Centrelink annual report 2003 – 04 Contact officer
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- Expansion of services provided by Personal Advisers
- Recruitment and training
- The outcomes Personal Advisers are seeking to achieve
- Personal Adviser successes
- SOLVING PROBLEMS AND BRIGHTENING VISIBLY
- Centrelink Assessment Model
- Indigenous Customer Breach Prevention Projects
- Community Participation Agreements
- BUILDING SELF-ESTEEM TO INCREASE PARTICIPATION
- MAKING THE TRANSITION TO COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND PAID WORK
- Engaging multicultural communities in participation
- Social Workers supporting participation
SUPPORT PARTICIPATIONCentrelink supports income support recipients to prepare for re-entering the workforce by encouraging customers to increase their economic and social participation in their community. Participation is defined as ‘all progress towards work outcomes including personal and skill development, training and volunteering.’ Personal AdvisersPersonal Advisers and Jobs Education Training (JET) Advisers provide personalised assessment for specific customer groups identified as disadvantaged in the labour market. Since the introduction of Personal Advisers under the Australians Working Together (AWT) initiative in 2002–03 (see page 62), many customers have been motivated and challenged by their Personal Adviser or JET Adviser at their interview. Personal Advisers and JET Advisers provide professional advice in a supportive environment and help people achieve greater social and economic participation wherever possible. Expansion of services provided by Personal AdvisersFrom September 2003, Personal Adviser support was extended to Newstart Allowance customers aged 50 or over and Personal Advisers now provide individualised services and additional support to people in the following groups:
Phase 2 of the AWT initiative from September 2003 has also seen the introduction of new, flexible participation requirements for a number of customer groups:
Recruitment and trainingWith the extension of Personal Adviser assistance to a wider range of customers, additional Personal Advisers were recruited. These Personal Advisers undertook a comprehensive 13-week training program starting in August 2003. In response to feedback gathered via the post-implementation review of Phase 1 AWT training, a different approach to training was adopted for the newly recruited Personal Advisers. The training was delivered via a case-based format with appropriate on-the-job modules to reinforce learning and included a nationally standardised induction package for new Centrelink staff. Other Centrelink staffs, including current Personal Advisers and JET Advisers, were given appropriate training relevant to their role to cover Phase 2 AWT enhancements.
By providing assistance at the earliest possible stage, Personal Advisers can make a better assessment of each customer’s needs and:
Personal Adviser successesMOVING FROM REDUNDANCY TO APPRENTICESHIPBy helping people through difficult times in their lives, Personal Advisers are getting good feedback from customers. One Personal Adviser said: ‘I received a phone call from a customer a couple of months ago. His sister-in-law, who I had seen earlier in the year, had given him my number and he was hoping we could have a chat. ‘He had been made redundant by his employer a year ago and since then he had been on Newstart Allowance while he looked for work. He was convinced that his age (he was over 50) was working against him when applying for new jobs, and this was causing him much frustration. We sat down and discussed the options available to him, as well as alternative types of employment, such as Community Jobs Projects and Mature Age Apprenticeships—many of these were options he had never considered. ‘When he came back to see me last week, he had just been accepted as an apprentice panel beater! Although he will be starting on a relatively low wage, he is delighted to be employed and to be learning a new trade that will take him through to retirement.’ SOLVING PROBLEMS AND BRIGHTENING VISIBLYPersonal Advisers are trained to tap into community support networks to help customers, for example: ‘In my short time as a Personal Adviser I have encountered many customers whose circumstances have reinforced the need for and the value of the Personal Adviser role. ‘Just recently I interviewed a single mother of two. On the surface she appeared to be a healthy young woman raising her children—an impression soon shattered as she opened up and talked about her problems. ‘She had serious health issues that she was doing her best to ignore because the money she had was going on paying her daughter’s dental bills. As well, her other child has serious behavioural problems, which take up a lot of the mother’s time. In addition, she was caring for an alcoholic relative and cleaned his house a couple of times a week. ‘I referred her to the local health service for medical treatment and physiotherapy and free dental care for her children and to Parent zone for help with her son and relative. She brightened visibly when she understood how much help was available to help solve her problems.’ Centrelink Assessment ModelThe Centrelink Assessment Model is being developed to maximise customer participation. In November 2003, an early version of the model was presented to our three major client departments (the Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS), the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR), and the Department of Education, Science and Technology (DEST)). The Centrelink Assessment Model builds on the AWT initiative and DEWR’s Active Participation Model. It aims to improve participation outcomes by:
Indigenous Customer Breach Prevention ProjectsA Centrelink working group formed to focus on Indigenous customer breaching issues with the aim of promoting improved servicing of Indigenous customers in relation to breaching. This includes better statistical reporting and analysis of breach data, and communication and promotion of best practice procedures throughout our network. A project was established in Moree and Goondiwindi regions (spanning New South Wales and Queensland) to:
Initial findings have assisted in identifying consistently emerging community issues and will contribute to the development of better practice initiatives. Community Participation AgreementsCommunity Participation Agreements (CPAs) were included in the Australians Working Together initiative in 2001. Voluntary CPAs have been developed in remote communities encouraging customers to contribute to their community in return for income support. Centrelink continues to work in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services (the lead agency), Family and Community Services (FaCS) and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) on this initiative. Introducing participation requirements through CPAs is a significant aspect of welfare reform. These initiatives are also potentially important as part of a response to the many problems—such as social, economic and health issues—being experienced in remote communities. Implementation strategies have been developed jointly by multiple agencies, under the direction of the secretaries’ group for Indigenous Issues.
