Why we must build a common understanding of what a wellbeing economy can offer Victoria.

I’m sure that, like me, you’ve been part of personal and professional conversations throughout the pandemic about what a ‘good life’ looks like for our community, both now and into the future.

With many of the communities we live in and work with under extreme stress, we’re seeing pre-existing inequities deepening and having real and lasting impacts on people’s lives.

In the health sector and more broadly, ‘wellbeing’ is a term that is more and more commonly used to describe the idea of ‘a good life’.

When we talk about wellbeing at VicHealth, we see it as something beyond the absence of disease. It encompasses concepts of thriving individuals and communities, equity and social justice, environmental sustainability – as well as social, economic and cultural sustainability – and planetary health, and culturally diverse and enduring knowledges.

And core to that is an understanding that promoting wellbeing isn’t just about a good life for today’s citizens. We need to think about the long-term implications of policy decisions, and how they can lead to future generations flourishing in an equitable and sustainable society.

It has been clear for a long time to many of us that GDP is not an accurate measure of how we’re doing as a society. And it cannot indicate what life will be like for future Victorians.

The concept of ‘wellbeing’ is far more useful for understanding how we’re all doing, and, of course, how the planet around us and future generations will do as well. Shifting to a wellbeing economy approach can benefit everybody.

Last year, VicHealth commissioned The George Institute for Global Health to report on how best to embed wellbeing into policy-making.

That report — Integrating wellbeing into the business of government: The feasibility of innovative legal and policy measures to achieve sustainable development in Australia — is an incredibly useful look at concrete examples of how complex policy change has been achieved internationally, and what factors could underpin a similar approach in Victoria and Australia.

Our hope is that by bringing together policy, practice and research experts from health, environment, community services and youth sectors, we can build a common understanding of what wellbeing economies can offer, and how they can be applied in Victoria.

It has been clear for a long time to many of us that GDP is not an accurate measure of how we’re doing as a society.

The Victorian Treasurer and the Federal Shadow Treasurer have already publicly stated their support for similar approaches, and we believe this is an ideal time to come together and build on existing momentum within Victoria, interstate and internationally.

If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it is that the social determinants of health are very real. The deep cracks of inequity, which we have ignored or thinly papered over for decades, have become unavoidable.

As we look to the future, we must take this opportunity to gather momentum, to gather allies, and to set our sights on a much healthier, fairer way of measuring progress and wellbeing within the context of our political economies.

I’m looking forward to being part of the conversation about what a wellbeing economy might look like in Victoria, both now and into the future.

VCOSS and DHHS are running a monthly discussion forum to guide community organisations through the COVID-19 pandemic.

This most recent forum was run on 6 August 2020, with:

• Dr Finn Romanes (Public Health Commander, COVID-19)
• Andrew Crisp (Emergency Management Commissioner)
• Matthew Hercus (Director, DHHS Mental Health)
• Simone Corin (Acting Deputy Secretary, DHHS )
• Argiri Alisandratos (Deputy Secretary, DHHS)
• Jeroen Weimar (Community Engagement and Testing, DHHS)

Register for next month's forum.

View all past forums

The Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) is the peak body for social and community services in Victoria. VCOSS supports the community services industry, represents the interests of Victorians facing disadvantage and vulnerability in policy debates, and advocates to develop a sustainable, fair and equitable society.

VCOSS welcomes the opportunity to provide input into the Victorian Government’s Skills for Victoria’s Growing Economy Review.

A high-quality post-secondary education and training system is a corner stone for social and economic inclusion.

Within this system, TAFEs and not-for-profit community-based vocational education providers with a strong focus on access and equity play a particular role in “support[ing] sustainable, socially just and inclusive societies”, as well as producing workers with the right skills and knowledge for the economy[1].

The world of work is rapidly changing. This Review is an opportunity to identify refinements to the VET system, so that it can optimally support social and economic reforms and changing skill and job demand.

Victorians need sets of transferrable ‘complex skills’ such as adaptability, creativity and problem solving to be able to move between jobs and careers as automation and areas of job growth change. The era of being a ‘lifelong’ employee linked to one employer is a thing of the past – research suggests young people today are likely to have 17 jobs over five careers in their lifetime[2].

For many Victorians, these jobs will be in the community services industry – one of the State’s fastest growing industries. The drivers for this growth are increasing demand for social assistance (including new and emerging forms of community need) and structural reform (current and pending industry transformation and growth associated with Royal Commissions into family violence, mental health, disability and aged care, as well as the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme). Currently, workforce shortages are a significant issue – sub-sectors such as family violence, disability, aged care and early childhood education are often competing for the same talent. Victoria’s post-secondary education system needs to be adaptive and responsive to ensure we have the right workforce to deliver the promise of these reforms, and so that Victorians have the skills required to take advantage of these opportunities.

More broadly, for Victoria to have a world-class VET system, it will need to be nimble and flexible – able to accommodate significant shifts to align with the needs of priority industries (community services, and beyond) and the diverse needs of students.

This submission identifies key areas of change that will support a high-quality and agile VET system, including:

• Improvements to data capturing to enable timely and robust decision-making
• Less restrictive and more equitable funding structures to support innovation
• Greater access to subsidised courses to promote lifelong learning
• Wrap-around supports for students experiencing disadvantage
• A move towards capabilities and ‘complex skills’ over competency-based training
• Improved opportunities for on-the-job training.

Recommendations

High-quality, transparent data

• Ensure a comprehensive range of data insights are routinely collected and made available to stakeholders to support good and timely data-driven decision making

Create a nimble and flexible VET system

• Recognise the unique role of Learn Locals through appropriate funding and frameworks
• Fully fund Foundation Skills courses
• Create a compliance system that ensures quality but does not overburden VET providers
• Bridge the funding gap between the ‘volume of learning’ set by the Australian Qualifications Framework and the nominal hours the Victorian Government funds
• Bolster government funding to enable VET providers to develop and deliver courses that meet industry need in rural and regional areas
• Remove demand-driven funding and ensure VET providers have sufficient resources to support student retention

Increase opportunities for lifelong learning

• Remove restrictive eligibility criteria for government subsidised training, including the ‘two-course’ rules and the ‘upskilling’ rule
• Ensure micro-credentials are government subsidised
• Ensure micro-credentials can lead to pathways to full qualifications
• Remove dual enrolment eligibility restrictions for young people at school who want to do a VET course outside of VETiS, so they can access Skills First funding
• Provide secondary school teachers with greater opportunities to ensure their industry skills and knowledge are up-to-date
• Provide learners with clear and up-to-date information about career pathways and opportunities available through the VET system

Provide students experiencing disadvantage with tailored, wrap-around supports

• Immediately secure funding for the Skills First Reconnect program which is due to end in December 2020
• Give high-needs learners and people experiencing disadvantage access to bursaries or scholarships to pay for hidden costs and help afford the basics
• Boost retention by expanding programs that provide high-needs learners and people experiencing disadvantage with intensive support, including for literacy and numeracy, as well as access to a youth worker or support worker
• Create a Youth Jobs Plan

Give students the skills and capabilities industries and employees need

• Move away from competency-based training to focus on teaching students the capabilities they need
• Provide tailored and individualised support for young people in the justice system

Invest in industries that yield high jobs growth

• Systemically embed traineeships, apprenticeships and student placements in the VET system
• Invest in the capacity of priority industries – including the community services industry – to increase student placements, including scaling-up current examples of innovative practice
• Provide State Government wage subsidies for trainees, to create a pipeline of new workers in priority industries
• Enable industry advisory groups to leverage the best insights from sectors, by funding the participation of industry representatives

High-quality, transparent data

Recommendation

• Ensure a comprehensive range of data insights are routinely collected and made available to stakeholders to support good and timely data-driven decision making

This section of the submission responds to Terms of Reference 1.

Government policy makers, funders and regulators, industry representatives and VET providers need access to timely and high-quality data to understand the education and training needs of Victorians and to develop and implement the right system-level and institutional-level responses.

Research evidence and data can support industries to improve service delivery, outcomes for services users and harness innovative practice[3]. It also provides industry and government a mechanism to make informed decisions about how to address skills and capability gaps, and where to direct resources.

Students also need access to data to assist their decision-making – for example, students would benefit from data insights about high jobs growth industries and training options.

The Victorian Government currently places caps on commencements for specific courses, and has introduced caps on some Free TAFE offerings. Providing stakeholders with access to the data that underpins this decision-making would assist providers (for example) to understand these decisions and inform their organisational strategy and operational responses.

Investing in high quality data collection enables key stakeholders to better understand the impacts and any unintended consequences of policy decisions. For example, the impact current funding rates for Foundation Skills and Certificate I and II courses has on availability and offering of these courses, or, any consequences of the reduction in eligibility waivers for accessing Skills First funding.

Create an accessible, nimble and flexible VET system

An accessible system

Recommendation

• Recognise the unique role of Learn Locals through appropriate funding and frameworks
• Fully fund Foundation Skills courses

This section of the submission responds to Terms of Reference 4 and 7.

Current funding mechanisms enable government to use subsidies to control enrolments and influence student pathways into certain occupations and industries. While the vocational education and training system has a key role to play in preparing Victorians for work, there is a risk that, in principally focusing on vocational education and training as a means by which to build ‘human capital’ for industry, we minimise the inherent social value of vocational education and training. For many highly-disadvantaged learners, participating in vocational education and training also helps build social capital, which benefits not only the individual, but their community. This is why it is so important that the vocational education and training system is accessible.

Government subsidies play a key role in making the system accessible.

The Victorian Government’s Skills First program enables eligible students to gain access to government subsidised training. However, it has not delivered on the promise that “funding subsidies will reflect the real cost of qualifications”[4]. This can impact a VET providers’ ability to provide, or recover the costs of providing, additional or more intensive supports to students to support their retention and engagement. It can also impact provision of quality courses that assist students in gaining high level skills and knowledge.

For example, Learn Local providers, which have a significant focus on supporting disadvantaged learners and learner wellbeing, are often constrained by low subsidy rates for Foundation Skills, Certificate I and Certificate II courses.

Learn Locals offer pre-accredited and accredited training and provide community-based learning environments that can be more accessible for people who find larger institutions such as TAFEs overwhelming, or as a soft entry point into the education system. Local environments and smaller class sizes can help overcome barriers including for people with limited educational experience, those for whom English is not their first language, or those who have had poor experiences with education in the past.

This Review provides an opportunity to recognise Learn Locals’ unique value and social impact, and to ensure that system reforms address critical funding challenges for not-for-profit community-based providers.

An example of the challenges facing providers is the level of funding subsidy for Foundation Skills courses. Foundation Skills courses provide an important gateway for people who have left school early, without the requisite literacy or numeracy skills, or who are experiencing other forms of disadvantage, to learn fundamental skills that can set them up for further training or employment. At the same time, students build greater confidence and connection to their social environments and communities. There are also generational impacts: for example, by developing foundational language, literacy and numeracy skills, parents can, in turn, support their children with their language and literacy.

For many Foundations Skills students, flexible and tailored support is key to their engagement and success.

From a provider’s perspective, the hourly funding rate of just $7 per hour – a rate that has not changed in years – gives them less capacity to cover the additional resources it takes to intensively support struggling learners. Low government subsidies also impact providers’ ability to offer some Certificate I or Certificate II courses.

For some learners, the low government subsidies for Foundation Skills courses and some Certificate I and II courses put these opportunities out-of-reach, creating barriers to accessing higher-level training and employment participation.

As Victoria moves to a COVID-safe environment, the funding challenges are likely to be amplified. For some high-needs learners who have struggled in the online learning environment, there may be a need for increased face-to-face support in the recovery phase. Unless the hourly rate of funding is increased, providers’ ability to respond to those needs and sustain student engagement will be constrained.

A more flexible system

Recommendations

• Create a compliance system that ensures quality but does not overburden VET providers
• Bridge the funding gap between the ‘volume of learning’ set by the Australian Qualifications Framework and the nominal hours the Victorian Government funds
• Bolster government funding to enable VET providers to develop and deliver courses that meet industry need in rural and regional areas
• Remove demand-driven funding and ensure VET providers have sufficient resources to support student retention

This section of the submission addresses Terms of Reference 4, 5 and 7.

Current funding models are prohibitive and do not allow for sufficient flexibility to enable innovative practice and new vocational education models, or for courses to be responsive to industry need[5]. Key issues include:

• Significant funding is spent on meeting compliance and to pay for overheads, reducing the funding available for other resources including course development. This can be a significant issue for small Learn Local providers in delivering accredited training.

Compliance has an important role in ensuring a high-quality VET system and protecting students from being taken advantage of by ‘dodgy’ providers. However, a balance needs to be struck to ensure compliance is not so onerous and resource-intensive that it is prohibitive and prevents flexibility, responsiveness and innovation.

• There is a discrepancy between the ‘volume of learning’[6] the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) sets for qualification levels and the number of hours that the Victorian Government funds per course. For example, a Certificate III in Community Services requires between 1200 – 2400 hours as set by the AQF[7], but the Victorian Government only funds a maximum of 620 hours. This impacts course design and delivery.
• Demand-driven funding that ‘follows’ the student distorts the incentive and ability of VET providers to cater to ‘thin markets’, creating access and equity issues. This has a particularly significant, adverse impact on course offerings in rural and regional areas.

The Victorian Government funds the Regional and Specialist Training Fund (RSTF) (which is currently under evaluation[8]) to help VET providers to bridge the gap in the training market and meet the specific skills needs for particular regions. Despite this investment, VCOSS members report there are still gaps in available VET courses in rural and regional areas. Additionally, the courses offered don’t always reflect job opportunities in the region. This creates greater disparities in access and opportunities for people in rural and regional areas to train, reskill or upskill, and to access job opportunities in their local communities without having to relocate for training.

• Currently, as funding is attached to enrolments and drip-fed to VET providers throughout the duration of a course based on the student’s ongoing engagement, this means that:
• VET providers have an incentive to boost enrolments in popular courses, irrespective of whether there is industry demand for these skills and irrespective of whether there is a viable employment pathway for graduates.
• Some VET providers may not have the resources to provide wrap around supports that assist struggling students to overcome barriers to improve retention.
• Another challenge is that, because funding ‘follows’ the student, smaller providers do not have the same resources that larger providers can use to support students and drive up retention.

These constraints not only directly impact students’ ability to access the best courses for their needs, but impacts the ability of teachers to be responsive and innovative, and provide relevant, high-quality teaching.

Victoria’s VET system needs a new funding model that moves away from demand-driven funding and provides sufficient flexibility for VET courses and teachers to be responsive and ensure equitable access to a range of opportunities for all students, regardless of where they live.

Increase opportunities for lifelong learning

Recommendations

• Remove restrictive eligibility criteria for government subsidised training, including the ‘two-course’ rules and the ‘upskilling’ rule

This section of the submission will respond to Terms of Reference 4 and 7.

In order for the VET system to be truly responsive to the changing world of work and the growing reality that people are more likely than ever to change careers, restrictive eligibility criteria for access to Skills First funded training needs to be addressed.

Two-course rules

Students should be able to access affordable training options that best meet their needs, regardless of their circumstances.

Current eligibility criteria mean students can only:

• commence a maximum of two government-funded courses in a calendar year
• undertake a maximum of two government-funded courses at any one time
• commence a maximum of two government-funded courses at the same level in their lifetime.

These restrictions only factor course commencement, not completion. This is a problem in itself – if a student enrols in a government-subsidised VET course and attends one day before withdrawing, this counts as a course commencement.

In addition, students can only commence one Free TAFE course with the tuition fee waiver.

These rules create barriers to accessing training that disproportionately impact high-needs learners and people experiencing disadvantage. For example, experiences of homelessness, mental ill health, family violence, or changed caring responsibilities may impact a student’s ability to complete a course. This means some learners may ‘use up’ their two course commencement at one level in a lifetime, making access to government funded training and meaningful employment unachievable.

The rules also fail to respond to contemporary labour market needs. The two-course rule creates barriers to re-skilling or upskilling for Victorians who are seeking to re-enter the workforce and/or who are seeking to change careers, with a disproportionate impact on women who are returning to work after having children. These rules reduce economic participation and do not support lifelong learning.

Anecdotally, VCOSS members report students may also enrol in a full course to gain access to the government subsidy but with the intention of only obtaining a micro-credential within the qualification. The complex nature of the VET system means students are not always aware of the ‘two-course’ rule restrictions, or they may not fully understand the implications of using one subsidised course to complete a discreet unit.

Upskilling rule

Currently, students cannot access a subsidised training place to gain new skills and retrain if their nominated course does not lead to a ‘higher’ qualification. The exception to this rule is if a student can obtain an eligibility waiver.

