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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 11 Hansard (26 September) . . Page.. 3273 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

with people with disabilities, the families, carers, and government and non-government service providers.

The priority areas identified for action in Steps to Reform include: the design and introduction of individualised and flexible support for people with disabilities; the development of a comprehensive quality framework for the disability service sector; the amendment of the Disability Services Act 1991; the development and implementation of a workforce strategy; the provision of flexible and appropriate housing and tenancy options for people with disabilities; and a cross-government strategy and promotional campaign to ensure that the ACT community is welcoming and highly accessible to people with disabilities throughout their lives.

Mr Speaker, we have already made significant progress on delivering improved disability services. Our first budget, delivered in June this year, allocated an extra $2.5 million to disability services. For example, with this funding, we are substantially increasing our support for children with autism through the provision of more therapy staff and enhanced assessment services. We are providing more daytime support for people with disabilities, which will complement options already provided in the community. We are very keen to ensure that people with a disability are not inappropriately placed in nursing homes. Our budget funding will provide some alternative accommodation options for these people.

The government is also committed to addressing the needs of complex clients that cannot be met through existing service arrangements. This support is provided on a personal basis to people whose high support needs cannot be met through mainstream disability services. We are also committed to properly resourcing the community in the ongoing task of reform. To this end, funding has been allocated to enable the sector to better respond to the government's reform agenda that I am tabling today.

Mr Speaker, I wish to announce a range of initiatives which continue the reform process and which will radically change the way that services are provided. There will be wide advertising for the position of executive director of Disability ACT and the director responsible for service provision, and after that for key senior positions within the new department. These positions will be filled through national recruiting activities, with a view to gaining the best possible applicants for those important functions.

There will be a new community advisory structure. By the end of this year, the government will be seeking nominations for a community advisory group which will undertake the functions currently performed by the disability reform group and the disability advisory council. This will ensure that the group that has responsibility for advising government on disability matters generally also has a strong role in assisting us with the ongoing process of reform.

We will establish a register of experts to ensure that we have access to people with the best knowledge and experience in disability services. We have also created an innovation fund to encourage new opportunities and approaches to supporting people with disabilities. We want services that result in flexible, person-centred improvements in the long term. We also wish to encourage people to trial new ideas that will expand and improve on our current methods.

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