Page 3481 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 22 October 2014
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… there are currently 20 providers registered with the NDIA for early intervention or early intervention therapy services in the ACT.
This is a big step for the minister. Firstly, it seems that her use of Twitter has improved markedly, but, on a more serious note, this is the first time she has provided any glimpse as to what options may be available for next year. When the minister rises to speak on this motion, if she provides anything less than the details of who those 20 providers are, the type of intervention programs they will be offering and the number of enrolments that will be available for the beginning of 2015, she will again be failing in her role as a minister and she will be failing the families in desperate need of answers. Minister Burch has an obligation to the families, carers and service providers to provide straight answers to the questions they are asking, and she should be doing that as a matter of urgency. I commend my motion to the Assembly.
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Disability, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Racing and Gaming, Minister for Women and Minister for the Arts) (4.17): In many ways, I thank Mr Wall for bringing this matter to the Assembly again. We have heard such loaded and misinformed commentary from him again today, as has occurred in the weeks preceding today.
The government does not support Mr Wall’s motion. I move the amendment that has been circulated in my name:
Omit all words after “notes”, substitute:
“(a) that the ACT Government will commence the transfer of early intervention and therapy services for pre-preschool age children to new providers from the end of the 2014 school year;
(b) the Minister for Disability committed to report to the Assembly in the first sitting week of Term 4, 2014 with an update on the readiness of early intervention non-government service providers to commence in the 2015 school year, as a result of a motion moved in the Assembly on 4 June 2014;
(c) that subsequently, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) conducted a tender process for delivery of early intervention services to ensure coverage of all children who would otherwise have been eligible to access services through the Education and Training Directorate, and that this process will be finalised in the near future; and
(d) that the Education and Training Directorate will host a ‘Meet the Provider’ information session on 17 November 2014 at the Hedley Beare Centre for Teaching and Learning to allow families to meet with the successful providers following the NDIA tender process; and
(2) calls on the Minister for Disability, consistent with her statement to the Assembly on 21 October, to update the Assembly on the results of the NDIA tender on early intervention services as soon as they become available and to
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