Currently, eligibility waivers for TAFEs and Learn Locals are capped at 10 per cent of student enrolments per calendar year. This means only 10 per cent of enrolled students who commence a course (in contrast to completing a course) are able to access an eligibility waiver to gain a subsidised training place. This has recently been reduced from 20 per cent. Under this restriction, if a student drops out, TAFEs and Learn Locals are unable to offer a subsidised place to another student who requires an eligibility waiver.

Policy settings including the two-course rules and access to subsidised training, alongside a lack of awareness and representation of careers and training options obtained through the VET system, including in secondary schools, has led to a mismatch between skills obtained and jobs available. University pathways are often the ‘default’ post-secondary pathway for secondary school students[9].

There is a pressing need for not only better career information, but for eligibility criteria for subsidised training places to be flexible and accessible so Victorians can retrain and upskill at any point in their lives. This will be particularly relevant as Victoria transitions to a COVID-19 recovery phase and more Victorians decide to retrain as unemployment rates rise.

Upskilling also enables workers to gain specific skills and knowledge to support their existing work, or to transition between sectors. For example, a professional with a Bachelor of Psychology or Social Work may wish to undertake a Certificate IV in Alcohol and Other Drugs to gain specific knowledge and expertise to deepen their practice and provide specialised support.

‘Upskilling’ rules undermine the importance and value of VET qualifications. Policies that restrict learners from obtaining a government-subsidised training place for a VET course because they have an existing Bachelor degree from university structurally undermines the value of VET and perpetuates the problem of VET qualifications being seen as ‘lower’ qualifications or skills relative to those gained through university education.

These rules also create barriers to having a workforce that is adaptable and flexible and impacts workforce transitions, including into high job growth areas such as community services.

Recommendation

• Ensure micro-credentials are government subsidised
• Ensure micro-credentials can lead to pathways to full qualifications

This section of the submission will respond to Terms of Reference 2, 4 and 7.

Employers increasingly regard micro-credentials as an effective way to bridge skills gaps in the workforce[10]. While micro-credentials have the potential to help Victorians gain the right skills and capabilities and may improve access to reskilling and upskilling, any changes made need to ensure they do not undermine the integrity of VET qualifications and qualified workforces.

The role, intent and purpose of micro-credentials should be clearly defined and understood as a tool to support lifelong learning and support upskilling and workforce transition. VCOSS understands this work is currently underway as part of the VET Reform Roadmap[11].

Key aspects that should inform the role of micro-credentials that is currently taking place at the national level include:

• Ensuring the funding model is not prohibitive and does not disadvantage access for low-income learners (i.e. the costs are not pushed back onto students as many short courses or micro-credentials currently are)
• Ensuring micro-credentials do not undermine the professionalism of the community services sector, for example, by being used as an entry point into the sector without pathways to full qualifications.

In response to COVID-19, the Commonwealth Government has announced subsidised university short courses for priority areas[12], alongside new skill sets for the aged and disability sectors[13]. It is important that any crisis response to ensure vulnerable members of the community receive the care and support they deserve, does not set a precedent to forego full qualifications as the community moves into the COVID-recovery phase.

Full qualifications should remain the way skills and knowledge are developed[14], with micro-credentials providing a pathway for learners with existing skills to obtain discreet new skill-sets to support changing industry need.

Recommendation

• Remove dual enrolment eligibility restrictions for young people at school who want to do a VET course outside of VETiS, so they can access Skills First funding
• Provide secondary school teachers with greater opportunities to ensure their industry skills and knowledge are up-to-date

VCOSS highlighted key areas for reform between the secondary schooling and VET systems in our submission to the Review into Vocational and Applied Learning Pathways in Senior Secondary Schooling[15]. These include:

• dual enrolment constraints that prohibit enrolled secondary school students from enrolling in a government-subsidised VET course (unless part of VET delivered in school or a school-based apprenticeship or traineeship). This acts as a particular barrier for young people who may be experiencing disadvantage or be at risk of disengaging from school.
• some teachers have only completed a short professional development course in the VET Delivered in Secondary School subject they deliver, while others have extensive industry experience. This can impact the quality of the education young people receive.

Recommendation

• Provide learners with clear and up-to-date information about career pathways and opportunities available through the VET system

This section will respond to Terms of Reference 6.

The VET system is complex to understand and difficult to navigate. VCOSS members report challenges for students in secondary school and post-secondary school in understanding the range of career pathways, jobs and industries available to them.

To improve pathways and connections between educational institutions and providers, information needs to be accessible, easy to navigate, and well promoted. The Victorian Skills Gateway has some important foundational information to help guide students and prospective students about course options and career pathways, however, it is underutilised, has a number of inaccuracies and does not appear to be widely known.

A comprehensive and up-to-date website would make it easier for students, families and carers, and career practitioners to understand the VET system and how it interacts with other education and training pathways, as well as career opportunities. It should include comprehensive pathways that individual courses or units can lead to, ways to transition to and from educational institutions to gain the skills students need, what these different institutions are and the role they play within the education and training eco-system, and show aspirational career pathways that a qualification can lead to. This should include a platform to showcase the achievements and success stories of individuals from a range of industries, highlighting the varying pathways taken – stepping as far back as the opportunities of undertaking VCAL or VET in secondary school.

Clearer information about career pathways and opportunities through the VET system also need to be communicated and promoted in secondary schools so young people can align their strengths and interests with opportunities that sit beyond university education.

Provide students experiencing disadvantage with tailored, wrap-around supports

recommendations

• Immediately secure funding for the Skills First Reconnect program which is due to end in December 2020
• Give high-needs learners and people experiencing disadvantage access to bursaries or scholarships to pay for hidden costs and help afford the basics
• Boost retention by expanding programs that provide high-needs learners and people experiencing disadvantage with intensive support, including for literacy and numeracy as well as access to a youth worker or support worker

This section will respond to Terms of Reference 2.

To create an inclusive and thriving society and to meet the skills and capability needs of industries, employers, government and the community, Victorian industries need diverse workforces that reflect the community.

Everyone benefits from diversity and inclusion in the workplace[16], however, there are some cohorts who experience a range of barriers in accessing and engaging in the education and training needed to find meaningful employment.

VET is an important pathway to employment for people experiencing structural disadvantage. These cohorts include people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with disability, people with lived experience (for example, of mental ill health or family violence), who live in rural and regional areas and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Their experience of disadvantage may create barriers to finishing their studies[17] and students may require extra support to improve retention and course completion. Financial aid and personalised support makes a difference[18]. Examples of personalised support that reduce barriers include dedicated mentoring, intensive literacy and numeracy support, assessment adjustments, counselling or warm referrals to a range of social services (such as family violence or housing and homelessness agencies)[19].

Reasonable adjustments, including adjustments to assessments and course material, are particularly important for students with disability to ensure they are able to participate and engage in their education on the same basis as their peers.

A range of initiatives should be considered to remove barriers to participation and support course completion. These could include bursaries or scholarships to financially support students to cover hidden costs and to support those who can’t afford the basics.

The Victorian government initiative ‘Skills First Reconnect’ program is vital in supporting high-needs learners and individuals who are long-term unemployed to reengage with education and training[20]. However, VCOSS understands funding for this program is due to finish at the end of 2020. Given the time it takes to engage with eligible participants, VCOSS members report some Reconnect providers are not taking on new referrals after the end of June 2020. Skills First Reconnect forms a vital connection with another Victorian Government initiative, the Navigator program. This program is designed to provide intensive case management to reengage young people aged 12 to 17 back into education. As Navigator is oversubscribed and subject to long-wait lists, young people that may otherwise fall through the cracks are picked up through Skills First Reconnect. While Skills First Reconnect services the community from ages 17 to 64, VCOSS members report young people particularly benefit.

In the context of COVID-19, programs like Skills First Reconnect need a funding boost more than ever, as well as funding security moving forward, to ensure disadvantaged and high-needs learners get the support they need to reconnect with education and training pathways.

Future Social Service Institute approach

The Future Social Service Institute (FSSI) is a partnership between VCOSS and RMIT University, supported by the Victorian Government. FSSI drives innovation in education, training and applied research to enable the growth and transformation of the social services sector.

Some of the ways it does this include:

• Developing and piloting new educational approaches, training and workforce development models, and improved pathways
• Developing, testing and evaluating models to improve students’ experience of learning, including improved retention
• Developing innovative new curriculum products to strengthen service provision.

An example relevant to the Victorian Government’s review into Skills for Victoria’s Growing Economy is the Certificate III in Individual Support that FSSI is currently delivering

These courses incorporate wrap around support that provides holistic and effective support for disadvantaged members of the community. The model is based on building on the capabilities of people and communities rather than a punitive welfare model, by providing up-front investment that leads to positive longer-term outcomes in supporting people into a career and increasing workforce participation. For many of these students, whose backgrounds vary across age and cultural backgrounds, they may not have completed or engaged in their studies without a reinvestment model that provides the supports they need to thrive.

Key elements that lead to effective support and positive long-term outcomes include:

• Collaboration between key stakeholders that support the wellbeing of students and their engagement in the course, including VET providers and teachers, wellbeing supports, and a supporting organisation who acts as the ‘backbone’ and navigates the ‘joining up’ piece in collaboration. This organisation needs to have trust and credibility
• Building additional resources into the model to be responsive to a particular student’s or cohort’s needs
• For example, not every student may need literacy and numeracy support, however, for those who do, it will be a vital part of their success in completing the course. Integrating additional resources for this kind of support within a substantive qualification rather than redirecting every student to a Foundation Skills course can improve retention and provide an extra draw-card for students as the qualification leads to clear employment pathways
• A financial support fund to assist students in overcoming additional barriers throughout the course, such as covering the cost of travel, or providing a digital device, is another example of integrating additional resources to be responsive to student’s needs
• Provision of a support worker, youth worker, or life coach, to support students, maintain their engagement in study, and to help navigate complex parts of the system including enrolment and student placements or traineeships
• Curriculum co-design to take a person-centred approach and to facilitate rich discussion and development of ‘complex’ skills. For example, creating new units or modules that use videos as a discussion prompt that enables students to focus on the ethics and human rights implications of their studies. This can be particularly important in the community services sector.

This kind of model can significantly improve retention rates. For it to be successful, it needs to be appropriately resourced, including for coordination, and additional funding for VET providers and teachers who provide significant support beyond their paid hours.

Community Traineeship Pilot Program

The Community Traineeship Pilot Program managed by VCOSS and funded through Jobs Victoria supports young people experiencing barriers to labour market participation to undertake a community services qualification, while supporting community service organisations to host traineeships and meet their future workforce needs[21].

Both trainees and employers are provided with support through a Local Partner Organisation (LPO), which employs a youth worker and works directly with trainees to keep them engaged in the program[22]. The role of the youth worker is vitally important in supporting the trainees to navigate and overcome challenges that arise during their placement – for example, mental ill health, family violence or homelessness. Youth workers attend the TAFE classes with trainees, and are also available to support employers and workplace supervisors to navigate any difficult conversations with trainees, for example, not arriving to work on time.

In addition, LPOs manage a Flexible Wrap Around Support fund that can be used to reduce barriers to engagement. This fund has been used to pay for things such as a myki top-up or money for petrol to get to work through to emergency accommodation or groceries.

This traineeship model is designed to foster collaboration between a range of key stakeholders to make sure the young people don’t fall through the cracks. These key stakeholders include employers, LPOs, youth workers, VET providers and teachers, and the trainees, who are all working together. At the same time, this model has a strong focus on peer support by bringing the trainees together and helping them connect, for example by placing the trainees in classes run specifically for them.

There is immense and long-lasting value in undertaking a holistic approach to support young people out of disadvantage and into meaningful career pathways by providing up front resources (both human and financial). The long-term costs of not providing this support and not ‘catching’ young people who may have disengaged from education and training or are experiencing long-term unemployment, can have significant and long-lasting social as well as economic impacts[23]. In other words, the cost of not providing this support is much too high.

Community Traineeship Pilot Program concept map demonstrating how key stakeholders interact

The national rate for traineeship retention is approximately 50 per cent[24]. The Community Traineeship Pilot Program saw a retention rate of 80 per cent for the first cohort, with more than 50 per cent gaining further employment with their employer post traineeship completion.

Early learnings from the program indicate not only high rates of retention but increased levels in the resilience of the young people who participated in the program, as well as higher levels of independence in proactively seeking support, and positive and empowering changes to their identify. The Future Social Services Institute continues to undertake the developmental evaluation component of this program.

Future considerations for this model include providing additional funding to VET providers to resource the additional collaborative aspects of the program. With adequate funding for VET providers, this model can be place-based by supporting young people to undertake training with a VET provider in their local area.

Recommendation

• Create a Youth Jobs Plan

Youth unemployment is stubbornly high and already high levels of unemployment and under-employment are likely to be exacerbated, with young people are being disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic[25].

To support a renewed VET system, the Victorian Government can create a Youth Jobs Plan to support young people facing increasingly precarious employment opportunities. Co-designed with young people and their communities, this plan can bring together government, educators, jobseeker supports and employers to reduce Victoria’s high youth unemployment rate. A Youth Jobs Plan could support existing frameworks such as the recently released Youth Justice Strategic Plan that calls for young people in Youth Justice to be linked in with mentoring and training as well as support to increase job readiness[26].

A Youth Jobs Plan can leverage the historical work of Local Learning and Employment Networks (LLENs) in providing brokerage and innovation to help disadvantaged young people successfully navigate into a career. For instance, LLENs bring together employers, school, training providers and community services to strengthen young people’s education, training and employment outcomes. LLENs, who now primarily facilitate Structured Workplace Learning for secondary school students, have a proven track record of supporting their community with place-based solutions to catch young people who may otherwise fall through the cracks. However, to facilitate this work, LLENs would need to be provided with the resourcing to effectively support young people under a Youth Jobs Plan.

Give students the skills and capabilities industries and employees need

Recommendation

• Move away from competency-based-training to focus on teaching students the capabilities they need

This section will respond to Terms of Reference 2 and 5.

The VET system needs to be equipped to prepare people of all ages for the changing world of work, including those in transitioning industries and people seeking to upskill, beyond specific skills designed for a specific task. This will require a significant shift from competency-based training towards capabilities. These changes will support the VET system to meet the needs of industry, employers, government and the community into the future. They will also support teachers to better prepare job-ready graduates.

There is growing agreement that capabilities such as the ability to respond to opportunities and problems creatively and experimentally are vital for the future world of work[27], and change needs to start taking place in schools as well as further education and training systems. These skills, sometimes called ‘soft skills’ but here referred to as ‘complex skills’, are hard to learn and hard to teach – however, they are vital to creating a nimble and flexible workforce that will be able to adapt to changing workforce need[28].

Competency-based training can minimise the importance of ‘complex skills’, and course design, funding and broader compliance issues restrict the ability of VET teachers to be innovative as they do not allow teachers the time to teach students these more complex capabilities.

Competency-based training can also miss the broader educational benefits of undertaking further training beyond job-readiness and employment outcomes[29]. For example, a student may wish to undertake a foundation level course that will not lead to an employment outcome, but which will improve their language and communication skills. This can in turn help parents assist their children with learning, creating significant flow-on effects, and foster greater social and community connectedness.

Provide people in youth justice centres with meaningful education

Recommendation

• Provide tailored and individualised support for young people in the justice system

Education is a key mitigating factor to poor life-outcomes and long-term unemployment[30]. There is a disproportionate representation of young people in the juvenile justice system who were suspended or expelled from school, and the majority of people in the criminal justice system have not finished school[31].

Many young people in youth justice centres have experienced high rates of abuse and trauma, and there are high rates of intellectual disability in the youth justice cohort[32]. These young people often need tailored responses to their learning needs. This should include environments that reflect similar learning needs and support to ascertain the level and abilities of each young person so they get the support they need to learn.

VCOSS members report education offerings for young people in youth justice centres, including those undertaking the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning, is often constrained by security or resourcing decisions. While these are important considerations, young people in youth justice centres, including those on remand, need to feel safe and appropriately supported to engage in education.

VCOSS members also report young people in justice centres need access to more hands-on applied learning opportunities, generally undertaken through the VET system, to improve their skills and opportunities for when they exit the system. There is also evidence that this is a meaningful and proven approach for older people in the justice system[33].

Invest in industries that yield high jobs growth

Recommendation

• Systemically embed traineeships, apprenticeships and student placements in the VET system

This section will respond to Terms of Reference 3.

The deep and ongoing connection between the VET system and industry is critical to ensuring vocational education and training is able to equip learners with the vital skills and capabilities required to meet areas of high job growth.

This Review is an opportunity to recast the way in which connections are made between schools, students (both secondary school and VET) and employers.

