Page 2378 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 12 August 2014
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There is a saying that “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”. The way in which Gordon Ramsay from Kippax UnitingCare works with other organisations to achieve better outcomes for the people they serve in west Belconnen is a perfect example of how the unified whole can achieve more than individual organisations working alone. This is the spirit of the human services blueprint. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the contribution of Gordon Ramsay, his volunteers and staff at Kippax UnitingCare, to both the local west Belconnen community and to the development of the human services blueprint.
The second initiative is the $445,000 expansion of strengthening families, which will work with up to 50 vulnerable families to develop and implement an agreed family plan, with a tailored support package to meet their particular requirements. In addition, strengthening families will also build front-line worker capacity across both government and community sectors.
The third initiative is funding of $322,000 to establish a human services gateway for people to improve access to information and self-support options, and link individuals and families into more intensive and tailored support when it is required.
These three initiatives have one common objective—to ensure that individuals who need support are supported with the right service at the right time and for the right length of time.
There is a high level of commitment across the government and community sectors to the blueprint reforms. Each partner has shown a strong interest in implementing the vision and purpose of the blueprint and work together as part of a joined-up human services system. The government is committed to continued collaboration and co-design throughout each phase of implementation, and recognises this as integral to the success of the blueprint reforms.
Just as the blueprint reform work is about making it easier for people to interact with and use human services, so it is that our wide-ranging reforms for the community sector are designed to make it easier for these organisations to interact with us as a government. We have been reducing unnecessary red tape and increasing support.
From 1 January 2014 the Community Services Directorate has been increasing the term of service funding agreements from three years up to five years. Also introduced on 1 July this year was the concept of recurrent grants, a move intended to replace more administratively complex service funding agreements where this is appropriate. These two changes, between them, will enable up to $1.5 million annually in saved time and administrative effort for community sector organisations.
These changes come on top of the regulatory and reporting changes earlier in 2013-14 that together have reduced the regulatory and reporting burden by an amount equivalent to a further $800,000 per year. With further red tape reduction initiatives to come, I expect the benefits to the sector will continue to increase over time.
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