Election Time 1
Well, election season is well and truly upon us. Unlike a lot of other countries, we get the opportunity to democratically elect our leaders for the next 3 years. Although our system is not perfect, it’s a bit like Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” Groom will field eight candidates at the May 21 election, the largest number since 2013.
In This Issue
Five of the seven candidates for Groom at the election are either women or non-binary, which is an endorsement of changing demographics and public sentiment and it’s fantastic to see more women stepping up and taking action and wanting to make a difference.
2 Editor’s Notes
The first gathering of all candidates in the upcoming federal election for Groom led to some tense moments and wild policy ideas. More than 130 small business owners, supporters and residents packed into the Cathedral Centre on Thursday night for the Chamber of Commerce’s candidate event .
7 Manny’s Day at the Footy
All candidates were quizzed on a range of topics, including the region’s skills and housing shortages, climate change, a new hospital and Groom’s status as a safe seat.
13 Staff Updates
3 Labor’s 6 Point Plan 4 CareMaster Updates 5 NDIS Updates 6 Mayoral Prayer Breakfast 8 Safe and Supported 9 NGO Training Infographic 10 Toowoomba Community 11 Rockhampton Community 12 Increased Driving Fines 14 What’s happening in May
None of the candidates or their parties have any specific policies to support people with disability in the Groom electorate, so when you vote, make that vote count. The future of the next 3 years is in your hands.
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Labor to improve NDIS By Emily Bennett Nine News
Greater support for disability advocates will be at the forefront of a new plan to improve the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Shadow NDIS Minister Bill Shorten announced Labor's proposal to invest $10 million over four years to support disability advocates and "keep people safe in the scheme". $10 million over 4 years equates to $2.5 million per year for each of the States and Territories. That represents a very generous $312,500 or roughly 3 advocates to cover, for example, Queensland’s 94,000 NDIS participants. "Government can never know everything that's happening," Mr Shorten said. "If there was a bit of software... to tell you whenever someone was in trouble or whenever someone wasn't being looked after properly... no doubt government would go out and pay for it. But we don't have to wait for that to be invented because if we listen to the workforce, if we listen to the advocates, if we listen to people with disabilities, we've already got our system. "Advocates are a fundamental part of the safety and quality of the scheme." The funding was announced alongside a sixpoint plan to improve the NDIS. Under the plan, Labor aims to crackdown on "cowboys out there taking advantage" of the scheme by reviewing "criminal activity and fraud".
Does this include family that use funding for their own benefit, unregistered support workers and other providers of NDIS funded supports, consumables or assistive technology? The party plans to look into the "excessive use" of external lawyers and review the "value for money" of consultancy contracts. As many as 40 legal officers have quit the agency over the past eight months. The NDIA also refused to address questions about whether chief counsel Chris Burke resigned on Friday to take up a post with another government agency. For participants in the scheme, the party wants to address access to appropriate housing, ensure more flexible housing and boost employment opportunities. Affordable Housing = substandard materials, people forced to live in remote towns where land prices are cheaper, multi-story housing complexes or WHAT? Labor also plans to lift staffing caps, streamline the planning process for initial plans and introduce a review "that will guarantee plans will not be arbitrarily cut". Mr Shorten said Labor will also appoint a senior officer within the National Disability Insurance Agency to focus on the barriers to service delivery in regional Australia and commit to "co-designing changes to the scheme with people with disability". What a great idea! Appoint an existing bureaucrat in a bureaucratic organisation in a major city to reduce barriers in regional Australia. 3
Changes Vaccination fields have been added to Staff and Participant records Offline features • User can start or end supports and breaks and add case notes and signatures while the app is not connected to the internet • These actions get added to a queue and the app will automatically try to send them once it reconnects Editing • The existing "add and edit support" setting has been split into two different ones for better control over adding supports via the app. You can now allow workers to add supports but not edit, or edit supports but not add.