The value of on-the-job training is significant. It can be an effective way to teach and to learn, can lead to better alignment with the skills sought after in the workplace or industry, and gives students the opportunity to obtain an understanding of the workplace[34].

Internationally, countries such as Germany and Switzerland have dual-track training systems in secondary schools that embed traineeships and student placements within large employers. Students undertake “in-company training” for three to four days per week alongside school education. Training undertaken in a company teaches students specific profession-related skills, which is supplemented by several weeks of training from broader industry bodies to fill any gaps in the specialised training, while studying the essentials (such as literacy and numeracy) at school[35]. This helps meet skills demand while matching careers with student capabilities and interests.

There are key elements of these models that could be adopted in Victoria to strengthen the partnerships between education settings and industry, taking place both at a secondary school level and within the VET system for post-secondary students.

The VET system in Australia consults with industry, such as the Victorian Skills Commissioner, however, there are ongoing concerns that the VET system can be slow to respond to industry need. There are also concerns that there is a deficit in the diversity of representation of industry in consultations that shape training products, which can at times lead to courses allocating vital subjects as electives rather than core subjects. VCOSS members report many organisations do not have the resources to invest in the time needed to meaningfully engage in an ongoing way.

Systemically embedding traineeships, apprenticeships and student placements in the VET system could motivate employers to take a more active role in supporting the training of their potential future workforce. At the same time, structural change would address existing challenges for students in finding suitable placements to complete their qualifications. It would also motivate more employers and industry to have a stake in ensuring courses are up-to-date and relevant to industry need to support the relevance of the on the job training they are providing to students.

This model would enable students to earn a wage while studying, which means many students can finish their qualification with no debt, have money in their pocket, and be in high demand for their skills. This could be an appealing and motivating factor for young people pursuing this pathway in secondary school, and uplift the reputation and appeal of the VET system more broadly. Added benefits include breaking down financial barriers to studying, including those who may be seeking to retrain, and supporting business with capable trainees and apprentices.

VET providers would also need to be funded to deliver on these changes by updating course design.

Recommendations

• Invest in the capacity of priority industries – including the community services industry – to increase student placements, including scaling-up current examples of innovative practice
• Provide State Government wage subsidies for trainees, to create a pipeline of new workers in high jobs growth industries
• Enable industry advisory groups to leverage the best insights from sectors, by funding the participation of industry representatives

This section will respond to Terms of Reference 3.

The community services industry is not only a large employer in Victoria, but is one of the state’s fastest growing industries. With a range of social policy reforms including the roll out of universal three-year-old kinder, family violence, mental health, aged care and NDIS reforms, the community services industry will require a steady flow of job-ready graduates to meet workforce and community demand for vital services[36].

Student placements and traineeships are an integral part of ensuring students gain the appropriate skills and knowledge to be job-ready. There is growth across the education sector from senior secondary schools, to universities, and VET providers, to provide students with an opportunity to undertake some form of student placement. For the community services industry, this is also being fuelled by the Victorian Government’s Free TAFE initiative.

The community services industry is predominantly publicly funded[37] and, in this way, differs from other industries. Supporting students to engage in placements, traineeships or apprenticeships takes time and costs money. Private sectors who have additional resources obtained through selling their services are more likely to have the capacity to invest in the extra staff and supervision training it takes to support traineeships, apprenticeships or student placements. VCOSS members report many community service organisations face staff shortages and have limited capacity to accommodate student placements due to limited resources. This is further compounded by high-demand for services and short-term or inadequate funding which contributes to high staff turn-over.

To create workforce growth and maintain and enhance workforce quality, the community services industry needs government investment to support a pipeline of workers with a wide range of skills. Government investment is needed to support the sector to ensure appropriate quality and safeguarding – for example, ensuring services commissioned by government are funded such that there are adequate positions for supervision and investment in the professional development of the workforce (for example, supervision training).

Wage subsidies also play an important role in supporting community service organisations to take on trainees. However, current subsidies or incentives at the Commonwealth level are insufficient to support community sector organisations to meet the costs of a traineeship wage. The Community Traineeship Pilot Program funded by Jobs Victoria, provides $3425 upfront to an employer when they employ a trainee. This, in combination with Commonwealth subsidies makes a more realistic contribution to meeting the costs of employing and supporting a trainee. These subsidies have often been a deciding factor in whether or not an organisation has been able to commit to taking on a trainee in this program.

The Victorian government should work alongside the Commonwealth government to consider their joint role in ensuring community sector organisations have access to genuine wage subsidies to help grow a pipeline of workers.

COVID-19 has proven the VET sector can respond rapidly to address an identified skill need[38], however, organisations need the time and resources to contribute during and beyond times of pandemic. Resourcing constrains the capacity of smaller and mid-size community sector organisations to participate in relevant industry stakeholder groups that provide input into national training packages. This can have significant consequences for the formation and relevance of qualifications, including whether or not vital subjects are listed as ‘core’ parts of a qualification, and whether or not qualifications are ‘fit-for-purpose’ for smaller organisations. The government should fund a diverse range of community services organisations (of varying sizes and which cater to key cohorts) within each sub-sector to release appropriate staff (including frontline staff) to attend industry consultations.

Programs such as Enhanced Pathways to Family Violence Work project, and pilots like the new Higher Apprenticeships Pilot Project that supports the social services sector workforce to increase leadership and management capacity and capability[39] will be important in supporting the growing community sector.

Enhanced Pathways to Family Violence Work project

Enhanced Pathways to Family Violence Work project[40], now in its third year, acknowledges the importance of addressing workforce supply challenges and supporting organisations with funding, training and other resources to build the pipeline of workers needed[41].

Enhanced Pathways to Family Violence Work is a project funded by Family Safety Victoria and is designed to:

• Strengthen pathways for new workers into the specialist family violence and community services sector
• Build capabilities of students and graduates to be more “work-ready”[42].

In 2019, VCOSS invited Expressions of Interest for community service organisations on behalf of DHHS and Family Safety Victoria (FSV) as part of Stage 2 of the project. Successful participating organisations received a range of supports to build their organisation’s capacity and capability to support student placements and contribute to a pipeline of future workers. To facilitate this, organisations received:

• a funding support package to contribute to the costs associated with participating in the project (which could include costs associated with staff training and backfill)
• dedicated support from a project Capability Building Coordinator who:
  • assists organisations to build their capacity to provide student placements (including use of a web-based administration system to support placement management)
  • supports organisations to develop formal partnerships with education providers (VET and universities)
  • works with staff and training providers to ensure all identified staff attend training to build their capacity in supervision and increase their understanding of family violence practice. This can include identifying any additional training options where relevant
  • supports supervisors to build their supervision capability and understanding of family violence practice through facilitation of a Community of Practice
  • fosters a workplace culture of learning by supporting the organisation’s implementation of the Best Practice Clinical Learning Environment Framework and relevant tools
  • introduces and supports the implementation of the ‘Orientation to Family Violence Practice Guidelines’.[43]

Government could adapt and scale-up this model to support other growing community services industries.

[1] L Wheelahan, G Moodie, E Lavigne & F Samji, Case study of TAFE and public vocational education in Australia: preliminary report, Education International Research, October 2018, p. 13

[2] Foundation for Young Australians, The New Work Order, 2015.

[3] VCOSS, 10 Year Community Services industry Plan, August 2018.

[4] Victorian Department of Education and Training, Skills First: Real training for real jobs, The Education State, August 2016, p.5.

[5] A Jones, Vocational education for the twenty-first century, University of Melbourne, August 2018.

[6] Australian Qualifications Framework Council, Volume of Learning: An Explanation, May 2014.

[7] “The volume of learning allocated to a qualification should include all teaching, learning and assessment activities that re required to be undertaken by the typical student to achieve the learning outcomes.” Australian Qualifications Framework Council, Volume of Learning: An Explanation, May 2014, p.1.

[8] Victorian Department of Education and Training, Regional and Specialist Training Fund, <https://www.education.vic.gov.au/training/providers/funding/Pages/rst.aspx>, accessed 26 May 2020.

[9] Youth Action, A NSW for Young People: Beyond 2019, 2019.

[10] NCVER, Focus on Micro-credentials, December 2018, <https://www.voced.edu.au/focus-micro-credentials>, accessed 28 May 2020.

[11] Australia Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment, VET Reform Roadmap, <https://www.employment.gov.au/vet-reform-roadmap>, accessed 27 May 2020.

[12] Federal Minister for Education, ‘Short courses providing new skills to Australians’, Media release, 14 May 2020.

[13] Federal Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business & Federal Assistant Minister for Vocational Education, Training and Apprenticeships, ‘New skill sets to support aged and disability sectors’, Media release, 21 May 2020.

[14] Business Council of Australia, Future-proof: Australia’s future post-secondary education and skills system, August 2018, p.39.

[15] VCOSS, An aspirational Vocational and Applied Learning System, April 2020.

[16] Deloitte Access Economics, The economic benefits of improving social inclusions, a report commissioned by SBS, August 2019.

[17] NCVER, VET Qualification completion rates 2017, August 2019.

[18] Future Social Service Institute, Submission to Joint Standing Committee on National Disability Insurance Scheme – Market Readiness, 8 March 2018.

[19] Youth Action – Uniting – Mission Australia, Vocational Education and Training in NSW: Report into access and outcomes for young people experiencing disadvantage – Joint report, February 2018.

[20] Victorian Department of Education and Training, Skills First Reconnect program, <https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/Pages/reconnect-program.aspx>, accessed 26 May 2020.

[21] VCOSS, Unlimited Potential. CTPP Employer VET Flyer, viewed at https://vcoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/CTPP-Employer-VET-Flyer-Web-Upload.pdf

[22] For more information about the program structure and funding incentives, see VCOSS, Jobs Victoria Community Traineeship Pilot Program: Expressions of Interest for Host Organisations Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) viewed at https://vcoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/v2-FAQ-Document-for-EOIs.pdf

[23] A Powell, F Salignac, A Meltzer, K Muir & M Weier, Background report on young people’s economic engagement, Report for Macquarie Group Foundation, Centre for Social Impact, February 2018.

[24] NCVER, VET Qualification completion rates 2017, August 2019.

[25] S Dimov, T King, M Shields & A Kavanagh, ‘The young Australians hit hard during COVID-19’, Pursuit, University of Melbourne, 25 May 2020.

[26] Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety, Youth Justice Strategic Plan 2020-2030, May 2020.

[27] Deloitte Access Economics, Soft skills for business success, DeakinCo., 2017.

[28] OECD, Future of Work and Skills, Paper presented at the 2^nd Meeting of the G20 Employment Working Group, 15-17 February 2017.

[29] S Hodge, The problematic role of CBT in Australian VET, University of Melbourne, August 2018.

[30] KJ Hancock & SR Zubrick, Children and young people disengaged from school, University of Western Australia, June 2015 (updated October 2015), p.5.

[31] J Watterson & M O’Connell, Those who disappear: The Australian education problem nobody wants to talk about, University of Melbourne, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Report No. 1, 2019.

[32] J White, K Te Riele, T Corcoran, A Baker, P Moylan R Abdul Manan, Improving educational connection for young people in custody, Final Report, Victoria University, University of Tasmania, Deakin University, June 2019.

[33] B Collins, ‘Prison education program helps Kimberley inmates learn how they can get out and stay out’, ABC Kimberley, 31 May 2020.

[34] Deloitte Insights, ‘The path to prosperity. Why the future of work is human’, Building the Lucky Country #7, 2019.

[35] M Bax, ‘How does dual training work?’, Bildungs Perten Netzwerk, <https://www.bildungsxperten.net/wissen/wie-funktioniert-eine-duale-ausbildung/>, accessed 6 April 2020.

[36] VCOSS, 10 Year Community Services industry Plan, August 2018.

[37] N Cortis & M Blaxland, The profile and pulse of the sector: Findings from the 2019 Australian Community Sector Survey, ACOSS, 2020.

[38] Federal Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, ‘Fast tracking the upskilling of Australian workers on Covid-19 safety’, Media release, 4 May 2020.

[39] Future Social Service Institute, Higher Apprenticeships Pilot Project, <https://www.futuresocial.org/higher-apprenticeships-pilot-project/>, accessed 31 May 2020.

[40] Importantly, community service organisations partnered with the government to build, design and implement this project, ensuring it had ‘buy-in’ from the sector and that is was fit-for-purpose. For example, Stage 1 of the Enhanced Pathways to Family Violence project was led by DHHS on behalf of Family Safety Victoria (FSV), in partnerships with VCOSS, Domestic Violence Victoria, Domestic Violence Resource Centre and the Future Social Services Institute. VCOSS invited Expressions of Interest for community service organisations on behalf of DHHS and FSV in Stage 2 of the project.

[41] Family Safety Victoria, Building from strength: 10 year industry plan for family violence prevention response, Government of Victoria, 2017.

[42] VCOSS, Enhanced Pathways to Family Violence Work Project, <https://vcoss.org.au/sector-hub/key-projects/enhanced-pathways-to-family-violence-work-project/>, accessed 24 May 2020.

[43] VCOSS, Expressions of Interest for prospective participating organisations: ‘Enhanced Pathways to Family Violence Work’ – Stage 2, <https://vcoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/FINAL-WEBSITE-UPLOAD-EPFV-stage-2-EOI-INFO-PACK.pdf>, accessed 24 May 2020, p.6.

On July 2nd 2020, VCOSS and the Department of Health and Human Services convened the fourth COVID-19 Digital Forum to guide the community sector’s ongoing response to the coronavirus pandemic.

You can view the past forums here.

Our panelists were:

• Ben Rimmer (DHHS Associate Secretary, Deputy Secretary Housing)
• Tammy Dinh (COVID-19 Public Health Incident Management Team)
• Natalia Aulia
• Professor John Catford (Public Health Specialist Adviser, COVID-19 Pandemic Response)
• Eleri Butler (CEO, Family Safety Victoria)
• Sherri Bruinhout (Director, DHHS Housing Pathways and Outcomes)

Transcript

Emma King:    Good afternoon. My name is Emma King. I’m the CEO of the Victorian Council of Social Service. And I’m really pleased to welcome you to this afternoon’s VCOSS DHHS’ COVID-19 seminar.

I would like to recognise the traditional owners of the land that I’m on today and the traditional owners of the land across Victoria.

Since our last webinars just a month ago, the situation has changed significantly. We’ve had more confirmed cases and we now have a number of suburbs that are in lockdown. We know that this is really tough for so many in our community, in particular, for those people who are high risk, and for those who are unable or find it difficult to isolate. And for those who are facing further heats to their income.

Community sector organisations are again vital. They’re vital for the support that they provide and the connection that they provide for people in our community. So it is very timely that we have with us today, Tammy Dinh and Natalia Aulia from the Public Health team to talk through what this means for the community sector organisations and the people who use our services.

So I might throw it over to whichever of you would like to start, but perhaps just to begin with, can you talk to us about what the current advice is and what you would like people to know? I’ll hand it over to either of you, Tammy or Natalia whichever you would like to start.

Tammy Dinh:     Hi, thanks for having us here this afternoon. So we appreciate it’s a very difficult time for everyone. And the current public health advice in particular to community services is that those residing in restricted postcodes, the community facilities and services can still operate. If you’re hosting it for a public support service, like a food bank or hosting essential support group, and community halls can open for weddings for five to 10 people respectively in line with the new restrictions. However, all the other community facilities must remain closed, and these include so the libraries, the toy centers, the youth centers, and community halls where it’s not used for any other purpose.

So for the community service stuff, when you’re working from where you can, we encourage working from home video conferencing where possible, and we understand that some services are face-to-face. So in these situations, if you’re continuing to operate, just remember the safeguards that we’ve previously advised to you in terms of maintaining good hygiene, physical distancing of at least 1.5 meters from others. And following the density equation when you’re operating in enclosed spaces of no more than 20 people, or the four square meter rule.

Emma King:    Thanks very much, Natalia. I think and also what advice would you give to community sector organizations that have people traveling in and out of the hotspot? So that’s obviously a really, we know we’ve seen a number of changes, they’re just over the last couple of days, and with the changes coming to effect midnight, last night, do you have advice specifically for people who’ve got staff traveling in and out of the hotspots?

Tammy Dinh:     Yeah, so if you could, in your restricted postcode, when you’re outside a postcode is actually only permitted for one or four reasons. So those are just as a reminder for food, study and work, for shopping for food and supplies, for care and caregiving and exercise. And if you can work from home, you should work from home.

So where possible, the community service organisations should really encourage staff to limit traveling in and out of the hotspots.

If you do need to travel through these restricted postcodes you can, but just plan your trip so that you don’t need to stop in those areas unless it is for one of those four reasons. So see if you can make some amendments to logistical plans that you make so that you can avoid where possible those restricted postcodes.

