[Sub ID 4422] Enhanced NEIS (Counting Numbers)

Submission ID: 4422
Organisation name: COUNTING NUMBERS
Contact name: Mrs JENNIFER LE SAVEANT
State: QLD

Which priority group of the Try, Test and Learn Fund does your idea support?
Young carers, Young parents

What need or issue are you trying to address?
Young Parents and Carers have a KEY competing priority in their lives, that is the Child/Children they are raising or the Person/s they are caring for. Finding work that fits around that priority can be very challenging.

As a working mother raising two young girls, and a personal business owner, I know first hand what impacts Parents can face in that respect. I also assume it can be even more challenging for Carers. My own working life has been transformed since I started my own business in 2011.

Working hours need to be highly flexible and limited to cope with many competing priorities that need to be juggled. The work undertaken also needs to match with the skills and priorities of the individual and where they are located.

Solving the “WORK/CHILD-RAISING/CARE BALANCE” is the need I have identified. This need can be addressed by exploring more opportunities for Young Parents and Carers to work in their own personal businesses.

This will not be a solution for all Young Parents and Carers but should be offered for consideration to those who believe they are capable of working in their own personal business.

In my experience a well planned and positioned personal business can provide high flexibility of working hours and high job satisfaction. I believe this will improve workforce participation and capacity to work for applicable Young Parents and Carers.

What is your idea?
My idea is to initiate a new format of the NEW ENTERPRISE INCENTIVE SCHEME (NEIS) and create a NEW version of the current NEIS scheme designed specifically to address the needs of eligible Young Parents and Carers. I myself have also previously participated in the NEIS scheme many years ago and so understand the principals it involved and the structure of it in it’s current format today.

This new Young Parent and Carer NEIS scheme is not to be targeted at those over 18 who can work full-time in their proposed new business idea (who should be eligible to enter the existing scheme). This new version of NEIS would concentrate on assisting Young Parents and Carers who can only work a limited amount of hours and can propose a business idea which has high flexibility of work participation, matches the Young Parent and Carer’s personal commitments, their skills and the location of the business/applicant.

Therefore the point of difference to the current operation of the NEIS scheme is the need to add on further modules which examine the suitability of the proposed business idea against the constraints of the Young Parent and Carer’s personal commitments, their skills, interests and the location of the business/applicant.

This new NEIS program also needs to be delivered at their location or as close to it as possible, to allow minimal disruption to their Parent & Carer duties. Potentially there might also need to be additional assistance given to cover the Young Parent and Carer’s personal commitments such as childcare and respite care to allow the participant the time needed to complete the program. The program provider also needs to have the correct understanding of the proposed business location and extended constraints that face Young Parents & Carers to examine the idea using a holistic approach.