Response to Issues Paper

Employment Services – Building on Success

Response to Issues Paper

Cover Page

Contents Page

Executive Summary

This section will be developed following feedback from members and the ongoing development of the submission.

The principles and recommendations are in draft format and still require some re-wording and re-working.

Some sections are not complete and will be finalised this week.

Please be forgiving of formatting, layout or issues with sentences, grammar, etc.

The full list of references will be updated prior to submission.

Section 1 Background to consideration of review of DES-DMS services

Disability Employment Australia welcomes the opportunity to put forward recommendations in response to the Employment Services – Building on Success Issues Paper.

This response will focus on the Disability Employment Services – Disability Management Service (DES-DMS) program. In a review that encompasses Job Services Australia (JSA) and DES-DMS, there is a danger that the distinct role, features and user experience of the much smaller DES-DMS program will be overlooked.

Indeed we note that some of the issues that have been raised in relation to JSA – like lack of collaboration with other services, lack of focus on individual needs – are much less evident in DES-DMS. Throughout this submission we have tried to draw out some of the distinctive features of DES-DMS that support positive behaviours and outcomes, while pointing to areas where improvements could be made.

A fundamental difference between the programs is the role of DES as part of an overall effort to enhance the human rights of people with disability in Australia and to address their continuing exclusion from social and economic life. DES-DMS is an essential part of Australia’s response to its commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability (UNCRPD), which was ratified by Australia on 18 July 2008. Article 26 of the UNCRPD relates to the establishment of habilitation and rehabilitation services:

Article 26 Habilitation and Rehabilitation

1. States Parties shall take effective and appropriate measures, including through peer support, to enable persons with disabilities to attain and maintain maximum independence, full physical, mental, social and vocational ability, and full inclusion and participation in all aspects of life. To that end, States Parties shall organize, strengthen and extend comprehensive habilitation and rehabilitation services and programmes, particularly in the areas of health, employment, education and social services, in such a way that these services and programmes:

(a) Begin at the earliest possible stage, and are based on the multidisciplinary assessment of individual needs and strengths;

(b) Support participation and inclusion in the community and all aspects of society, are voluntary, and are available to persons with disabilities as close as possible to their own communities, including in rural areas.

2. States Parties shall promote the development of initial and continuing training for professionals and staff working in habilitation and rehabilitation services.

Article 27 recognises the right to work and the importance of the right to make choices about work:

Article 27 Work and Employment

State Parties recognise the right of persons with disabilities to work on an equal basis with others [...] this includes the right to the opportunity to gain a living by work freely chosen or accepted in a labour market […] States Parties shall protect and promote the realization of the right to work, including for those who acquire a disability in the course of employment […] by taking appropriate steps […] inter alia

… (e) Promote employment opportunities and career advancement for persons with disabilities in the labour market, as well as assistance in finding, obtaining, maintaining and returning to employment […]

The emphasis in the Convention on the rights of people to have a say in how services are delivered, and the need to take special measures to improve their capacity to fully participate in society on an equal basis are relevant to Australia today and must inform future thinking about the shape of these services.

This section needs to include reference to the National Disability Strategy

Employment and disability in Australia

While Australia has a high employment rate, people with disabilities are less likely to participate in the labour force, or, once in the labour force, to be employed:

Figure 1 Participation and unemployment rates 2009

While the rate of unemployment of people with disabilities has declined since 1993 in line with that of people without disabilities, the participation rate has not increased at the same rate. In other words, the gap has widened in the level of participation and has stayed the same in the level of unemployment.

Australia ranks 21st out of 29 OECD countries in employment rates for people with a disability. It is ranked 27th out of 27 OECD countries when it comes to relative poverty risk for people with a disability (Thomas, 2011).

People with mental illness have poorer participation and employment rates. In 2009, while the participation rate of people with physical disabilities was 49.7%, for people with mental illness it was only 29.2%. The unemployment rate for people with mental illness in 2009 was 2 ½ times that of people with physical disabilities.

Figure 2 Selected labour force characteristics by disability group 2009

While some are born with disabilities, many will acquire them. Disability increases with age (Chart 1, ABS (2012)). The largest group of people with disabilities are in the 45 to 54 age range. While mature aged people are more likely to be in work, if they lose their job they are much more likely to become long term unemployed. Age discrimination is more likely to be experienced by those who have an illness, disability or injury and who have a low level of educational attainment (National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre, 2012).

Those who acquire a disability, or experience an illness or injury that limits capacity to work are a substantial and growing proportion of our potential labour force (Chart 1).

Chart 1 Disability by age

The complexity of the challenge of securing employment for people with disabilities was described in WORKability II: Solutions (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 2005, p. 13). That report identified and summarised three sets of obstacles facing people with disability and their actual or potential employers.

• Information – an absence of easily accessible and comprehensive information and advice that assists in decision making processes and responds to ongoing needs;
• Cost – concern about costs of participation for people with disability and possible costs borne by employers when employing a person with disability; and
• Risk – concern about any possible financial and personal impact on people with disability and their employers, especially if a job does not work out.

The 2009 Shut Out report informed the development of Australia’s National Disability Strategy (National People with Disabilities and Carer Council, 2009, pp. 38-42) and highlighted barriers experienced by people with disability in employment:

• ‘By far the biggest barrier identified was employer attitudes’ (2009, p. 38);
• Misconceptions about workplace adjustments and their costs;
• Stereotypes and misconceptions influencing attitudes and behaviours of employers, recruiters and government;
• Perception of ‘employment as charity’; and
• Inflexible Disability Support Pension acts as a disincentive to work.