And so entering into a restricted postcode sort of maintaining all of those safeguards and protocols and screening staff and clients that you currently have to continue to do so to monitor symptoms. And what I mentioned before about hygiene, safe physical distancing from others, and making sure you use the good cough etiquette as well.

Emma King:    Thank you for that. And in terms of community service… staff and community service organisations that are working within hotspots, does the Department of Health, DHHS recommend that they should be wearing mask?

Tammy Dinh:     So at this point in time, we haven’t pushed a formal recommendation for any staff or the general public to wear masks. However, if individuals choose to do so, then they can. I know what we’re saying is that if organisations can support that as best as possible and that will be okay. But it’s really key to remember that masks is just one line of defence against, and as results were showing, it’s more of a protective mechanism for when you’re unwell so that you don’t cough on others, but when you’re in the healthy community, we’re not seeing much of the sort of evidence of that protective, and we’re starting to save more now as more evidence comes through. So what we wanna encourage you, if you are wearing masks that you also make sure that you don’t forget those other things like good hand hygiene and maintaining physical distancing. So wearing a mask does not automatically allow you to stand closer to somebody else. There’s just a few things that you need to be really careful about when you’re wearing a mask. And all of those are the things that we’ve encouraged so far in this COVID period remained just as important.

Emma King:    Thanks, Tammy. And I guess just to extend that conversation, and I’m not sure whether yourself or Natalia wants to answer, but in terms of things, I know there’s lots of mixed communications more broadly across the community about what does that mean if you’re taking public transport, what does it mean if you’re going into the supermarket, for example, is it the same advice that you’ve just given there, if you’re just going out to do your shopping, or is it sort of particular advice? I know we’re seeing more and more people who are wearing masks at the moment. So any kind of general advice that you have on that front as well?

Tammy Dinh:     Yeah, so the masks debate is always in serious consideration. Particularly when we’re seeing more cases in Victoria. So we’re not saying that we will not make a recommendation to not wear last on an ongoing period. It is a sort of a constantly changing situation we’re facing here. So that might be something that we will definitely communicate. So in terms of public transport and shopping at this point in time, if you choose to wear mask, you can do so, but you don’t need to. But when you’re out in the supermarket, when you’re on public transport, where possible to maintain that 1.5 meter distance from somebody, yeah.

Emma King:    Thank you. In terms of, one of the answers I’ve heard from a number of different member organisations of ours comes to issues around tasting. So it’s around, if someone takes a test and they’re waiting for results, we know that they should isolate while they’re waiting. Can you talk to us a bit about what happens with immediate family members? So if you’re waiting on a test that your household, you’re well at the time, if you’re an immediate family member there’s someone who’s had a test, but you haven’t, can I go to work or can I go to school for example, what advice is the health office giving around these?

Tammy Dinh:     Natalia do you wanna?

Natalia Aulia:     Yeah, so people that have been in contact with a suspected case of COVID-19, they don’t need to isolate or seek testing unless they’re directed to by the department’s case and contact team. I guess so that means for family members, immediate family members in the same household, you can go to work and you can go to school. But I guess these people doesn’t mean that they’re out of the woods. They should continue to monitor for symptoms even if mild and seek testing if they’re concerned.

But on the other hand, if people who have symptoms again, even if they’re mild, they should stay at home. If unwell and await test results.

But there may be other situations where I guess as part of the the testing blitz that people that’s happening throughout our suburbs at the moment that if they don’t have symptoms, they don’t have to stay at home until they get their results. So there’s I guess, a few different scenarios, which this all can apply.

Emma King:    And I know we’ve had questions from employers as well about saying, look, if we’ve got a staff member who’s gone and they’ve been tested, whether they’ve been symptomatic or asymptomatic, what does that mean in terms of, for themselves and for their immediate family members as well? In particular, we’ve had questions around saying, well, my employee has been tested, they don’t have symptoms, but they’re in for example, a hotspot so they’ve decided to get tested. They know that they don’t come to work until I get the results back. So the same advice still applies in terms of family members, et cetera, as well in that scenario?

Natalia Aulia:     Yeah, I’d say so. And I think for employers I think it’s always a good thing to remember around our communication to other employees and around if there was a suspected case or hopefully not a confirmed case but if there’s not then, yeah, encourage that ongoing communication with employees and employees.

Emma King:    So just to be really clear, ’cause this is one we’ve had lots of questions about, so if you’ve got a family member who’s tested, they’re waiting for the results as an immediate family member, you’re not required to stay at home. You can go to work, et cetera, but of course, if you can work from home, that’s what you would do, et cetera as well, but you are actually able to go to work so that’s probably a conversation they need to have within the workplace. If your employer then would prefer that you stay home until you get your test results, is that correct? Thank you again.

Tammy Dinh:     And if your are in a restricted postcode. If you can work from home, you should be working from home. And if you have any symptoms, however mild, stay home.

Emma King:    Thank you. In terms of I guess another set of advice we’ve received from employers is they want some clarification around, would you advise separating staff who’ve operated in hotspots from those that haven’t entered those particular postcodes or priority postcodes or hotspots?

Natalia Aulia:     Yes, I guess it depends on the organisation, and if the business model allows it to me, that sounds like a completely sensible idea to separate you two with your employees who have been in hotspots and employees that have not. So yeah, the idea for examples, you can have team A and then team B. But we completely understand that that may not entirely be possible for all organisations.

Emma King:    Thank you. And just one last question for the two of you for Tammy and Natalia. In terms of, has any particular consideration being given to people with disability in our community? And I guess I’m thinking about any material that can be distributed, that’s particularly sensitive to people who may have disabilities in relation to testing in regard to COVID or to COVID more generally as well. And I guess, any general information or advice that you have.

Tammy Dinh:     Yeah, yes, we’re definitely… there is a strong sort of interest in our public health team regarding this and the public health team we touch base prior to this meeting are really keen full community services to reach out to us and kind of give us a little bit of a pointers and in helping with messaging. We understand at the moment there isn’t that much out there. But we are definitely opening up this opportunity and would appreciate it any support from you, from the community services group to help us kind of streamline our messaging.

I’ve got a key contact, who would be happy to talk to anyone so please feel free to reach out with us but most about usual comms channels is through our website, which we understand has some disability issues as well.

Emma King:    Thank you for that. And if you’re able to share that key contact with us, we’ll put that up on VCOSS website and look at making sure that we share it through our channels and also making sure that we keep that live as well. Cause I know there’s a number of organisations that work with people who have disability for whom this has been a really key question as well.

So can I just say a big thank you Tammy and Natalia for stepping in today. We really appreciate it and as you would appreciate as well, there are so many people who’ve got every question, every decision they make is based on that health information first and foremost, and then the decisions are made from that point.

Can I also just say a huge, thank you. I know that you are working day and night for the benefit of Victoria. We appreciate it enormously and really appreciate the time that you’ve been able to give to us today. But the questions you’ve answered have been really some of the key ones that VCOSS has been receiving in terms of the lead into today. And it is amazing when you think back just a month ago, again, how much things have continued to change since that time. So a huge thank you for joining us today. It’s very much appreciated, thank you.

Natalia Aulia:     Thank you.

Tammy Dinh:     Thanks for having us.

Emma King:    My absolute pleasure. Thank you very much.

It’s now my absolute pleasure to introduce Ben Rimmer. Ben is the Deputy Secretary and Director of Housing at DHHS and I believe also the current Associate Deputy Secretary for DHHS. Thank you very much for being here, Ben and for joining us today. So perhaps if I can just kick off with some questions as well for you Ben.

Reaching cold communities with appropriate health information can be the security, so how is the government managing this challenge and what can community organisations do to help?

Ben Rimmer:     Thanks, Emma and great question. First, can I just start perhaps on behalf of DHHS and my colleagues acknowledging the traditional owners of the country that people are meeting on all across Victoria and acknowledging elders past, present, and future.

And also just say how fantastic it is that Emma, you and VCOSS and your colleagues have been running these forums, which I think incredibly valuable in helping share information in the community.

So look, the issues of engaging well with CALD communities have been incredibly important to us right from the start of this process, but in particular, in the last few weeks as we’ve seen a really different kind of pattern of transmission of COVID emerge.

So obviously some of the basic things that have been done include translation of the advice and restrictions. We’re now translating routinely into 53 languages. There’s specific advertising campaigns focusing on different cultural communities that are in testing at the moment. And we imagine will be scheduled to continue until the end of August, radio advertising in 22 different languages, that kind of stuff.

I don’t know, people may have seen the door-to-door work that’s going on now includes QR codes and things to really make it as simple as possible for people to engage in languages of their choice and to make that easy. Perhaps more importantly, even than that, is we’ve done a lot of work recently through the Victorian Multicultural Commission to reach out to specific organisations, community organisations, faith based organisations, a lot of work in particular with the Islamic Council of Victoria around the cultural advisors program and all of that is incredibly important in helping reach community members in ways that are meaningful to them. So there’s videos in language being produced through that partnership.

And look more than anything, we know that people are wanting information from sources that they trust, for some of that, that means from government. For some of us that means from community organisations from more informal networks. So we just need to work all of that as we work through this.

Emma King:    Thanks Ben. I know organisations, like Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, for example, plays such a pivotal role, and are very keen to assist at the moment as well in making sure we can get the best possible information out to all of our communities.

Secondly, many Aboriginal people, including elders and people with existing chronic disease, are obviously at very high risk if they were to contract COVID-19. Can you talk a bit about what’s being done to engage at risk Aboriginal communities, their peak bodies and ACCOs, that’s Aboriginal community controlled organisations, in a way that’s culturally safe and appropriate?

Ben Rimmer:     Yeah, it’s such a great question because right from the start of these epidemic, I think all of us have been very committed collectively to making sure that we do whatever we can to prevent the transmission of COVID within Aboriginal communities. And I think we’re all aware of this huge significance around the role of elders and the vulnerability of elders to disease and how important it is that we do whatever we can to prevent that taking place.

I really wanna reinforce everything that we’re doing in this area starts from the department’s total commitment to Aboriginal self-determination. And we won’t always live up to that objective. But that is an absolute commitment to lead from a position of self determination. So as a result, we’ve worked very closely with ACCOs through the whole process. I think in combination with VACCHO, there were two digital forums that particularly targeted ACCOs, one in March, one in June. I wasn’t part of these, but I’m told almost 200 people attended those really trying to help spread the message, a bit like today’s session, but spread the message in a way that’s particularly tailored with internal Aboriginal strategy and Aboriginal health teams really tailored to meeting the needs of ACCOs. There’s been newsletters and all kinds of other things that we’re doing on that front. So there’s a lot of work with ACCOs.

There’s also a lot of work in making sure that our own activities are tailored to the best possible extent for communities. There’s a specific kind of set of information on our website for Aboriginal community, information about COVID-19.

And look, we’ve really been conscious of the fact that people get their information in all kinds of different ways. Some of us kind of watch the nightly news, some of us look at website, some of us get information in different ways from different people with different levels of trust associated with that. And we really need to work with all of those different, we need to try as many different techniques and approaches as we can to try and make sure that we’re getting through the right messages in the right way to the right groups.

Emma King:    Yeah, absolutely thank you. It is definitely not a one-size-fits-all and appreciate the fact that that’s well and truly recognised. And I think also acknowledging that we’ve really watched the government and all of the staff who really continuously say, well, how do we keep learning? Particularly as the pandemic continues in ways that we wouldn’t have anticipated at the beginning as well.

In terms of, I guess, jumping to the, sort of the federal space, but also things that are going to have a really big impact on us is we’re getting really close to some of the Commonwealth emergency financial supports ending or up for review. I know we’ll know on the 23rd of July from the Federal Government within mini budget what might be likely to happen in terms of things like the JobKeeper allowance and the current increase to JobSeeker allowance, and the possibility of those being removed.

I guess just keen to ask, I’m not sure if you can answer the question Ben, I’m possibly putting you into a difficult position here, but keen to just to explore what the Victorian Government can do to really cushion the potential impact here?

Ben Rimmer:     Sure, great question. I mean, look, the truth is there is a lot of uncertainty about these things. Right now as we speak, I don’t think… first of all, the environment is changing rapidly in particular in Victoria. Secondly not all of these decisions have yet been taken.

And there is at the moment a really significant challenge associated with the end of September, but I think everyone is very aware of that and very focused on that.

What I can say from the Victorian Government perspective is there is a huge amount of time and effort going in at the moment to working out how best to invest in, to support, to plan for that period that goes through September, right out into 2021. And I know the Victorian Government are completely committed to making sure that that process works in a way that’s smooth, that encourages economic and social recovery for the Victorian community, right through that period.

So there’s a whole range of things that are going into that. I mean, just a recent example of that is the one-off $1,500 worker support payment that was announced. I can’t even remember how long ago it was announced. It feels like weeks, but I think it’s probably last Thursday or something. Which really came from a very real recognition that for some people in the community, people who are perhaps more marginal in the workforce, we were beginning to see some real barriers to getting tested and to isolating that emerged from that. So I think that shows just how responsive and quick the Victorian Government policy processes are at the moment in terms of adjusting to things as they emerge.

We’ll have to work out what to do with the rent-relief grants. There’s a whole range of other things that have gone in the last little while that we’ll need to work out how to manage through the rest of 2020.

Emma King:    Thanks Ben, and you’re right. In terms of looking at what’s being done in very short spaces of time and some of the announcements that were perhaps only last week that feel like, they are about a year ago in many respects.

And just one sort of final point from me, then I’d like to throw out to sort of any general comments you wanna make. But really I’m mindful, I guess, very much the initial sort of conversation that we had around migrant communities and being really mindful that I guess it’s looking at the information we’re getting out there, but the fact that a number of migrants come from countries that have experienced war, and the impact of seeing military personnel on our streets and being involved in the COVID response situation, and I guess just triggering kind of particularly traumatic events of people and really just came to sort of get any comments from you around what the department has underway or what government has underway to sort of manage and to mitigate this to whatever extent possible as well?

Ben Rimmer:     Yeah, great question. Look, I mean, the bottom line is we’re very aware of this issue and I can tell you from firsthand experience that had seats really factoring into the discussions and decisions that are taking place about how best to respond.

I think we’re doing an okay job on this front at the moment. If you look at if people might have some experience with some of the people doing door knocking, the community engagement teams that are engaging in some of the hotspots suburbs, many of those people are being recruited locally. They’re wearing jackets, but they’re not coming in Khakis and camouflaged. And they’re really coming, our aspiration is that they come into communities from a perspective of community support and engagement and connection to services, connection to language, connection to information.

But that said there will be more police around in hotspot suburbs. There are now defence force personnel on the ground in Victoria in some places. And that will have an impact for some people. And I think with our partners in the sector, we just need to be very mindful of that. And really mindful of the different ways that people in our community are experiencing the same crisis. It’s kind of one crisis, but a million different experiences, if that makes sense.

Emma King:    Oh, it makes perfect sense. And I think you’re right in terms of looking at recruiting people from local communities, so that when there are people potentially knocking on your door, they’re people let you know and trust and as you say, people want sort of their information from different people. And it’s really important to be able to do that as well.

Ben I know you had some sort of general information that you wanted to share with the people who are tuning in today as well. So perhaps if I leave it open to you for a few minutes as well on that front.

Ben Rimmer:     Sure, look, I won’t take long Emma, I guess I just wanted to say first and foremost, thank you to the the community sector as a whole for the enormous work and effort that’s going in to your work at the moment. It has been an incredibly difficult few months. It’s been an incredibly difficult few weeks for Victoria and the thing that is really holding us together through that period is the collaboration and engagement across government, across government and other sectors, across government and the broader community within the community sector. And it’s really just been so impressive to see how people have adjusted to different working arrangements have adjusted their own working arrangements, their own working models, their own business models and responded to the needs of the community because that’s really, what’s motivating all of us.

I do wanna particularly set up to the DHHS team who’ve… I mean, we heard from Natalia and Tammy before, but the response within government has really been quite astounding. I guess you know, years gone by, there’s kind of this debate about the quality and character of the public service and those kinds of things. And I mean, anyone who has seen the inside of the response to this emergency would just be astonished by the professionalism, the dedication, the care that’s happening in the public health team, but much more broadly across the whole organisation.

I know many people in this virtual room know Agiri very well, and he’s been called away this week, really focusing purely on the community engagement challenge. There are many people who’ve been engaged in different ways across that response.