The program involves the Fraser Coast Centrelink Psychologist delivering six, one and a half-hour sessions for customers, over six weeks. Throughout the six-week program, participants are given myriad opportunities to actively participate in activities, and discussions and group activities are set to encourage interaction between participants. The courses were well received by participants and most of them completed all six sessions. Future programs will be extended to include customers on Parenting Payment who have activity requirements. Similarly, the Hervey Bay Office has been working closely with the community to assist young women at risk to build their self-esteem, and set goals for their future through craft and self-expression. Called Active8, the program runs over eight weeks for young women aged 15 to 16 who have been identified as at risk through their schools. The program is a partnership between several agencies, including Reconnect Youth Service, Queensland Police, Women’s Health, Women’s Domestic Violence Service and Centrelink. Many of the young women involved said that they now see Centrelink and its employees in a different light. In the words of one participant: ‘The program was extraordinary; it was very helpful to know that someone cared enough to produce this program. The program boosted our confidence tremendously, changed our outlook on life and stopped some from wagging because we felt better about ourselves and other people around us.’
Centrelink’s Area West New South Wales Prison Servicing Unit, in collaboration with DEWR, local Job Network members and the Pre Release Programs Unit of the New South Wales Department of Corrective Services are working cooperatively to provide a seamless service to inmates participating in work release programs. Delivered from John Moroney Correctional Centre in western Sydney, inmates eligible for work release are registered and linked with local Job Network members. The Job Network supports participants by helping them to find paid work prior to their release from prison. In June 2004 this pilot will extend to Silverwater Correctional Centre near Parramatta. In partnership with Relationships Australia, Children of Prisoners Support Group, the New South Wales Department of Correctional Services, Throughcare and Silverwater Correctional Centre, the Prison Servicing Unit is also involved in developing the ‘Growing Together—Parents and Kids’ program. Under the program, pre- and post-release camps are held for inmates and their families. These camps are to work through difficult issues, draw on existing family strengths, and to encourage ex-offenders to take part in community life and look at opportunities for paid work.
Centrelink also develops strategies that encourage an ‘all of community’ approach to providing the necessary assistance and support to our mutual refugee and migrant customers during their pathway to work.
Social Workers supporting participationDuring 2003–04, Centrelink Social Workers in South Australia trialled a group work program for parents receiving Parenting Payment from Centrelink and whose youngest child was turning 13. The aim of this program was to increase the parents’ social and economic participation. The program set a number of goals to achieve this aim:
The group ran for eight weeks with seven participants attending each session. Six were sole parents and none were employed or studying when the group commenced. Over the eight week period a range of topics was covered including: planning for the future, volunteering, education, and parenting. There were presentations by a number of guest speakers such as Centrelink JET and Personal Advisers, TAFE and high school career counsellors, volunteer coordinators, and community youth workers. The participants met one month after the group finished, and a further evaluation was conducted three months after the group ended, to assess the participants’ progress towards undertaking social and economic participation activities. The evaluation found that all members had increased their level of participation within the community. Prior to attending the group none of the participants were involved in study or employment. Now every participant is actively undertaking some kind of study, employment or volunteer work, and in many instances they are undertaking a combination of these activities. Many of the women who participated in the group had been out of the workforce for an extended time since having their children and had not studied recently, if at all. They had not considered their future or what direction they wanted to take, and had not made any plans in relation to this. The direction and motivation that they gained from participating in the group was instrumental in assisting them to be more engaged with their community, and to undertake participation activities. The responses to the evaluation indicated that many of the participants were unaware of services available in their community and also through Centrelink. This information was an essential component in their forward planning. This innovative approach demonstrates the contribution that Centrelink’s Social Work service is able to make in supporting customers to achieve greater levels of social and economic participation. It also demonstrates Centrelink’s ability to deliver services in alternate ways. While this model was trialed for only one customer group (parents whose youngest child was turning 13), the evaluation indicates that it would be a useful program for all customer groups that have or will have a compulsory participation requirement. Planning is currently underway to extend this program to other customer groups.
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