• You can now only allow workers to edit availability after X days from today. For example, if you only want workers to be able to change availability after 2 weeks, you can set this to 14 days. Bug Fixes • Emails with incident reports sent from the app had the wrong time, but incident in CM itself had correct time • Maintenance History, if notes were too long, it would display a server error. It now displays readable error so users know that it didn’t save. Case Note Export • Can filter by multiple participants • Change layout format (horizontal or vertical) • Date note created added
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Partners in the Community From the Minister 15 March 2022 The Australian Government is seeking suitable community based organisations to help deliver the NDIS partners in the community (PITC) program. Services will be delivered in 74 service areas across Australia for a 5 year period from July 2023. This will further improve participant access to support in their local communities. PITC Program providers are the primary contact for more than 70% of all NDIS participants, delivering local area coordination (LAC) and early childhood (EC) services on behalf of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), linking people with disability to the NDIS as well as to community and mainstream services. Minister for the NDIS Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC said “I have listened to participants and their representatives, and after 8 years’ of transitioning over 500,000 Australians into the insurance scheme, we are now focused on further improvements to participant access to community and mainstream services, which is the original intent of the PITC program.” “This also provides an opportunity to partner with organisations in some regional and remote parts of Australia, where services can be difficult to access, and connection to community and mainstream supports are so crucial. “With the NDIS fully funded and now transforming the lives of so many Australians with a significant and permanent disability, my, and the Australian Government’s, focus is on ma-
turing and improving how the NDIS supports participants and the sector. “The Government has worked hard to deliver record NDIS funding of $142 billion over the next four years, compared to $8 billion a year for disability support when we came to office.” “I and the NDIA have worked closely with the sector to understand their vision for the future of the PITC program. As a consequence of this engagement, the NDIA will refocus the PITC program to ensure these organisations are truly part of a participant and nonparticipants trusted network in their community, the sharing of information and resources, and connect them to services to pursue their goals.” “The future PITC program will dedicate more time to the delivery of early supports for children, plan implementation support for individuals and their families or carers, and activities to facilitate greater community inclusion,” Minister Reynolds said. The NDIA tender and assessment process will run until late 2022 and will ensure new contracts are in place before the current contracts approach their common expiry in June 2023. Existing contracts were to finish in 2022 and there is nothing in this release to explain why. Can COVID-19 be blamed for this as well? Is it because the NDIA struggle to create community connections and experience delay after delay in their tender processes? This is the time to ensure that local community organisations are providing the community linking in their own communities. Editor
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Winter Shelter Toowoomba, a charity offering accommodation and support services to the city’s homeless people, is the beneficiary of the 28th Toowoomba Mayoral Prayer Breakfast, which will be held at Rumours International on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
At the event launch at Futures Restaurant at TAFE Queensland South West, Toowoomba Region Mayor Paul Antonio said he was pleased to see the charity breakfast return after COVID-19 restrictions forced the event to be cancelled in 2020 and 2021. Mayor Antonio also announced Mr Greg Sheridan, foreign editor at The Australian, as the 2022 guest speaker. “Winter Shelter Toowoomba is backed by Lifeline Darling Downs and South West Queensland in conjunction with seven church organisations and support services to house up to 10 homeless people a night over winter,” Mayor Antonio said. (Participating churches include: Toowoomba West Anglican Parish, St Stephen’s Uniting Church, Hume Ridge Church of Christ, South Toowoomba Baptist Church, Belong Church, Toowoomba City Church partnering with Reform Church and the Rangeville Community Church) Prices are $25 for adult tickets and $15 for school-age children. Tickets can be purchased at Council’s Little Street Customer Service Centre in Toowoomba from 8.30am to 5pm on weekdays. Tickets also can be bought by calling 131 872 or via Council’s website by visiting www.tr.qld.gov.au/breakfast
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Ipswich Jets vs Capras Thank you to both Clubs for having us attend the game as VIP’s to watch the Capras have their first win against the Jets in Ipswich since 2009. Reserved parking, grandstand seats, a meal and drinks. Oh yes!
May/Jun Magazine WhatsUp in Disability Stories in this issue include: • Manny’s Moment • Meet the Groom Candidates • Plan Management • Blessed to be Disabled To obtain a copy of WhatsUp in Disability magazine or to be a sponsor, please contact WhatsUp via: Office
11-15 Alexander Street, Toowoomba
admin@whatsupindisability.org
Online
www.whatsupindisability.org
• Tamworth Country Music • PITC Program
Steven Paull President 7
The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021-2031 Our shared vision is that children and young people in Australia have the right to grow up safe, connected and supported in their family, community and culture. They have the right to grow up in an environment that enables them to reach their full potential. Safe and Supported: the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021–2031 was developed by the Australian Government, state and territory governments, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives and the non-government sector. The use of the word ‘we’ represents our continuing shared commitment to support children, young people and families. The best interests of the child are at the centre of the National Framework and the subsequent Action Plans. We are committed to on-
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going meaningful engagement with children, young people, parents, carers and communities. Listening to the voices of children will be key to our success. All Australians need to work together to keep children safe and to achieve the best outcomes for vulnerable children and those experiencing disadvantage. This includes all jurisdictions working together in areas such as disability, early childhood education and care, health and mental health, alcohol and other drug treatment and prevention, domestic and family violence, justice, housing and employment. The National Framework embeds the 4 Priority Reforms of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap to transform how governments work to accelerate progress.
We want all children, young people, families and communities in Australia to be safe and resilient and to have the opportunity to thrive.
BigDog Support Services Magazine
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Did the Easter bunny come to you? We had a huge month at the Toowoomba Centre. While we were at social bowling we met the easter bunny it was a wonderful surprise.