I know some of you will be concerned and anxious about, we all are right, about the developments in the last week, the degree of community transmission in the community at the moment. And from a very practical service delivery perspective, we’re not seeing change in service delivery arrangements, right now. If staff live in restricted areas, they’re able to attend work outside of those areas if they can’t work from home. And community services staff are able to move into these areas to deliver services if it’s necessary to do that in a face-to-face way. So there isn’t that immediate change in service delivery arrangements in the restricted suburbs, but obviously having said that it’s incredibly important that we all use common sense. We remain vigilant. The recent guidance for COVID planning in the sector that I presume is available on the website, Emma is incredibly important for organisations to understand and engage with for the benefit of staff, clients, community members.

I think it is worth saying this part of the response is quite different in character from perhaps a March/April version of it. We are seeing more community transmission. We’re seeing community transmission in communities that are vulnerable, that are perhaps a bit more marginal economically, that are a bit more marginal in terms of language and access to information. So therefore, I think probably we’re gonna see more engagement by VCOSS members with the reality of COVID in their organisations and their client groups, some of that we’re already starting to see. So that guidance I think is incredibly important.

But look before I think John is gonna talk a bit more about some of these matters, which will be excellent, ’cause he knows, in one sentence, he can describe more than my entire knowledge on these topics. But the important thing I think, and the thing that I know Emma, you and VCOSS are working for is to make sure that we keep that connection going, that we keep the partnership going, that we keep communications going, that we work together to get through this crisis.

Emma King:    Yeah, very much so. Thank you, Ben. And if I can just reiterate your thanks as well to the DHHS team, it’s very much one of the things that’s become really prominent during this crisis has been how much of a partnership it’s been. And I think also the ability to, for us to be able to raise any issues that arise really quickly with the team and then work towards what a solution might be. We’ve just really appreciated the responsiveness, and I think the degree of partnership that’s taken place and without question the level of care, and I guess that one source of truth that’s provided as you say, through the Chief Health Office and and the public health team and the ability to make decisions from there, and we acknowledge… I know that it’s… I don’t think it’s overused in the sense of what we’re seeing at the moment that this is an unprecedented time. We are all navigating through as best we can and trying to identify how do we do that best and most collectively, and being able to have these webinars each month and each time we have them, I’m continually astounded at how much has changed in the last month, it feels like each time it was a year ago. So really significant thank you to you, and to your team as well, very much appreciated Ben, and thanks for being here today as well. Very much appreciated.

It’s now my pleasure, and Ben you referred before to John Catford who’s also with us today. John is playing a really key role in helping organisations returning to face-to-face service delivery, to assess risks, and to make sure that organisations are COVID safe. John, I know you have a wealth of knowledge in this space. And I guess at the moment, I’ve sort of got one key question for you that keeps coming in from our member organisations as well, and that is organisations have started preparing for a return to, a sort of staggered return to work now for the last little while. And particularly over the next few months, should organisations be preparing for a longer work from home period when they can?

John Catford:     Well, hello everybody. Thank you very much, Emma. I think Tammy, Natalia and Ben have already actually stolen a lot of my thunder because I think their overview was absolutely on the mark. And there’s rather little can add, I think, but let’s pick up this issue about some forward planning.

I mean, my advice for you is that yes, you should start forward planning. I mean, things are likely to get better, and I’m afraid on occasions they may get worse, but I think we need to be looking optimistically forward and planning how we get out of this terrible crisis. I mean, it will happen sooner or later, and we might as well start now.

I think the advice that Ben referred to, which was issued on the 2nd of June for community services in terms of the planning framework or architecture is very sound and I know a number of organisations are already using it. And I think that’s a starting place. I think appendix four in that document is also very good about listing a whole range of tips and issues and things to think about as you begin your planning exercise.

So Emma, very briefly, yes, I think it’s good to start planning. And of course, most people are not living in these action areas at the moment, and the current restrictions are continuing. And of course we were hoping that they would be eased a bit further. I’m sure that will happen some point, in which case it’s much better to be ready to actually seize the moment.

And what’s so interesting about this whole pandemic is how quickly things change one way or the other. I mean, we were moving very fast to easing a few weeks ago. Okay, we’ve had to pull back now, but it’ll accelerate again. So I think is a good idea to start thinking, look before you leap sort of scenarios.

Emma King:    Thanks, John. And did you wanna talk a little bit about, I know you’ve been doing a powerhouse of work within the department, but around resources to help organisations return to work and the sorts of things organisations should consider. Now, I noticed some of that information is up online on the DHHS website, but could you talk a bit about the particular role that your playing and the assistance that you’re giving to the department and to organisations when they’re looking at their return to work policies and anything else that you think is relevant as well?

John Catford:     Well, I think probably the best role I can be is a bit of a devil’s advocate and take a helicopter view and look at plans and proposals and just sort of think through it, and is there something missing or is there a blind spot and that’s not a way of criticism. And in fact, when I do that, I find very few, but I think it’s good for someone sort of quote “objective independent” to have a look at these things.

And I think the guidance that I referred to, Ben referred to takes you step-by-step through this. I mean, clearly it’s very important to do a transmission risk assessment. I know this sounds a bit technical, but it’s interesting there’s organisations that have done it find it very useful. And it definitely demonstrates where potential opportunities are to think a bit more creatively and differently. For instance, I’m just working on some documents from the courts at the moment about restarting juries, and the there’s some very creative thinking going on there about how to manage that. And I’m sure that will far up fairly soon, obviously not in the action areas. So I’m more than happy to have a look at plans and proposals if people are interested and would find that helpful.

But I think we need to probably just think about how are we going to manage service delivery in these action areas and particularly staff who may live in those action areas that are coming to work in our services. Some of the others have already touched on this, but I think obviously we need to think about a good risk mitigation process without discriminating or victimising people because they just happen to live in a particular postcode. And I think we need to be careful that we are all in this together. Okay, some have got a heavy burden at the moment, but there’s not the good guys and the bad guys. And I think certainly in the work setting, we need to be very accommodating and understanding of people who we may work with, who actually reside in those areas.

Emma King:    Thanks, John. And just going back to your earlier comment, also, are you happy for organisations to come to you directly with their sort of return to work plans, or how would you like organisations to navigate that knowing that this is… I know the department is thrilled to have you there and the particular expertise that you bring as well. So what would be the best way for people to navigate that?

John Catford:    Well, I think that the best thing is to work through your liaison person, contact person within the department. And you could ask if I might have look at it and then I mean there has to be some sort of prioritising and queuing and all this. I’m pretty flat out, but certainly I’d be more than happy and particularly over tricky issues. I think a lot of it is quite common sense a call. And I think frankly there is huge talent and understanding and wisdom in this sector. But it’s possibly areas where there’s a tricky balancing act to make between a benefit to a client and a potential increase risk to staff or even volunteers. And that’s often hard and when I find it’s quite useful just to talk it through with people and usually they will come up with the solution rather than me. So I don’t know if that’s helpful, but I think just work through your normal management communication systems and some of that may well end up on my desk.

Emma King:    Thank you very much, John. And thank you for joining us today as well. I know, particularly as we’ve spoken about throughout the forum today, looking at the fact that the situation is changing very quickly, inevitably it will continue to do so for at least a little while. And I think the expertise that you bring and the assistance you’ve given is very much appreciated. So thank you very much for being with us today as well. Have a lovely day.

John Catford:    Thank you.

Emma King:    Thank you. We’re now going to welcome, just waiting for her to popup on my screen. After the last seminar we received lots of questions around housing and homelessness services and responses that people who were sleeping rough in Victoria. So to answer these questions, we are now joined by Sherri Bruinhout. Welcome Sherri, it’s lovely to see you. Sherry is the Director of Housing Pathways in the Department of Health and Human Services. She’s also worked in the community services sector as well. So understand things really well, both from the community sector point of view, as well as from the DHHS point of view.

Sherri, did you have sort of any introductory comments that you wanted to make before we get into comments as well?

Sherri Bruinhout:     Yeah, sure. I thought it might be worth just bringing everybody up to speed with some of the work that has been happening through the Homelessness Service System in response to COVID. So if that’s okay with you, Emma.

Emma King:    That’s good thank you.

Sherri Bruinhout:     And I do know you had my boss on earlier who acknowledged country so thank you for that.

So back in very early in March, the Homelessness Service System became aware that in order to keep people safe from COVID-19, we were gonna have to really ramp up our ability to offer accommodation to people so that they can follow the stay at home directives of public health.

So about mid-March, there was a $6 million allocation to the Housing Establishment Fund. We know it as HEF, and HEF is an existing program that’s used to purchase accommodation for people experiencing homelessness. So essentially the HEF allocation was doubled in March for the rest of the financial year to help agencies to purchase hotel accommodations so that people could shelter at home and obey those orders.

What we found was very quickly that the need for that service was demonstrated. There was a further $1.7 million announcement in May and a $9.8 million announcement in June. So as a result, there have been many thousands of people who have benefited from the Homelessness Service System and the ability to be able to respond to their situation of homelessness by being able to purchase hotel accommodation.

I’d like to give a really big shout out to the Homelessness Peak Body Council of the homeless persons who’s been really instrumental in helping the sector to respond in that way. VCOSS obviously, Emma you and your team have been amazing. The services who have really pivoted in a very different direction to support that has been terrific as well. So I really just wanna give a shout out there.

Some of the other things that have been happening in the homelessness portfolio, if that’s okay, Emma, I’ll just give a couple more updates. The COVID isolation and recovery facilities. So we do understand that people experiencing homelessness may be at or at risk of homelessness might be at increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 because of living situations, like overcrowding, like rough sleeping.

So government announced $8.8 million to establish four COVID isolation recovery facilities, which are in partnership with St Vincent’s Hospital and homelessness services, dedicated facilities for people who have tested positive to COVID or are awaiting testing for COVID to be able to receive the healthcare that they require within a homelessness setting as well.

Now I can report back to the group that what a great reflection on the Homelessness Service System that the 75 bed capacity that we do have in the CIRFs, the COVID isolation recovery facilities, has not been required, which is great to plan for the worst, but great that we haven’t been able to… haven’t needed to use all of those beds.

So those agencies with St Vincent’s have been really terrific in being able to repurpose those facilities to be able to give a health and homelessness response to people who require it. So that’s been a really great example of seeing where we’re very COVID-ready, but able to really pivot very quickly to provide for people’s needs as well.

And I would also just like to give you an update on in some of the service coordination work that’s happened in the Homelessness Service System as well. So in response to many people staying in hotels, obviously we need to do things a little differently in the Homelessness Service System. So we’ve established HEART, which is the homelessness emergency accommodation response team. So huge shout out there to the homelessness networkers, and the LASNs, the local area service networks who have just really done a lot of heavy lifting in coming together to be able to plan and coordinate responses to people in emergency accommodation, and really lean in there and work together to meet their needs.

So those HEARTs have been running for about a month or so now, they meet very frequently. They’re very client-focused and being able to provide those wraparound supports to people staying in hotels to make sure that they’re safe and that their needs are being met.

So where to from here? Would we like to keep people in hotels so that they can lay down roots and grow old there? No, it’s certainly not a permanent housing response. So we’re working with the sector on a fairly large data project where we’re seeking information on the clients who are staying in hotels because we know that there’s no one-size-fits-all response to homelessness. So being able to really understand who is currently utilising that emergency accommodation response will us to plan the exit strategy so that we can make sure that people are cared for, and exit into an appropriate housing and/or support response when it’s safe for them to leave the hotels.

So there’s a lot of work underway at the moment. I guess, Emma some of the things that we’re hearing from the sector. The sector are raising with us concerns about JobSeeker and JobKeeper and the fact that that’s helped people to afford housing and what will happen at the end of that. And I think Ben and you, Emma have spoken about that earlier today.

We’re hearing from the house service system as well that demand is really fluctuating and it’s very difficult for agencies to predict what the demand might look like. So for example, in some local areas, we’re having a spike on Homelessness Service System in one week and then very quiet the following week. So really difficult for agencies to be able to predict where the demand is going.

Emma King:   Just on that Sherri as well, have you seen an increase, and I know our members have sort of firsthand experience with this as well, but just curious from the departmental point of view, number of people either, has it been an increase in the number of people who are experiencing homelessness for the first time?

Sherri Bruinhout:     Yeah, so Emma homelessness services system as you know, but for other people who may not know, we have a national data system, and that data comes to us between four to six weeks after the end of the month. So it’s difficult for us to see that tracking in real time, but certainly we’ve got these great relationships with our service system and they’re absolutely telling us that they’re seeing new clients coming into the Homelessness Service System who haven’t been accessing homelessness services before who are experiencing financial difficulties in lieu of the issues that we’ve got with employment throughout the state.

The Homelessness Service System is quite amazing at being able to pull a rabbit out of the hat, but be able to support people who are at risk of homelessness. Our data shows us, in non-COVID times at any rate, that most people that come to a Homelessness Service System who are at risk of homelessness don’t then become homeless. So the service system is very good and has some great programs to support people who are at risk of homelessness. So we’re keeping a very close eye on that.

For example, one of those programs is the private rental assistance program. So we have given additional resources to homelessness services so that they can make those responses. So we’re keeping a very close eye on what that might look like and particularly interested in working with our data analytics colleagues here at DHHS to be thinking about what the trajectory or predictions might be in terms of the call on the Homelessness Service System to prevent homelessness for people into the future.

Emma King:   It’s going to be really important. Isn’t it? I know we’re seeing anecdotally from members are telling us, look, they’re seeing about a 25 to 30% increase of new people coming through their doors, who probably never thought they would need assistance in terms of things like emergency relief and homelessness, et cetera, and keeping in mind at the moment we’ve got that increase in the JobSeeker payment and the JobKeeper payments as well, I guess it’s, as you say, looking at the data that’s coming through now, as it does, and then what will continue from that point as well.

Really interesting ’cause you mentioned earlier about the hotels and the outreach programs, which I think have been successful. And I think one of the interesting things out of COVID is we’re seeing some programs running that we were probably always told were never really possible. And just wouldn’t mind going a little bit deeper in terms of whatever you’re able to say at the moment, knowing that you might not be at liberty to comment on this in sort of great depth, but really interested in how successful you think those programs have been.

And I know you mentioned earlier about the data you’re collecting from organisations around, I guess there’s a question here about what happens at the end? Because we all know we can’t just turn the tap off and have everyone who’s currently being housed in a hotel, et cetera, suddenly exiting into homelessness. So if you wouldn’t mind talking about that into sort of more detail, if to start with how successful you think the program has been, but perhaps what you envisage in terms of next steps? If you’re at liberty, to be able to talk about that, thank you.

Sherri Bruinhout:     Yeah, sure. Thanks Emma asking all the easy questions today. Good on you. No, no, look the hotels, the primary aim of the hotels were to keep individuals safe through COVID and to keep the community safe. And have they been successful? Absolutely, we are not saying the numbers of COVID infections through the homeless people population that might have been predicted at one point early on. So incredibly successful at being able to keep individuals and the community safe. What a great opportunity.

So we now have so many rough sleepers who have intermittent contact with the Homelessness Service System, or indeed very little contact with our wider community service system in the past have now moved into hotels are accepting support, are engaging with our support workers. And the support workers are very, very skilled at being able to build that trusting relationship. So the opportunity now to build on that and to be able to really wrap services around people who could really benefit from that work.

So we are very keen to be working with the sector on an exit strategy for hotels, certainly. There’s been the Housing Minister has met with the Homelessness Service System on a couple of occasions and has been very encouraged by the opportunity that’s before us. I guess what’s really important, and I would I guess I’m speaking directly to any Homelessness Service System staff who are on this call, by this Friday, we’re wanting the data to come back on people staying in hotels. That data will be incredibly useful to us to be able to plan an exit strategy from hotels.

The Homelessness Service System is very aware that if you get the right response, the right support and the right housing type, to the right person at the right time, you can absolutely change their life.

The Homelessness Service System also knows that if we give an undercooked response or the wrong response, or an ill targeted response to people, it doesn’t get the outcome that we’re looking for.

So for us to plan a really successful exit strategy, we’re really gonna need to know what the characteristics are and what the needs are of people staying in hotels so that we can plan that appropriately.

And I would say that there are people staying in hotels across the state. They are singles, they are families, they’re young, they’re older, there’s a whole range of people there, and we’d really like the sector’s help to plan an exit strategy that makes things for the people who need it.

Emma King:   Thanks Sherri. And I’ll put this as a bit of a shout out as well, but I know one of the priorities we’re pushing really hard for at the moment is around looking at some of the priorities coming out of the pandemic, noting of course, that this is in many ways what’s been described as a peak recession in terms of looking at the particular impact on women and on young people. But we also see this phenomenal opportunity in terms of social housing.

We know, and I’m not sure if you’re able to comment on it freely or not Sherri, but we just know that this is a really amazing opportunity for us to create jobs at the same time as building homes for people. So it’s a bit of a no brainer when we look at what has been able to be achieved out of the hotels program and all of the other work that you talked about, knowing that first and foremost, we need people to be able to have a house, somewhere safe to live. It’s impossible during a time of a pandemic let alone regularly to say, well, how do you stay home and stay safe if you don’t have a home in the very first place.

