Page 1585 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 12 May 2015
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I think for many Canberrans schools are the easiest example to understand the need for flexibility. I have given the example before of a CALD parent and the simple strategies we can use to make sure they feel able to be part of our school community. It is clear they would need something different from Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander parents, LGBT parents, or single mums to feel welcome and able to participate, but the principle remains that, to be able to call ourselves inclusive, the directorate, staff and our school communities all need to be ready to meet those parents where they are.
As a government we are learning about and moving towards this person-first and joined-up approach to services through the NDIS and better services. I am proud the ACT has been a leader in rolling out the national disability insurance scheme. The scheme realises the fundamental principle for people with a disability to have more choice and control about how they live their lives. Over the next two years the ACT will be the first site to transition all eligible people from zero to 65 years of age into the NDIS. This will see investment in the disability sector double to $342 million by 2019-20.
Certainly the goal to transition people with disability to new arrangements and new lives comes with challenges, but I am confident that services and supports can work collaboratively with government to make this transition successful. I would like to mention here the great work Therapy ACT is doing to support clients to identify and engage the services that best suit them.
So while we have a plan for walking alongside people with disability, we are learning new things as we go, and there are lessons for the future in the way other human services and supports are delivered more broadly.
This approach is also at the heart of the human services blueprint, a framework that is changing the way services and supports are delivered to Canberrans. The blueprint will bring a better overall service experience so that people get the right kind of service at the right time for the time it is needed. Access to, and provision of, support under the blueprint is vastly different from the idea that support is about “doing for” or “doing to” a person. In this situation, a person is essentially removed from the decision-making. It is here that a person feels powerless to change their future. In such a case, the person has almost no chance of moving away from a cycle of dependence on services that may not be what is needed. Sometimes this becomes intergenerational.
This is an outcome that does little to benefit the person, the human services system as a whole and, ultimately, our community. The blueprint, through the better services initiatives of the human services gateway, strengthening families and the west Belconnen local services network, will make a difference.
I mentioned briefly the idea of a person becoming entrenched in disadvantage. This is where the better services, strengthening families program is making great progress with families who face many setbacks and, as a result, are involved with multiple services across government and the community. This program places a single worker
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