Café 63 is one of our spots to have lunch. Out of bed and into the Centre for our pyjama day was a sleepy fun day. The Highfields pioneer Village was an amazing adventure we saw the big cow. This month we have big plans May the fourth be with you party. So super excited about our science day on Friday. Big events happing with our meet the Clydesdale players followed by Activities and a BBQ with the players on the 7th of May at 11 am. Biggest morning tea in on the 18th May cancer council at 10 am just a gold coin donation staff $5. We are off to the Oakey army base to check out the planes with a BBQ lunch on the day. Birthday shout out to Jess happy Birthday have a fabulous day.
BigDog Day Service Toowoomba Paul Myatt Community Centre 11-15 Alexander Street North Toowoomba 4350 Coordinator Jess Wright Phone: 4512 6020 dayservice@bigdogsupport.com.au 10
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April School Holidays Woah what a big 2 weeks of school holidays !! The kids definitely had heaps of fun and the Easter bunny even came for a little visit at the office today.
Time to get ready for next holidays “I must say for our first school holiday program It was amazing!! Cobi can’t wait to come back next holidays!!! Well done team “ The Rockhampton day service have been busy the last 2 weeks , lots of cooking , going to the gym to work all that cooking off the team have been collecting bottles and cans to get money for their end of year trip! And of course can’t forget to have a bit of fun. A trip to mini golf and some science experiments.
BigDog Day Service Rockhampton BigDog Community Centre 170 East Street Rockhampton 4700 Coordinator Caleb Tull Phone: 4573 4611 rockhampton@bigdogsupport.com.au
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Queensland increases fines for driving offences If you get caught speeding, driving without a seatbelt or running a red light in Queensland, you’re now looking at a larger fine effective from July 1, 2022. After switching on phone detection cameras permanently last year which also scan cars for occupants not wearing a seatbelt, the Queensland Government has more than doubled the penalty for front-seat occupants caught not belting up. Instead of a $413 fine and three demerit points, offenders will now be fined $1078 and four demerit points. That essentially aligns it with the $1033 penalty for using a mobile phone while driving in Queensland. You’ll still get three demerit points for running a red, but the fine has been increased from $413 to $575. The Government is also increasing penalties for speeding. There’ll be a $287 fine for exceeding the speed limit by between 1-10km/h, though it’ll still be a single demerit point. It’s currently $183 and the bracket is up to 12km/h. In the first four months of the new mobile phone and seatbelt detection cameras going live, almost 14,000 seatbelt offences were recorded. “We’ve been educating drivers on the importance of seatbelts for 50 years, but somehow the message didn’t get through to almost 14,000 people, so it’s time to get tough,” said Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey. 12
Haha Steven’s Stinger with new signwriting.
The Queensland Government says “every cent” collected from the fines will be reinvested into road safety, citing $1.7 billion spent so far this year in road safety upgrades, improved driver education, and other initiatives to make school zones safer and develop policies to reduce road crashes and trauma. The changes in penalties are part of the new Queensland Road Safety Strategy 2022-31 announced yesterday, with a vision to having zero road deaths and serious injuries by 2050.
BigDog Support Services Magazine
Toowoomba Winter Uniforms With winter fast approaching we are again this year providing Toowoomba staff with a winter vest featuring:
Staff Birthdays
} Insulated quilting on chest front for lightweight warmth } Contrast colour front zipper and pockets } Stand up collar with chin guard } BigDog logo on the LHS breast.
May 2022
This should help keep out those cold westerly winds.
3rd 4th 5th 19th 23rd 28th
So only 4 people replied—so the others miss out on getting one of these great vests FREE of CHARGE.
Staff Performance Appraisals Rockhampton will be conducted during the first 2 weeks in May and Toowoomba in late May and early June and will take approximately 30 minutes. Additional appointments can be made if there are further matters that you wish to discuss openly or in private.
Aleisha Vanessa Kahn (21st) Caleb Brandon (21st) Jonus Michelle
Have a great day!
Appraisals will be conducted around 8 key areas including: 1.
Person-Centred Supports
2.
Feedback and Shift Notes
3.
Reliability and Time Management
4.
Medication and Finance
5.
Incident Reporting
6.
Essential Documents
7.
NGO Training Modules
8.
Workplace Health and Safety
Ratings for each area are 5 Excellent, 4 Very Good, 3 Good, 2 Fair and 1 Must Improve. You will need to bring with you your current NDIS Worker Screening Card or Positive Notice Yellow Card, your Driver’s Licence and a copy of your current 1st Aid and CPR. Updated Medication Training will also be conducted during these times. 13
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Justice of the Peace This service is available at the Paul Myatt Community Centre 11-15 Alexander Street Toowoomba (please call first to make an appointment) The JPs in the Community Program is also available through major shopping centres, libraries, court houses and hospitals.
Contact Us BigDog Support Services
232 Ruthven Street Toowoomba QLD 4350 PO Box 234 Harlaxton QLD 4350
(07) 4632 9559 1800 22 44 32 www.bigdogsupport.com.au 15
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