And I think the work that you’ve undertaken around hotels, et cetera, has really shown what is possible, and I think it’s interesting out of a pandemic where a number of things that were deemed impossible prior we’re now seeing happen. So we wanna make the most of that opportunity.

Just one last question for you, as well is in terms of a number of our members are saying people are challenged, having sort of some challenges in terms of being able to socially distance, particularly if they are in overcrowded accommodation. So places like rooming houses, et cetera, as well. Interested to know what you might’ve been working on in that front, or alternatively what you think some of the solutions might be looking forward as well.

Sherri Bruinhout:     Yeah, sure. So look, absolutely it is difficult to socially isolate when you’re living in… when the amenity of where you’re living doesn’t allow for that to happen easily.

What I would say is that there’s been an absolute truckload of work that’s been done by CHIA Vic, the peak agency for community housing, and big shout out to the work that they’ve been doing. They’ve issued some guidance on best practice for rooming houses and being able to support rooming house providers with very practical, common sense strategies that they can employ to keep residents safe.

Also that said there’s been a number of, the way that we’ve changed service delivery in homelessness services that were perhaps using shared facilities that we’ve had to make some pretty big changes to the way that we’re delivering those services.

That said there have been a small number of people who have lived in congregate facilities who have tested positive to COVID. The way that they have been managed and the way that those people have been supported without any subsequent transmission through those facilities has really proven how well the sector has responded to that need and how well and how sensibly they’re managing keeping everyone safe who were in their care. So I really wanted to acknowledge the work that they’re doing because yes it is big risk when people are living in congregate facilities. But the writing’s on the wall that the sector have just been absolutely amazing in the way that they’ve dealt with that and really contained that risk.

Emma King:   Thanks, Sherri. And if I can also acknowledge the phenomenal work that you and your team have done in terms of working on the housing front. I know the way that you have worked in partnership with the sector is very much appreciated by all certainly is by myself and the team at VCOSS, and all of the organisations that you’ve given a shout out to along the way. And I think your personal knowledge of having worked in this sector, as well as in government at the moment, it really does enable you to have that the perspective that perhaps not everyone is able to bring. So I just really want to acknowledge that too, and a very sincere thank you. And thank you for being here with us today as well. I know, as I said, out of the last forum, we had lots of questions around housing and homelessness and it’s fantastic that you were able to be with us today. So a huge thank you, Sherri, and have a lovely rest of your afternoon.

Sherri Bruinhout:    Good on you and thank you.

Emma King:   Thanks so much.

And it’s now my absolute pleasure, the final update from the day is from the new-ish, I think, CEO of Family Safety Victoria, hopefully, Eleri Butler from Family Safety Victoria. Eleri hopefully in some ways as a newer CEO, you’ve got to take that, I think for as long as you can in terms of how long you can use that for. It is really lovely to have you with us for the first time.

And again, at the last webinar that we held, we had lots of questions coming out in relation to family violence and looking at trends, I think in disasters that have happened overseas and in Victoria traditionally, and how that might have played out or might be playing out for us at the moment as well. We know that an emergency like COVID-19 can mean very particular risks for women and children in particular who are being isolated often with quite violent perpetrators.

So perhaps again, before I get into questions, Eleri again, perhaps can throw to you for any sort of overall other comments that you would like to make. And I know you bring a very rich background in terms of the work you’ve done previously, which inevitably will be helping the whole state of Victoria at the moment. So I’ll just open up with any sort of general comments you wanna make before we get into questions. Thank you.

Eleri Butler:     Thanks so much. Thanks very much for the invitation and the lovely welcome. And yeah, I’m gonna use new for as long as I can. I’ve been here for about three months in post. When I joined just before, well, just as, we shut down, went into lockdown and started working from home. So it would be lovely to hopefully sometime in the future, meet people properly face-to-face in the real world. But thanks very much for the invitation.

I too would like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land from which we are meeting today and pay my respects to the elders past, present, and emerging, and to all the Aboriginal elders of communities that may be listening in.

And also to acknowledge the victim survivors who may be listening in today. And we keep very much at the forefront of our minds, all those who are experiencing family violence and sexual assault today and every day including remembering those who’ve lost their lives tragically as a result of family violence, for whom we undertake this work.

Yeah, so I just wanted to start by giving a brief introduction. I’m assuming most people listening know about Family Safety Victoria being an administrative office of government. It was our third birthday yesterday, in fact, 1st of July. So we’ve been leading the delivery of key recommendations from the Royal Commission into family violence which includes ensuring that people with lived experience are central to on guide the reform. And we collaborate really closely with the sector and with peak bodies across the state and your own organisation as you know to deliver an improved, coordinated community response to family violence and sexual assault, which involves a whole system approach. And our aim is to very much make sure that survivors, victim survivors access support earlier and making sure that perpetrators are also held accountable and change their behaviour. So working towards that prevention.

I wanted to just give a quick overview as an introduction really to give a bit of an outline as to what we know from services in Victoria. And a bit about what we’ve been doing in response before going into some of the questions.

And as previous speakers have said, these are really unprecedented times. And I think it’s worth acknowledging that we’re already responding to a global pandemic of violence against women and girls. It was classified a global pandemic in 2013 by the World Health Organization. And that’s now combined with the more recent global pandemic of COVID-19, and that really creates devastating intersecting impacts and consequences for women and children in particular. And we also know tragically along with the COVID-related deaths that we’ve seen, not only in Australia, but globally, we’re also seeing a rise in many countries of fatal male violence against women. Since January in Australia, 27 women have been killed which we know thanks to the harrowing work undertaken by the Counting Dead Women researchers. And that includes in Victoria five women who’ve lost their lives in Victoria as a result of family violence. And three of those were women killed in May alone. So, it’s a really big concern and countless thousands more women, children and men live daily with the experience of violence and abuse or the legacies of violence and abuse, whilst many of the perpetrators of this abuse remain unchallenged, unaccountable or invisible in many cases.

And we’re dealing already with escalating levels of family violence in this state. Recent crime statistics show that the number of incidents recorded by Victoria police, for example, that was the highest on record in the 12 months to 31st of March, 2020, and police incidents L17 data also indicates a steady increase in reported incidents in the last eight weeks. So that criminal justice data is showing an increase.

We’re also hearing from universal services from health and other services that they’re identifying far more family violence. At the moment, they’re recording increased severity of violence. They’re having more disclosures compared to pre-COVID times. Safe Steps, the statewide helpline and specialist provider of support, they’re telling us that they’re doing more comprehensive risk assessments with people who face elevated risks from perpetrators and who require immediate protection.

Safe Steps and other organisations are also telling us they’re getting higher calls from third parties. So from family or friends or neighbours and so on, and that they’re also getting more calls around elder abuse where, for example, adult male children are being violent in the home with their parents.

We’re also seeing an increase in concern about young people using violence, whether that’s physical or sexual abuse in the home or amongst family members, particularly during the lockdown period.

And in relation to perpetrator services and perpetrator interventions, the Men’s Referral Service experienced an initial increase in calls particularly from men who were concerned about their behaviour for the first time. So who are reaching out for help to change their behaviour.

And we’re also hearing, as I know my other colleagues are across government from Aboriginal services that demand has increased both for immediate crisis support and also for ongoing community support. And we’re working with the Dutch, our partnership forum to support family violence, ACCO services in their business continuity. And we’re also focusing on in improving their industry plans at the moment, and to integrate those into the wider work we’re doing around workforce and industry development.

And even though we are working remotely and adhering to the social, physical distancing, the Orange Door sites continue to operate with no disruption to service, which is a fantastic achievement. And in the last week of June, there were 1098 referrals for support and those referrals week-on-week are steadily increasing.

And as some of your colleagues and some of those listening and will knows the immediate response from the Victorian Government has been quite significant. We provided $40.2 million in funding to ensure those at risk or who are experiencing family violence and sexual assault in the community have access to support they need. That funding includes $20 million targeted at the provision of short term accommodation with accompanying support for victims survivors who need a place of safety or who don’t feel safe to isolate at home. And this also includes funding for accommodation where it’s needed for perpetrators. So victim survivors can stay safe in their own homes if that’s what’s needed.

And the funding also includes $20.2 million to help family violence and sexual assault services meet the increase in demand at this time. We’re expecting continued increase for demand during the Coronavirus pandemic.

And just a couple of other things we’re working on very quickly, we’re also working with peak bodies, and I wanna give a shout out to all our peak bodies who are working with us so collaboratively under really challenging times. We’re working with them to support the sector with regular briefings, live stream briefings and forums and workshops and so on. We’ve developed sector guidance to support agencies and adapted a multi-agency risk management practice notes to outline the heightened risk and the additional risks and needs of survivors at this time. And also to raise awareness of additional considerations for managing the risk posed by perpetrators. And that guidance is accompanied by some videos, online videos that are available on our website. So that that’s received really positive feedback from the sector which has been great. And we’ve also published information online for funded agencies to support business continuity and service delivery. And we’re partnering with services to develop practical information and resources to be shared at, in effect, what is the new front line: pharmacies, supermarkets, doctors surgeries, the places where families are able to go at the moment, to make sure that there’s information available to signpost people to support. So those are just some of the things-

Emma King:   I think that’s a really interesting example. I think that that’s actually something perhaps new that’s come out of the pandemic as well, but interesting and perhaps talking about that a little further, and it’s probably I’m interested in, and I think you’ve covered a lot of the issues as well about, but just to dig a little deeper in terms of, I guess, what some of the particular, I guess, the weaknesses that have come out of the pandemic. And I think some of the things that are challenges have come to mind are things like, when we had homeschooling, et cetera happened, and people being, when they’re locked down in their homes, literally, the fact that it’s harder to get away from perpetrator harder to seek assistance, but then looking at some of the initiatives that are in place, such as having support in supermarkets and pharmacies and other things, interested in considering any further around maybe some sort of the strengths in a family violence system that can really help people who might be experiencing difficulty at the moment as well.

Eleri Butler:     Yeah, well, I think in my experience and I’ve worked in for 30 years or so with services in particularly in the UK, in Europe, around family violence and sexual assault. No other sector that I’ve worked with knows better that we need to continually evolve and meet community needs during a pandemic ’cause they’re already dealing with that global pandemic of violence and abuse. So, they’ve responded really, really well and very flexibly.

I think one of the things I wanted to flag is that the feedback that we’ve been getting is also endorsed by some of the research that’s come out from Monash University, and we’ve surveyed… they’ve surveyed frontline family violence practitioners through April and May this year and found particularly that the pandemic has led to an increase in not only frequency and severity of violence against women. But 59% of respondents reported an increase in frequency, 50% reported an increase in severity, but particularly they reported an increase in the complexity of needs that was reported by 86% of frontline practitioners. And 42% of respondents reported an increase in first time reporting by women. So I think that’s just, as you said, that’s really, really significant.

We also know that survivors are saying to us that for many who’ve experienced coercive controlling behaviour, their lives in lock down aren’t much different to the deprivation of liberty they were experiencing as part of the coercive control by perpetrators beforehand. And that’s I think is really a challenge because what COVID has undoubtedly exacerbated abuse and control by perpetrators. It’s increased monitoring and threats to expose women and children to the virus or with withhold access to healthcare. So we have to be really innovative and adjust our services to make sure that survivors and families can access the help and support they need.

In relation to the strengths and weaknesses. I mean, I think we’re pretty familiar generally with the strengths and weaknesses in the system from the Royal Commission evidence, from recent VAGO reports and the Independent Monitor reports. So I mean, some of my observations have been services have done really well, I think to highlight how flexible they can be. Many services weren’t fully accessible to those unable to walk through the front door. So, many services have had to shift very quickly to deliver web chat and online responses, which has been great. And the uptake on those has been really significant.

It’s also highlighted for me that how much of our narrative across systems has been on somebody leaving the abuser. When in reality we know that’s really dangerous to do. And we also know that for many survivors, they don’t actually want to leave or don’t wanna leave their family members or leave the abuser. So I think we need we’ve needed to focus much more on not only providing refuge and crisis accommodation, but doing safety planning and support for women within the family, in the relationship and in their own homes. And I think that’s something we need to do more of as well as making sure that perpetrators are more visible and that we have a greater focus on removing perpetrators where necessary to stop their abuse.

And I want to particularly acknowledge the fantastic work going on in a ACO Family Violence Services in our communities, delivering a whole family approach which can teach us a lot in relation to delivering holistic support services in our communities. The other thing I’ve noticed as an issue, I think, which I think we need to address is, it’s very easy for sexual violence and abuse, and their services that respond to sexual violence abuse to fall off the radar at this time, the narrative nationally and globally is around family violence, domestic violence, because we’re focused very much on lockdown in our own homes, rightly so. But I think we also need to think about what the current climate means for people being sexually abused, sexually exploited. For example, if they’re homeless, as we just talked about, or if landlords may be demanding sex for rent for example, or somebody is being sexually abused by community members or through the sex industry, as well as in families because survivors don’t experience those forms of abuse in silos. And I think we really need to make sure we’ve got a holistic response to those issues. And the complexity, I think of family violence has really shown a light on the critical role of our community networks, our community services, and the vital role in particular of schools, health services, pharmacies, as I said, employers as well, and doctors in providing access to help and support.

And the final thing that I just wanted to flag is it’s also, I think, exposing data gaps in our system. The fact that we don’t know how COVID is specifically impacting on migrant or multicultural or diverse communities, I think highlights our data and recording systems need improvement across services and across systems. We should be recording sexuality, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, et cetera, across the board. And I think we just need to have much, much richer and more meaningful data across our service systems. So that’s one of the observations I’ve had.

Emma King:   Thanks Eleri. And I think that’s a really… it’s such an important observation, isn’t it? In terms of issues that already existed and then seeing, I think a real highlight, highlights probably the wrong word, but a real focus on how does it just that we already had a pandemic in terms of issues around family violence, how does it play out during a health pandemic? What are some of the issues that are emphasised, but also at the same time, what lessons do we need to learn, which I think we already knew to be candid around knowing that we need more data, but also what are some of the other things that we can do that actually might make it easy for people to report or to seek assistance, et cetera, that we see during a pandemic.

And we know as well when there’s other crises overseas that I think some of the trend of what we’ve seen here was replicated around the initial, perhaps under-reporting because women and children were not able to get out and report. And then what we’re seeing now around the additional reporting, which you’ve spoken about, but what’s to come. And I think there’s real lessons to learn from what we’ve seen in times of crises before. But I suspect unfortunately that there’s probably considerably more reporting to come as restrictions, et cetera, are loosened and society might shift into the next stage as well. So interested in sort of any kind of key observations you have on that front as well in closing.

Eleri Butler:     I think that’s a really good point and I think we really expecting unprecedented demand as we ease out of lockdown. I don’t know if that’s happening in different areas at the moment.

I think there are some changes that we’ve seen that we should really continue. We can’t go back to how it was, the systems weren’t working, which is part of the reform work that we’re doing anyway. I think it’s really been incredible to see how the sectors have mobilised and changed and adapted so that everybody who needs the support and how it gets it. I think that’s really been very, very powerful as an observation.

I think the use of digital forums and engagement is something we should consider doing not only for our work and for meetings, but actually to make sure services are more accessible, but also thinking about digital exclusion and how services, survivors and families in different communities actually don’t have access to digital technology. So that’s an additional barrier, so that’s something we need to focus and overcome.

I’d like us to be able to maintain also how we’ve quickly responded to changing needs in our communities as rapidly as we have done. I’ve been amazed at how quickly some of the bureaucracy is just falling away, which has been great, alongside we ensure we focus on how community services can be more sustainable in the future.

We are evaluating some of these new ways of working with working with DHHS colleagues at the moment. So we’re looking for example at doing a rapid review of how the adjustments in perpetrator interventions are working well at the moment and what needs to be continued there. And also how the online services and web chat functions can happen and be continued.

But I think really for me, the COVID-19 pandemic has only really highlighted significantly the importance of the reform work in strengthening our responses and in connecting services and make maximising safe disclosure points in local communities. And some of the reform work that we’ve been progressing and prioritising up to now we are continuing or be it in adjusted ways.

So I can give you some examples. So work is continuing with MARAM, for example, to develop new perpetrator tools and resources, both for workforces around the mental health service system, alcohol and drug services, homelessness services, and so on, but also for family violence specialist services, and those who work with perpetrators at the moment.

We’re also working with sector colleagues to strengthen community based outreach to support our case management support system and therapeutic interventions.

And the roll out of the Orange Door is continuing. We’re due to open the Orange Door in Central Highlands and Northern later this year. So that’s all on track.

