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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2308 ..

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An important focus throughout the policies is ensuring that every consumer has a key worker, who holds the responsibility for ensuring the successful implementation of the consumer's Individual Plan.

The policies will also ensure that the Individual Planning process is inclusive of all people who are important in a consumer's life, and that implementation of the Plans will provide improved quality of life for consumers.

The enhanced operational policies have been released in a draft form, which will be open to consultation for a full 12 months. This will give ample time to ensure that all operational issues have been identified and addressed before the policies are finalised in June 1998.

Consumers, families, guardians, advocates, staff and other stakeholders will have the opportunity to provide input on the policies.

In order to ensure that all staff are adequately skilled to effectively implement the changes in practice and policy which are enunciated in the manual, an intensive series of training sessions is being provided. The training, which began in mid-June and will proceed for a period of some weeks, is compulsory for all staff both permanent and casual. The training is also compulsory for all agency casual staff who work for the Disability Program.

Staff training will be supported by the use of a recently developed training video, which provides an excellent tool to provide information to all staff and others about the value base of the Program, and how those values translates into day to day support.

The policies will be implemented at service unit level at the completion of a staff training period so that their effectiveness `on the ground' can be assessed. The policies will be subject to ongoing review, in recognition of the ever-changing environment and the changing needs of consumers.

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