Page 3512 - Week 09 - Thursday, 20 August 2009
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Ms Gallagher: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
(1) A final decision that the Independent Living Centre would be one of the services re-locating to Kambah decision was made in June 2009.
(2) The rationale underpinning the plan to relocate the ILC is part of a larger plan that will re-locate several Aged Care & Rehabilitation community services to Kambah. The primary consideration is improvement in the level of service in particular to people with a disability by having multiple services on one site. Advantages to clients includes: the ability to access multiple services which are patient centred and focused at a single location; the provision of seamless service provision; ample parking at no cost; disabled access to all services; enhanced service provision through shared resources; decreased waiting time in particular for equipment services who will have considerably increased space; improved safety for both staff and clients through appropriate space allocation for safe and efficient equipment storage and use; and flexibility and responsiveness to clients and carers needs through prompt referral and integrated management.
The other advantage is that it is only 7.5 kilometres from the current ILC location.
(3) The Independent Living Centre (ILC) is an important part of a range of services provided to Canberrans that are currently provided across a number of different locations. The role of the ILC in providing valuable information and advice about equipment will be enhanced by clients being able, in one visit to one place, to then apply for loan or permanent supply of that piece or pieces of equipment through the other related services that will be at the Kambah site. Including the ILC in the range of services moving to the Village Creek site means that the number of separate trips that clients will have to make to have their equipment needs met will be significantly reduced.
(4) The quoted cost to the ACT Government to relocate the ILC specifically is up to $40,000, though this cost may well be reduced when an item by item cost is determined. This costing is for the relocation of the fixtures and fittings of the existing ILC to the new site.
(5) The operating costs for the ILC in the financial year 2008–09 was $556,223. The ILC budget for the financial year 2009-10 is $539,822. The difference in amounts is unrelated to the move of the ILC and is due to some one-off allocations in 2008-09 not required in 2009-10. As the move will occur halfway through the financial year there will be no change to the operating cost for the financial year 2009-10. There may be some financial efficiencies gained through co-location but, as this is not the primary consideration for co-location, firm figures are not yet available.
(6) Senior staff from the ILC have been in consultation with the Executive Director of the Aged Care & Rehabilitation Service, the Community Public Sector Union representative, and Human Resource representatives for several weeks. Discussions continue with a view to resolving any remaining issues to enable the ILC to be re-located before December 2009. Although other services will be relocating in October 2009, this additional time has been allocated to the ILC to ensure all issues regarding display, model of care development and other important issues are addressed. The Executive Director, Aged Care & Rehabilitation Services and the Deputy Chief Executive, ACT Health also met with the Ministerial Disability Advisory Council at their July meeting which raised some issues relating to access at Village Creek which are being addressed.
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