IDEAL Placements

 

1.1. Who should be able to access a disability employment support program?

  • Any individual with a disability – it should not be means tested

1.2. Should a future disability employment support program include employment pathways such as casual and part-time employment, community engagement, voluntary work and short-term unpaid work experience?

  • Yes most definitely

1.3. How can a future disability employment program better align with other programs such as the New Employment Services Model and the Community Development Program?

  • No comment

1.4. What is the role of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in supporting employment pathways, and how can this complement a future disability employment support program?

  • SLES
  • Offers behavioural – ongoing lifelong support
  • Finish line – outcome related DES long term

2.1. How can the assessment process be improved to connect people with disability to the right employment services?

  • Meet face to face
  • Introduce assessment model to better support barriers

2.2. What should be considered during the assessment process when determining support required to help a person reach their work potential?

  • As above

2.3. How can the assessment process stream an individual with disability toward the right type of employment support, depending on need and goal?

  • No comment

2.4. Are there different assessments needed at different stages of an individual’s work journey, as they prepare for work, find and maintain employment, and progress their career?

  • Yes they should be ongoing to assess where they are at

3.1. What has been your experience of receiving employment support from a DES or other employment services provider? What was good about the support? What improvements would you recommend?

  • Larger penalties to providers that don’t provide the right supports

3.2. What type of services and support would best help a person with disability find and keep a suitable job, and progress their career? Who should provide this support?

  • Extend services within the provider companies
  • Extended employer awareness of assistance provided

3.3. What education and training opportunities help people with disability overcome the entry barriers to employment?

  • More support to gain paid employment in areas of interest once these education and training opportunities have been received

3.4. How can people receiving disability employment services also be supported to address other barriers to employment (e.g. health service or housing assistance)?

  • More co-location with providers and external providers for these services so participants can access in the one place
  • State/Federal issue application for the gap
  • More funding provided to key providers to assist with these barriers

3.5. What employment support do mature age people with disability need to successfully gain or retain employment, or transition into new employment or a new career?

  • Job share / same continuity of EC supports
  • Employers nationally should have a percentage based system where 20% workforce is mature age

4.1. What support do young people with disability need to successfully move out of education into suitable work?

  • Work experience at school
  • Job ready
  • Focused training with employers to build awareness

4.2. What best practices from existing DES or other employment programs help young people with disability find and maintain a job?

  • Setting expectations
  • Support flexibility school

4.3. Should there be assistance to prepare young people to think about work much earlier than after they leave school?

  • Yes

4.4. How can disability employment services work better with the education system to enhance employment prospects for young people?

  • Get into schools education parents

5.1. What are the most important things that can be done to build an employer’s confidence to employ a person with disability?

  • Awareness
  • Safety and workers comp information/statistics around disability
  • Employer rapport/support

5.2. What services and supports does a disability employment support service need to offer employers to enable them to recruit people with disability, maintain their employment and promote career growth?

  • Training on what providers do
  • Ongoing support

5.3. What are examples of good practice of employer engagement and employer-led initiatives that have been shown to improve employment outcomes for people with disability? How could these be scaled in the disability employment program?

  • On job support
  • 52 weeks longevity of employment
  • Good news stories/employer feedback

5.4. What other information, services and supports do employers need to support employees with disability?

  • Wage Assist – workplace mods
  • Education/awareness

6.1. What specific assistance or flexibilities would better support people with disability to meet their mutual obligation requirements?

  • Need to be stronger for more accountability from providers
  • Personal responsibility of jobseekers
  • Capability assessments to be taken into account due to lack of meeting mutual obligation requirements job plans or JSCI may not be up to date

6.2. How should a future program consider other forms of participation and engagement, such as voluntary work or community engagement?

  • As per 1.2

7.1. How could the future funding arrangements ensure services across a continuum of work readiness, placement and retention are tailored to the needs of the participant?

  • More long term / permanent part time positions for participants

7.2. What are the right pricing and funding arrangements, balancing provider viability with the cost of delivering high quality services to participants and employers?

  • No comment

7.3. How could the future funding model be adapted to recognise changes in the labour market and types of employment available in the modern Australian economy?

  • As per 7.1

7.4. How can service quality and expertise be rewarded and balanced against quantity of outcomes?

  • Long term service
  • Increase back-end payments for longer term outcomes

7.5. How could funding arrangements for ongoing support be improved to ensure supports and services are tailored to the needs of the participant and the employer?

  • No answer

7.6. What do good providers currently do to support people with disability into work?

  • Provide ongoing support so they succeed in their role

8.1. How should an effective and efficient competitive provider market be structured and how should business be allocated?

  • Stricter control over providers
  • Transparency through choice and control

8.2. How can the future program settings encourage and reward innovation and continuous improvement? What works well in the current program?

  • Extra bonus incentives for those providers that reach the 5 star ratings

8.3. What arrangements should be in place for market regulation and quality assurance of services?

  • Fines for organisations and/or the CEO individually

8.4. What legal model would be most appropriate to manage the terms and conditions of the agreement between Government and disability employment services providers?

  • No comment

8.5. What is needed to lift workforce capability and the quality of the workforce delivering disability employment services and supports for both participants and employers?

  • Access to further training funded programs
  • Workplace access incentive
  • Vocational courses

8.6. Is there a market need for specialist providers (disability/industry/age cohorts)that would increase employment opportunities?

  • No

9.1. What will success look like for:

  1. a) people with disability – long term employment
  2. b) the community – community awareness
  3. c) employers – low turn over of staff / high awareness
  4. d) service providers – no longer required / empowering participants
  5. e) Government – decrease funding for Government

9.2. What data do we need to know if the program has been effective?

  • Education/placement outcomes
  • Star ratings / faster delivery of star rating outcomes
  • Community employer statistics

9.3. How can people with disability, employers and providers help to measure and report on the performance of the new program?

  • Good news stories
  • Community employer statistics
  • Outcome tracking monitors
  • Employee quotes within the businesses
  • As per 9.3

9.4. What do people with disability and employers need to make an informed choice to select the best provider for their needs and how should this information be made available?

  • Easier access to access star ratings on a provider
  • Media coverage