Page 2228 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 23 June 2010
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(d) that the Shepherd Centre provides training to DET staff and is a vital organisation skilling parents in helping their children with hearing disabilities develop;
(e) the substantial contributions made by the Shepherd Centre and Noah’s Ark to the ACT; and
(f) that ACT communities require the vital and differentiated services provided by both organisations; and
(2) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) explain why the Minister repeatedly refused to meet with both organisations;
(b) meet with the Shepherd Centre and Noah’s Ark to ascertain the viability of service continuation and alternatives, and report back to the Assembly by the last sitting day in June 2010;
(c) consult with parents of children affected by the discontinuation of LNSLN funding to look at viable alternative models to continue provision of these services, and deliver a comprehensive report to the Assembly; and
(d) detail what the Stanhope Government has done to ask the Commonwealth Government to review their decision to discontinue funding.
Last Monday my colleague Jeremy Hanson, the shadow minister for health, and I, in my capacity as shadow disability and education minister, paid a visit to the Shepherd Centre in Rivett. There we had an opportunity to meet with parents and children and the management and staff of the centre. We also had the opportunity to see first hand and learn about the good work that the centre provides to families of children with special learning needs.
It has been brought to our attention that funding for the Shepherd Centre and the special education services at Noah’s Ark will cease as of 30 June 2010. Much of this is due to the Rudd government’s discontinuation of the literacy, numeracy and special learning needs program—LNSLN—which both organisations qualify for under the non-government centre support category. I should note at this stage that the manager of Noah’s Ark, Ms Wendy Addison, is here with us today. Minister Barr, if you do change your mind about meeting with these organisations, I suggest you start to do it with Ms Addison this morning.
With the introduction of the commonwealth government’s national education agreement, which focuses on government schools, and not qualifying for non-government commonwealth funding under the Schools Assistance Act 2008, these centres are now facing the prospect of no longer receiving continued funding to run their valuable services to ACT communities.
The government has said that funding that was once used to fund centres like the Shepherd Centre and Noah’s Ark will now be redeployed through a tender process to fund identified priority services such as therapy services not currently provided by
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