So there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes as well as progressing the VAGO recommendations we’ve recently had. I also just want to give a shout out to my colleagues. I mean, they’d be working incredibly hard on a range of the business as usual reforms underpinning all of this work. But the industry workforce workers is really critical. That’s one of the challenges that the sector is saying to us that they need additional support on.

We recently launched a family violence jobs hub in the last month. And there’s been an awareness campaign around that, and more than 9,700 potential employers and job seekers have visited that jobs hub since it launched last month, which I think is phenomenal, as part of an attraction and recruitment campaign that we’re undertaking. And there’s also online campaigns, I think it’s called ‘So, what do you do?’ which is an online campaign, which people should look at, there’s been 70,000 views of the promotional campaign materials and animations to check that out. And I think it’s really important that people need to understand the range of roles and the types of roles in the family violence and sexual abuse community sector so that we can make sure that the industry workforce planning is as robust as possible.

And I think returning to a norm that we previously had is no longer acceptable. As I said, it’s not an option. And I think as well as learning from what we’ve been doing in the last few months to maximise our efforts to deliver the reform, I think it’s really important to not forget that we know what needs to happen to prevent family violence and sexual assault. We’ve known for several years that we can do something about it, not only about responding in a crisis, but responding much earlier on making sure there’s early health and support available, but also focusing on primary prevention.

And that needs to also continue to be our priority because we know that family violence and rape and sexual assault, harassment, forced marriage, stalking, female genital mutilation, all forms of violence and abuse that we’re needing to address in our families and in our communities, none of them are inevitable. They’re all entirely preventable with the necessary political will and resources. And that’s what we really need to prioritise on, in going forward to make sure that we prioritise prevention as well as the emergency response.

Emma King:   Thank you. I think that’s a really sound note to end on about that prioritising prevention as well as the response. And I think it’s something that we’ve all been working very hard towards and need to just continue to do so.

Eleri, if I can just say a huge thank you for joining with us today, and a huge also shout out to the organisations that you mentioned earlier as well. I know, for example, Safe Steps is doing a phenomenal job in terms of that 24/7 response, et cetera, as well. But it’s fantastic having you in the role, very much looking forward to continuing to work with you, as you say, pandemic and beyond, the world is not gonna go back to what it was prior. And for us, it’s about taking what are some of the positive things that have come out of a pretty horrendous situation to say, well, actually, what can we take that’s actually gonna change people’s lives for the better in the long run.

So thank you very much for joining with us today. Very much appreciate it.

Eleri Butler:     Thank you Emma.

Emma King:   And we’re continuing to work with you as well.

Eleri Butler:     Thank you.

Emma King:   Thank you.

It’s now my absolute pleasure in closing to thank all of the presenters who are with us today to share their expertise and their information. I would also like to say a huge shout out to the VCOSS team who not only make these webinars possible but are working day and night and doing everything possible to work with our colleagues in the community sector, our colleagues in the department and in government. I would like to absolutely acknowledge the staff throughout government and government departments. And in this instance, as well, particularly the Department of Health and Human Services. It’s been great work in partnership, as I mentioned earlier, where we can acknowledge issues as they arise and look to see how do we address those and the partnership that’s developed over that time is very much appreciated.

Agiri Alisandratos wasn’t able to join us today because of the critical work he’s undertaking during the pandemic and the community response. I would like to give an absolute shout out to Agiri and also to Amity Durham, who does a huge amount of work with us in particular as well. As well as to our colleagues more broadly in government as well.

I’d particularly like to give a big shout out to the community sector organisations who, again, work night and day with wanting to ensure that vulnerable Victorians are at the forefront of their thinking and at the forefront of every single thing that we all do.

So my sincere thanks to everyone. I wish you a very happy afternoon and look forward to joining with you at a future webinar in another month’s time. Thank you very much.

The Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft Long Service Benefits Portability Regulations (the permanent regulations).

VCOSS supports the purpose of the Portable Long Service Leave (PLSL) scheme, to provide employees access to an entitlement they often miss out on because of short-term funding arrangements and insecure work. Portability can help improve employee retention rates and boost wellbeing and satisfaction.

The proposed changes in the permanent regulations provide welcome clarity to employers and workers about who is covered by the scheme.

However, the portable long service leave scheme has significantly increased costs for community service organisations. Like many other industries, the community sector is facing new challenges and disruptions as a result of COVID-19. Organisations are experiencing reductions in fundraising and donation income. For some, the end of Job Keeper and the uncertainty around the ongoing federal funding of the Equal Remuneration Order loom as financial cliffs. Many contracts have been extended for only three months, awaiting the delayed state budget in late 2020.

With low indexation rates in recent years, and increasing costs, government funding has slipped behind the true cost of delivering services. Underfunding community organisations leads to job losses and reduced support for vulnerable community members.

With more employees in scope of the PLSL scheme, organisations will have to stretch budgets even further. Community service organisations and employees, while generally supportive of the purpose of PLSL, should not have to trade-off quality of services and security of employment to meet its additional costs.

Funding contracts and indexation must account for the increased costs of PLSL.

Adopt a new employee test based on award coverage

VCOSS welcomes the abolition of the employee predominance test, and the inclusion of a new test based on award coverage.

The lack of clarity about which workers met the previous test was leading to confusion, inconsistency, and inequity across the industry. For the majority of employees (including administrative, payroll, policy and team leader positions) the proposed changes will make it clearer whether or not they are in scope of the scheme.

Many organisations consulted welcomed the change, noting that it will reduce confusion and administrative burden when employees change roles, are promoted or their positions restructured. Many organisations reported a strong commitment to the scheme, and to equitable access across their organisation. Several small organisations reported they had already registered all their staff, despite ongoing confusion around the employee predominance test.

However, the coverage of employees in management roles remains unclear, especially where they are employed on contracts that do not directly reference any award. VCOSS members reported that many management staff are paid well above the highest level of the SCHADS award and their positions are not contractually linked to the highest award level. It is unclear what the status of these employees will be.

There was support among many VCOSS members for CEOs and managers being in scope of the scheme, particularly in smaller organisations where positions are often not highly paid. PLSL is a further incentive and benefit for these positions. Excluding them from the scheme could act as a disincentive to organisations paying above award rates.

Some organisations, including Neighborhood Houses, employ staff who are outside the scope of the award coverage, for example tutors (who are covered by the Educational Services (Post-Secondary Education) Award 2010). Excluding some employees increases the administrative burden and creates inequities within workplaces.

Review the impacts on the community health sector

The community health sector has clearly articulated their position, that the sector should not be in scope of the PLSL scheme. VCOSS members in the community health sector reported concerns about the high cost, the administrative burden of maintaining multiple portability schemes and accrual processes, the inability of their payroll and HR systems to service multiple schemes, and the limited benefit to employees who already have more generous portability and leave provisions under their existing arrangements.

They noted that bringing their sector into the PLSL scheme may put at risk the portability arrangements already in place in the community health sector. This could have unintended impacts on the many other workers (not eligible for the community sector scheme) who may lose access to their portability entitlements.

Community health providers also reported confusion about the status of management and administrative staff who are employed under different awards. VCOSS understands that they will not be in scope under the proposed changes.

VCOSS also understands that changes to scope will not operate retrospectively.

Clarify the arrangements where employees accrue more generous entitlements

Several VCOSS members reported an ongoing lack of clarity around how the scheme interacts with other, more generous, long service leave provisions they may offer through their own enterprise agreements or employment contracts.

For example, under some enterprise agreements, employees accrue long service leave more quickly than under the PLSL scheme. As a result, employers will be drawing on the PLSL fund earlier than 7 years, to pay out long service leave to their employees.

Other employees are entitled to additional weeks of long service leave.

Organisations have received conflicting and confusing advice from the Portable Long Service Authority (PLSA).

Clearer guidance should be provided by the Government and the PLSA about the rate at which entitlements will be paid out, when employees accrue leave at a higher rate, and how this will occur.

Delay implementation

The community sector, like many other industries, is facing new challenges and disruptions because of COVID-19. Demand is high, and services are transitioning to new service models, including telehealth and remote delivery.

They are experiencing reductions in fundraising and donation income. For some, the end of Job Keeper and the uncertainty around the ongoing federal funding of the Equal Remuneration Order loom as financial cliffs. Many contracts have been extended for only three months, awaiting the delayed state budget in late 2020.

Introducing further regulatory and financial changes at this time will be an unreasonable burden on organisations and create significant cashflow challenges.

VCOSS recommends delaying the implementation of the changes as long as possible, until at least late 2020, to give the sector time to prepare and adapt.

Organisations also seek clarity about whether they will be reimbursed for employees, including senior management, if they register them for the scheme, in good faith, but are eventually found to be ineligible.

Where organisations are being reimbursed, it is important that processes are in place to facilitate timely reimbursement. Delays in reimbursement create additional cashflow challenges for organisations already facing difficult financial circumstances.

Incorporate the costs of PLSL into a fair indexation formula

The proposed changes will significantly broaden the scope of the scheme, ensuring more employees are eligible. While every organisation is in a different position, VCOSS members consulted reported on average about 20-25% more employees will be within scope.

While many VCOSS members welcomed this from an equity and retention perspective, they reported that the additional costs associated could be significant. Community organisations spend most of their budget on wages and salaries. Increased costs will inevitably lead to reductions in other areas, including service delivery and contact hours.

Organisations are already struggling to make ends meet. Many organisations now lack adequate funding to sustainably deliver services and plan for the future. Government funding for social service organisations has stayed at two per cent per annum over the past six years. Yet Fair Work Australia last year raised the minimum wage by three per cent, and other costs, like the increase to the superannuation guarantee, continue to rise.

A fair indexation formula incorporating wage rises, the superannuation guarantee, portable long service leave and the different costs of delivering services in rural and remote areas is desperately needed to guarantee community service organisations are sustainable and effective into the future.

Further information

VCOSS looks forward to working with the Government and the PLSA to continue refining the portable long service scheme.

For more information, please contact Brooke McKail, Manager Policy and Research, VCOSS on brooke.mckail@vcoss.org.au

Download the submission below.

On June 4th 2020, VCOSS and the Department of health and Human Services convened the third COVID-19 Digital Forum to guide the community sector’s ongoing response to the coronavirus pandemic.

You can view the past forums here.

The Minister for Child Protection, Disability, Ageing and Carers, Luke Donnellan, joined the forum to give his reflections on the sector’s performance during COVID-19 and the path ahead.

Our panelists were:

• Amanda Rojak
  Public Health Incident Management Team
• Andrea Spiteri
  Director, Emergency Management Commander
• Argiri Alisandratos
  Deputy Secretary, Department of Health And Human Services
  (Children, Families, Communities and Disability)
• Stephen Gniel
  Deputy Secretary, Department of Education and Training
  (School Education Programs and Supports)
• Peta Mccammon
  Deputy Secretary, Department of Justice And Community Safety
  (Family Violence, Justice and Social Services Coordination)

Filming by Samurai AV, captioned by Rev.com.

Transcript

Emma King:     Good afternoon, my name’s Emma King, And I’m the CEO of the Victorian Council of Social Service. Welcome to today’s joint VCOSS DHHS digital forum about COVID-19 and the community sector. I’d like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land upon which we are all on today, and to pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. I’d also like to acknowledge that this is Reconciliation Week. We must work with and stand alongside our first nation people in tackling and addressing racism and injustice.

I’d also like to begin today with an apology. We’ve been unable to secure an Auslan interpreter for today’s event, despite our best attempts to do so. We will full caption today’s event, and we’ll have it updated online as soon as we possibly can. Today, we’re very luck to have representative from DHHS, Department of Education and Training, and Justice, as well as Public Health and Emergency response officials here to answer your questions.

We’ll also be hearing shortly from Minister Luke Donnellan, so stay tuned for that. We have had literally dozens of questions that have come through for today’s forum, and we’re going to aim to get through as many of those as we possibly can. If we can’t get to yours, we’ll work to address those and have them posted online as well. We have understandably had lots of question about funding and we’ll hear from Argiri Alisandratos shortly from DHHS.

But first of all, I would like to welcome Amanda Rojak from the COVID-19 Public Health Incident Management team, and Andrea Spiteri from the Department of Emergency Management at DHHS. And Andrea’s currently working from the state control center. Amanda, if I can start with you to begin with. So many of the questions we’ve received are about a safe return to work. And I know this is a very big question, but I might start from this point, what are your initial thoughts on Victorians returning to safely?

Amanda Rojak:     Yeah, so I think to provide a brief overview of where we’re at in the state, the SITREP is that we’ve had 1,678 cases across the state. We continue to see a handful of cases day to day, but most of those aren’t community transmission. So, they’re either from return travelers who are in hotel quarantine, or they’re contacts of known cases.

In terms of our response to that, it means there’s a couple of things we’re focusing on, one is tracing and following contacts of known cases. The second is outbreak management. When we have small outbreaks, and the third, which kind of gets to your point, is around a staged and safe return to work.

The overarching message at the moment is to stay safe, and if you have been working from home, continuing to work from home.

That being said, a lot of our work is on easing of restrictions and making sure that we’re slowly and safely moving back to people being able to do a lot of the things that they do, not only working, but also social activities and recreational activities in the community.

The way that we’re doing that is in a staged fashion. It means that we have an ability to understand the public health impacts of the changes that we’re making at a stage by stage, and it means that we then, hopefully, move in a slow, upward trajectory, rather than kind of balancing back and forth, and having to tighten restrictions.

Emma King:     Fantastic, thank you. We’ve had lots of questions along those lines around the sort of the returning to work and people traveling around. One of the questions that’s come through a number of times is it safe for our staff to be traveling on public transport and what do we as employers need to do to make sure this travel is safe?

Amanda Rojak:     It’s a really good question. So, anything in the community, there’s not no risk, because we know that we’re in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic. That being said, our community transmission is very low. And it’s a risk that’s kind of counter balanced with a lot of the implementation measures that we’ve put in place.

So, the things that we’ve done as a department is made sure that the risk is proportionate by increasing the number of services that are available, by doing things like making sure that there are increased cleaning and hygiene activities in place.

The kind of things that we would ask employers and employees to do would be to think about when they can travel in off peak times rather than traveling during peak times, to makes sure that they’re following hand hygiene and respiratory hygiene recommendations that we have in place.

Emma King:     Thank you, and one of the other things that’s come up a lot, I think pretty much in every workplace is around temperature testing. And we know that some organizations are testing staff and client temperatures every time that they enter services. Others are requiring people to sign a statement attesting that they don’t have a temperature. Can you provide more guidance about what’s the best way to manage temperature testing? Now, I know we’re talking about a broad variety of services here, but this is really common thing that continues to come up as well.

Amanda Rojak:     Yeah, so our guidance as a department is that temperature testing should only be done in healthcare facilities. So, outside of healthcare facilities, like hospitals or general practice clinics, we’re not advising temperature testing.

What we do advise is that employees check their symptoms and check in with themselves when they’re at home, and make a decision, and that may or may not include temperature testing, and at that point make a decision about whether they’re safe to go to work, but we’re not asking employees to mandate temperature testing across any other sector.

Emma King:     Okay, thank you, that’s good clarity given the number of questions I’ve had on that front as well. And just before I throw to you as well, Andrea, just Amanda, in terms of the two hour time frame that’s suggested for gatherings, how does that translate in the workplace? So, that is if two people are adequately distanced in a shared office, keeping in mind that the advice at the moment is if you can stay at home, work from home, so if two people are adequately distanced in a shared office, is it okay to work in that office all day or should you only be in there for two hours?

Amanda Rojak:     No, so I think there might be some confusion there where from a public health perspective, the two hour rule is really around our ability to identify where someone has been a close contact of someone else. So, if we’ve been in the same room together for more than two hours, then we would say we consider that close contact and that has implications for things like whether that person would need to stay at home and get tested, and things like that.

We’re not advising limits on the amount of time that someone would spend with someone else when both of those people don’t have symptoms. And so, in the workplace, we don’t have any restrictions around two hours in the same place.

What we would say is if you have meetings where you don’t need to be face to face, then think about doing them over the telephone or using the internet. If you, as much as you possibly can, to physically distance. And again, the simple things like hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene, frequent cleaning and disinfection.

Emma King:    Fantastic, thank you. And Andrea, I know you’ve been dealing with so many of these different matters as well throughout the time in the state control center. One of the other issues we’re hearing a lot is around people in the community who don’t have access to the internet or other sort of digital means, where video calls aren’t an option. How do we get these people access to the internet and affordable dada so they can use those services?

Andrea Spiteri:     Certainly, thank you very much and thank you for the question. It is something that has come up a number of times. It also comes up in other emergencies as well.

