Page 1131 - Week 03 - Thursday, 18 March 2010
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MS BURCH: I thank the minister for his continued interest in disability services.
Mr Coe: The minister?
MS BURCH: Sorry, the member. I can say that there has been an increase of 61 per cent in funding assigned to disability services since 2002, and since 2002 the accommodation places have risen by 31 per cent, community support places have increased by 55 per cent, community access hours have increased by 70 per cent, centre-based respite nights have increased by 11 per cent—
Opposition members interjecting—
MS BURCH: and flexible respite hours have risen by 96 per cent. That is an incredible figure if you look at the amount of families that are wanting respite services; that this government has increased flexible respite hours by 96 per cent is indeed a good outcome.
Opposition members interjecting—
MS BURCH: The operating budget for this year is—
MR SPEAKER: Order, members! I cannot hear the minister.
MS BURCH: Thank you. The operating budget for this financial year is $63.7 million and new funding in the 2009-10 budget included $3 million over four years being allocated to enable individuals who were medically cleared for discharge—that is that transition from hospital—
Opposition members interjecting—
MS BURCH: We have also had special care packages, which include $200,000 for capital works for property modification and an extra $245,000 for support needs.
So you can see that this government has a record of increasing the resources available to the disability sector.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Le Couteur?
MS LE COUTEUR: Minister, can you advise the Assembly what the findings so far have been from the government’s recent review of this individual support package program?
MS BURCH: That work has been done in partnership with NDS, the community sector and the government sector. We are going through that work now, so we have not come to the end of that analysis process, but when we have, we will come back to you with the findings. Will it influence how we do business? Every bit of work that we do where we can find ways of service improvement we will take on board.
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