wheelchair

As part of the 2024-25 Budget, the Australian Government has announced that a new specialist disability employment program will commence on 1 July 2025. The new program will replace the current Disability Employment Services (DES) program.

The new program will focus on assisting people with disability, injury and/or a health condition to find and maintain sustainable employment. The new program will be delivered by high-quality providers with a diversity of expertise helping people with disability into employment. Providers will place participants and employers at the centre of their service design and build meaningful relationships with both participants and employers.

Request for Tender released

The New Specialist Disability Employment Program Request for Tender (RFT) has been released on AusTender and is available at AusTender (tenders.gov.au).

The RFT is open from Friday 4 October 2024 until 12 noon on Wednesday 30 October 2024.

If you have any questions about the RFT process, contact DE2025Purchasing@dss.gov.au.

RFT Industry Briefing – Friday 11 October

To support the release, the department will host an Industry Briefing on the Tender (RFT) on Friday 11 October from 10:30am to 12pm (AEDT).

This will be an online event.

Please register for the Industry Briefing by visiting Request for Tender (RFT) – Industry Briefing Webinar (humantix.com).

The briefing will outline key elements of the RFT and provide an overview of key changes from the Exposure Draft and procurement process. The briefing will be publicly available on engage.dss.gov.au. Q&A and comments will not be open for this event.

All questions in relation to the RFT must be submitted DE2025Purchasing@dss.gov.au. Publication of responses to questions will be managed in accordance with the process outlined in the RFT. For questions about the briefing registration process, please contact DESCommunications@dss.gov.au

An Easy Read version of the invitation to the briefing is available: [PDF 276 kB]

Draft Deed – National Panel of Assessors – feedback closes 7 October 2024 5.00pm

National Panel of Assessors – Draft Deed [PDF 1.5 MB] [Word 359 kB]

National Panel of Assessors – Request for Tender Exposure Draft Webinar

The department hosted a public briefing webinar for the National Panel of Assessors Exposure Draft on Friday 6 September 2024.

National Panel of Assessors

Exposure Draft of the Request for Tender – Feedback closed 27 September 2024 5:00pm.

The Exposure Draft of the Request for Tender (RFT) for the National Panel of Assessors (NPA) program has been released on AusTender.

The Department of Social Services encourages interested stakeholders to review the Exposure Draft and provide feedback to DESConsultations@dss.gov.au. Consultation on the Exposure Draft closed on 27 September 2024. The feedback will be used to inform the final policy settings for the NPA program as well as the final RFT that will be released later this year. The department will consider, but may not adopt, all of the feedback received and will not be in a position to respond directly to individual feedback.

Closed consultations

Exposure Draft of the Request for Tender – closed

Draft Deed – new specialist disability employment program – Closed

Market Structure Paper–closed

Payment Structure Paper–closed

Ongoing Support Paper–closed

Attachments

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