More recently, the United Nation’s Thematic study on the work and employment of persons with disabilities (2012, p. 4) highlighted the following barriers, many of them relevant in the Australian context:

• Negative attitudes or opinions;
• Deeply rooted stigma and stereotypes;
• Lack of interest from governments, employers and the general population; and
• Lack of access to education and training in skills relevant to the labour market.

Disability discrimination has been the most common complaint received by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission over the past five years (2012, p. 131).

Figure 3 Complaints received by Act over the past 5 years

The challenge of securing equality in opportunity of access to employment is highlighted by the Australian Public Service itself where, despite stated intentions, the level of employment of people with disabilities has declined.[1]

By international standards, Australia’s record in enabling people with disabilities to secure work on an equal basis is poor. There is no evidence that this is changing despite relatively good overall economic conditions. Those who acquire a disability later in life are disadvantaged both by their disability, illness or injury and by their age (Sedgwick, 2012).

The role of DES-DMS

This program is described as designed for “job seekers with a ‘temporary or permanent disability, injury or health condition who require the assistance of a disability employment service, and who may require flexible ongoing support but are not expected to need regular, long term support in the workplace at any point in time.”

This is a somewhat circular definition. It might make more sense to think of people accessing DES-DMS as people who are undergoing, or are attempting to manage, a major life transition arising (at least in part) out of a disability, injury or illness.

In many cases this will be an illness injury or disability acquired later in life. This is reflected in the age profile of participants in DES-DMS compared with other labour market programs which is heavily skewed to the older age groups (Chart 2):

Chart 2

LMAO Dec 2011

The aim of the DES-DMS program is to assist people to manage the impact of their condition so that it no longer has a practical effect on their ability to work. This often includes securing the assistance of allied health professionals to assist in managing the condition itself, but it may also include adjusting to a new type of career and to a range of other changes that might have occurred associated with the illness/injury or disability. In other words, the purpose of DES-DMS is vocational rehabilitation – whatever helps someone with a health condition or disability to stay in, return to or move into work.

Many in the DES-DMS program do not identify themselves as people with a disability. They are more often on Newstart Allowance than the DSP (Chart 3). They may have considerable work experience, but they are extremely vulnerable to long term unemployment because of the challenge in managing a major life transition, because of their disability and, for many, because of their age.

Chart 3

While a higher proportion of people who access DES-DMS services have physical disabilities than those who access DES-ESS, there are as many people with psychiatric/psychological disabilities in DES-DMS as in DES-ESS (Chart 4). DES-DMS is an important part of the rehabilitation infrastructure for those who experience a period of mental illness and are in the process of recovery.

Chart 4

DEEWR caseload data, 31st Oct 2012

DES-DMS has been relatively successful in achieving employment outcomes, particularly full time employment, for people who have a disability (Table 2).

Table 2 PPM Outcomes (December 2011)

Employed / Total positive / Not in Labour Force
DES-DMS / 40.1 / 47.3 / 28
DES-ESS / 34.4 / 43.6 / 28.6
Stream 3 / 34.9 / 49 / 22.7
Stream 4 / 29 / 42.4 / 31.2
Stream 3 (PWD) / 37.9 / 53.7 / 19.3
Stream 4 (PWD) / 27 / 39 / 37.2

DES-DMS has achieved a higher rate of employment, particularly full time, for those over 50 (Table 3). Mainstream services are not always perceived as appropriate by mature aged job seekers (need ref). The DES-DMS service is likely to be perceived as more appropriate as it is (a) less volume driven (b) more geared to older aged job seekers (c) more professionalised.

Table 3: Outcomes for people aged 50 or more years (June 2012)

/ Employed full-time
(%) / Employed part-time
(%) / Employed total
(%) / Unemployed
(%) / Not in the labour force
(%) / Education & training
(%) / Positive outcomes
(%) /
Stream 3 / 6.4 / 28.1 / 34.5 / 41.9 / 23.6 / 15.2 / 45.9
Stream 4 / 6.9 / 18.9 / 25.8 / 39.2 / 35.0 / 15.3 / 38.1
DES-DMS / 9.4 / 28.7 / 38.0 / 29.4 / 32.5 / 9.0 / 44.4

Awareness of assistance to make workplace adjustments and experience in negotiating job flexibilities are more likely to be found in DES providers, which have a specialist focus in this area. While a significant number of people leave the labour force after participating in DES-DMS (Tables 2 and 3), more will remain engaged than their counterparts in Stream 4 or than over 50s in Stream 3. In the light of Government efforts to reduce new entries to DSP, the DES-DMS programs success in this area is critically important.

The specialised nature of DES-DMS, its focus on case management rather than volume, and its involvement of vocational rehabilitation professionals appear to be important to its successes in achieving outcomes for people with disabilities, particularly mature aged people.

DES-DMS plays a specific role in the suite of employment programs available in Australia. It is specialised – it addresses those with complex needs rather managing large volumes of relatively employable job seekers. It is geared to that group that need transitional assistance, and is particularly important to assisting mature aged people. While we believe outcomes can be improved, it is important to preserve those features of the program that have enabled it to achieve good outcomes for this group.

Improving the system. The problem of dealing with complexity.

Public employment services range from the straightforward (e.g. provision of information about job vacancies to job seekers, supporting more effective job search) to the highly complex (addressing employer bias, assisting clients with multiple disadvantages). While the structure of JSA has been designed to minimise deadweight and deal with large volumes of relatively job ready job seekers, the DES program includes very few people for whom the transition to work is straightforward.

The DES program can be characterised as one concerned with ‘messy’ or ‘wicked’ problems. A problem where the relationship between an action and a result is not clear, which relies on multiple human actors, an open system of influences and sustaining long term behavioural change. The Demos think-tank publication System Failure (Chapman, 2004) argues that the application of reductionist policy approaches to messy problems is liable to fail. Unintended consequences will arise and performance of the system will decline.