I would encourage people to use phone options as much as possible. I know that a lot of services will provide a phone option as well as something over the internet too. And certainly, with people reengaging with their workplace and coming back into work slowly, I would really encourage people to work with the services around what might be possible face to face. Often, it’s worth asking that question.

We do know that some of the community infrastructure, such as libraries, or neighborhood houses, or other places that do offer community access to the internet are slowly starting to reopen or have been open, but we do recognise that similar to the questions that you asked before to Amanda, the challenges around how you keep up hygiene in that sort of space.

We are going to have COVID-19 in our environment as a sort of new normal for a while. So, I really encourage services to think carefully about how they can allow their clients to have access, full access to their services.

Emma King:    Thanks, Andrea, and also, that you touched just in on the role of neighborhood houses as well. And I’ve had a number of questions come through from neighborhood houses who play such a vital role in terms of really the glue that keeps so many people in the community together, what do you think the role of neighborhood houses and other organisations, such as neighborhood houses are like in sort of emergencies more broadly? I’m just interested in your observations on that front.

Andrea Spiteri:     Yeah, well, look, I think that, and there are a number of really important community groups and infrastructure in local communities that are just vital during emergencies, whether they’re natural disasters or COVID-19, as we’re saying now, they’re such important places to be able to connect communities to the information that they need, particularly when they might not have access to the internet or other sources of information. And so, it is important that they can keep the service going as much as possible.

We’re working at the moment with all local governments to make sure that we’ve got good referral pathways through all health and community services, but also into some of those places like neighborhood houses, men’s sheds and other places that can connect people to each other, to support each other during this time as well.

I think we’ve had an announcement around the community activation and social isolation initiative. So, it’s in the final design stages now, but it is recognising that places like neighborhood houses and local governments also have a really central role in connecting people to each other to help support them if they need things, practical support like shopping, or pets walked or looked after if they are self isolating because of their own chronic health conditions too.

So, and that could potentially involve elements like the loan of portable mobile devices for a period of time. I know there are a number of organisations and local governments that already do that. So, we certainly will consider that in terms of the design, the final sort of design of that initiative as well, yeah.

Emma King:    Thank you, Andrea, and I guess this is one for both of you, really. So, the Premier has said, and it’s been very clear, that if you can work from home, you must work from home, and I think it’s been great to have that really, that being very much clarified. However, overall, our sort of, people, and I find this as a question that’s come through, our clients are finding video and phone less helpful than in-person support, and we know that for some people, actually they don’t engage at all when it comes to needing to do that remotely. So, the question from the people who are running services, we’ve had is had how do we weigh up our responsibilities to clients alongside our OHS responsibilities for staff?

Andrea Spiteri:    I might start, then I’ll see if Amanda wants to mention anything. And I guess it gets back to that point that I was making before around the fact that this is gonna be with us for a while. It is something that will need to be balanced, and there are definitely ways that we’ve seen it in other businesses that have recently opened their doors, where they have specific procedures for their clients to be able to follow, and I know that’s hard for some clients and for some services, particularly those that are much more vulnerable potentially in the community. But I really encourage organisations to think through how they’re going to do this in the longer term. The hand hygiene, the respiratory hygiene, the physical distancing in the spaces.

There is a study that has come out that says that our phone or our internet connection is more successful if you’ve already had a face to face connection. So, it could be that an initial connection could be by face to face, and then a follow up could be by phone to allow for some of the distancing.

So, I think each organisation will have to make sure that there’s a good business continuity and service continuity plan around this as well. But I’m recognising that it’s not easy for businesses and services in this time.

Emma King:     Yeah, and it so challenges then, this all about who falls through the gaps, knowing that for some people, no matter how much of a great connection you might have had with someone, the minute you flip to working remotely, I guess we’re hearing two sides of this, for some people, that remote access has actually been excellent, for others, they’re not going to engage that way, they’re not going to engage via phone, and they’re not going to engage via some sort of email, particular when they often might not have an email address in the first place. So, it’s really trying to cater to both ends, isn’t it? I guess it’s more of a statement, but it’s one of those things that I think has become really very clear during this time as well.

Andrea Spiteri:    Yeah, absolutely.

Emma King:     Any insights you have along the way for us along that front would be great as well. I guess the next question is, I suspect this is a bit of a question of how long is a piece of string, but if there is another widespread outbreak of COVID-19, do you anticipate there’d be another lockdown, and if so, would it look the same as the first?

Amanda Rojak:     It’s a really difficult question to answer, because we just can’t predict that well into the future. The premise of the way that we’re lifting restrictions at the moment is that we are moving slowly, and we’re moving in a graded way, which means that we’re releasing certain restrictions at certain points in time. Both that enables us to gain some intelligence on what is the impact of lifting those particular restrictions as opposed to lifting everything at once, and to make sure that we’re working in a safe and staged fashion.

One of the very strong premises behind that approach is that we hope that we can have a long and sustained lifting of restriction, rather than a seesawing of moving back and forth. Certainly, so that’s our intention in the way that we’re moving towards as a department. But one of the foremost things about a pandemic is to expect the unexpected. And so, we will continue to be responsive if things change.

Emma King:     Yup, thank you, Andrea, did you wanna add to that?

Andrea Spiteri:     Yeah, so just two points I’ll make. One is that we’re putting a lot of effort in, not only to the contact tracing and support around that, but also to supporting people who need to self quarantine. So, really making sure that we’ve got accommodation options available for them, that we understand what their any financial hardship or what their needs might be, their food needs and others as well, to make sure that people can take those steps that they need to do to self quarantine, keep their family safe and keep their community safe. So, that’s a really important part.

I think the second one is that the time that we’ve had to prepare. So, there is a lot more capacity in health services, we’ve done a lot of emergency management planning as well to prepare for some of those more extreme consequences that we might see in an emergency as well. So, the state of Victoria is in a much greater state of preparedness now with its plans around this specific virus.

So, hopefully, between the controlling of those small number of cases that we’re seeing now, and particularly really supporting people through those quarantine hotels that we’re running as well. And for those that need the support in the community, we can keep those numbers low, and keep that curve pretty flat.

Emma King:     I was thinking back to our first form of this, and Andrea, you’ve been at each one, and the very different stage we’ve been at as we’ve held these webinars as well. Just I guess in sort of closing, any observations you’d have around things like food relief? I know you’ve worked really hard in terms of making sure that food can be delivered to people who are in quarantine, et cetera, that there is accommodation and support, any observations that you’d have on that front? ‘Cause that’s shifted quite dramatically over time as well. So, I’d be interested in your reflections since the beginning to where we’re at now and observations, I guess, of where we’re at now, and perhaps looking forward.

Andrea Spiteri:     Well, certainly, we were gearing up in the initial stages for quite a significant impact in a relatively short period of time. And so, now it’s turned more from an acute shock to a chronic sort of stress that we see in the community. So, while we have some really robust arrangements in place for, say, food relief, we recognised very quickly that it can put a stress on the normal food relief systems. So, we need to have some different models.

We also know that there’s been a 40% increase in the number of meals that are being requested through local government and other services that provide meals as well. So, while we’ve got our food relief packages, and there have been nearly 3,000 of those delivered, we also know that there’s an increase in that need, particularly with the level of unemployment and other impacts that we’ve seen in this. From more of an economic consequence perspective, then a health perspective at this point.

So, I think that’s where some of our thinking has shifted into some of those longer term sustainable models that we can make sure that we’ve got ready, if we get a spike, but also to support people along the way as well, rather than planning for that big wave going up and down that we were at the start.

Emma King:     Yeah, just a number of things were unanticipated at the beginning, and then the impact that we’ve had on volunteers as well, which has been really significant. Can I say a very big thank you to the both of you? Andrea, as I say, you’ve been with us throughout the stage of these webinars that we’ve held, and fantastic to have you with us as well, Amanda. Really appreciate you making time, and I know when we met each other today, you mentioned that you’re a doctor in an emergency room as your kind of day job, and you’re, during this work with the Department of Health, and are generous enough to be here today. So, a huge thank you to both of you, and look forward to you joining us again, hopefully, for our next one, so thank you.

Amanda Rojak:     A pleasure.

Emma King:     Thank you.

It’s now my absolute pleasure to welcome the Minister for Child Protection, Disability, Aging and Carers, Minister Luke Donnellan, who’s in the process of joining us now. The Minister Donnellan, as you know, has been working very hard, both behind the scenes and on public view in terms of many of the issues that we’ve discussed already today, and that we’ll be discussing further with the staff from, with the deputy secretaries from DHHS, Department of Education and Training, and also the Department of Justice as well.

Minister, welcome, it’s my absolute pleasure and privilege to welcome you here today. And I know how committed you are to the community sector more generally. So, perhaps if I hand over to you start with, but it’s wonderful to have you here.

Luke Donnellan:     I’d be happy to say a few words. Okay, so, I’m gonna take here, I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land upon which we are standing and pay my respects to the longest living civilisation in the world and their elders alike, and acknowledge that last week, obviously, was National Sorry Day as well.

I’d like to acknowledge you and the work that VCOSS has done I guess with the department. It’s been a difficult time. We’ve had to rearrange everything. But I think the most important thing that it was done I guess in the partnership, because it’s gotta be done in a partnership style. So, we can all grizzle that not everything’s perfect, we know that, we can’t do everything we need to do, that we really think we have to do, because some things, we’ve had to say we can’t do, because of this coronavirus, but in many ways, it’s important we have community sector and the government sort of working together. So, that’s great.

I think the last time we were here was like a lifetime ago. We actually had people in the room, so it’s a little bit more normalised. So, we’re in the sort of the COVID abnormal period. But I think I guess when we introduced the changes with COVID-19, in many ways, it’s the human resources sector which gets most affected by it. So, really there’s been a lot of work done with your organisations that you represent. But within the department, to try and say how we’re gonna ensure we protect our vulnerable members of the community.

We know there will be more vulnerability because of the changes we had to make in terms of face to face and really doing it on a risk assessment basis. And we know there’ll be new vulnerabilities, which have come out this.

So, I guess, again, I just wanna say thank you. It is going to to be an ongoing partnership with this. There has been great goodwill. I think there’ll be great learnings out of this as well. We don’t like doing everything on our own, because we’re in human services, and we like the face to face contact, as we know, but we’ve had to, I guess, look at new ways of delivering services. And we’ve had to accept that a contractual relations, KPIs we put in, which might have been relevant to a non-COVID-19 period, overall, a bit irrelevant. The most important thing is how do we get reaching to our most vulnerable people?

So, I think that’s going very well. We’re now in this sort of I guess the limbo period, I guess I’ll call it, and that’s I guess that’s sort of a period where we need to stay the line in terms of social distancing and the likes still, but obviously, children have gone back to school. There’s been some changes.

So, again, I guess in many ways, I guess we’ve still gotta stick to the main health message, but we will have a few more freedoms to actually gets to that face to face work. So, it’s yeah, look, it’s gonna be an interesting time over the coming months or so, but I do think, in many ways, and I’ve never seen them, a level of cooperation between the department and the CSO, the community services organisations. Usually, there’s always bloody grizzle, okay. And I think those grizzles are probably warranted on both size, that there’ll be a grizzle about this, a grizzle about that, but you’re just not hearing that at the moment. Because everybody understands we’re in this together. We’ve gotta get the job done. We’ve gotta ensure we’ve got continuity of services, even though they may not all be the services we had previously, but we’re gonna bloody work together. Find our potshots at each other, whatever the case may be. But that’s really not gonna help.

So, yeah, no, thank you for putting these on. And I do think for us the capacity to sort of say thank you to those who work in the human services area for the love and the sharing and the care, they give to our community, to the vulnerable. It’s a great opportunity to say thank you very much. But it’s also an opportunity to reinforce the need to I guess continue good, healthy practices, but also I guess to say we’ve gotta continue this team.

Emma King:     Yeah, and I think just to reflect on what you were saying before, Minister, I think that the partnerships, and actually some of the partnerships that we had in place prior to COVID, that we’ve been able to really ramp up during this time have well and truly stood the test of time. So, if I look at, for example, with Algeri who’s here and his team with their health and human services partnership implementation committee, HHSPIC, the Department of Education and Training have a similar group. Those groups have really stood the test of time. And though, for example, we used to meet bimonthly, we’re now meeting fortnightly, and really looking at what do we need to do and how can we do it together and how can we do it really quickly, ’cause it’s actually about how do we best serve the Victorian community, but also, how do we best serve people who are vulnerable and disadvantaged? And that part’s really key. And I know Algeri will be speaking a little bit later on, around some of the really key issues for the sector and things that go to funding, et cetera, as well.

Because it’s that combination of looking at, right, how do we get on, how do we all do these things, but also, how do we make sure that organisations are financially set up to ride? We know there’ll be a long tail when it comes to coronavirus, how do we walk through that and how do we do that together? So, community sector organisations working alongside government to continue to delivery as best as we can for vulnerable people in the communities, and also looking, as you mentioned, at some of the things that perhaps have come out of this that we would never have anticipated, and I always think of telehealth as an example. I think it was anticipated that it would be rolled out over 10 years, and it was rolled over 10 days, I believe. So, there are some things that come out that we perhaps don’t anticipate that are an advantage as well, there’s a whole lot of other things that are incredibly trying, and are gonna continue to be so over a period of time as well.

So, I think the role that we continue to play with you, it’s always gonna be critically important, and as you say, it’s I guess the show of partnership and working together, and being able to name up issues and being able to do that in good faith, and looking at how we deliver’s never been as important now as before.

Luke Donnellan:     Yeah, I think it’s accelerated, it’s accelerated. And no, I think you’re right. I think that movement towards more evidence based in terms of service delivery, and ensuring that we wanna spend the money, but we wanna get the outcome, but working with the sector together as opposed to imposing it upon the sector, working together to say, “Well, how we gonna do this?” I think that’s great, and I think the issue, we’ll see with coronavirus, is that secondary round of I guess, my concern is a secondary round of financial distress.

Emma King:     Yes.

Luke Donnellan:     Which, again, I don’t know when that’s gonna arrive, it might be two, three months, but quite concerned, whether it be in food relief, things like that, there will be further pressures for all of us to deal with, and realistically, the only way we’re gonna deal with it is in a partnership.

Emma King:     That’s right, and I’m sure you’re acutely aware, many of the community service organisations has seen presentations now. So, not only do they have the people that they were working with every day before, but they’re seeing presentations of an increase in 25 to 35% of people coming, who need their services, that I suspect never thought that they would need help, and that additional call on services, I don’t think any of us are gonna forget it in a hurry, the pictures of people lining up outside Centrelink at 4:30 in the morning, and thinking around the real level of distress that’s been present, and then the call on community service organisations as a consequence, and the way in which, I think, then we work alongside with you, and the broader Andrews government, it’s just so critically important. So, we’re able to help people how need it. You said whether it’s food relief, and at the same time, being cognizant, for example, of volunteers, whom we rely on ever so heavily, and for many volunteers at the moment, they’re not able to volunteer, because they’re over the age of 70, for example, or have chronic health conditions. So, they’re all things we need to navigate through together.

Luke Donnellan:     Yeah, no, no, that’s true. And that’s, in many ways, like you say, that if you represent a broad cross section where you have a lot of people in the food relief sector that don’t have the volunteers at the moment, who are struggling financially as organisations, that’s what is going back to us through surveys. I don’t have any of that, you’re already well aware of that. So, how do we support some of those to keep going? Some of them might nog be able to keep going for a while, and have to wait until this is over ’til they get their volunteers back. But how do we ensure that we’re still getting food out to those people who desperately need it, and ensuring that we provide people with dignity in that space?

Emma King:     Yes, absolutely, and I know you’re very passionate about all of the areas in which you work across, including disability, et cetera, as well. And we really appreciate your support in that area.

I think there’s been some interesting things that have shown that, inevitably, we’ll continue to have conversations with you about in terms of what’s played out in schooling, what’s played out in a whole host of other areas that I know you’re very open to having conversations in those areas, so very much look forward to continuing to do so.

And can I just sincerely thank you, Minister, in terms of making the time to be here today? I know that you weren’t able to be here at the last, but I know it was something that you really wanted to do, and there was something that pulled you in a different direction. It was a little bit out of your control. So, I’d really, like to acknowledge that. But to thank you very much for being here today, to thank you for your support of the sector, and also the fact that you’re very willing to have an open door. I know if there’s any issue, we’re able to come and able to discuss those with you, and you’re very happy to do that. So, I just wanna pass on how much that’s appreciated as well. So, thank you.

Luke Donnellan:     Thank you very much, Emma.

Emma King:     Have a wonderful rest of your day. Thank you, Minister.

Luke Donnellan:     Have a good day, thanks a lot.

Emma King:     Thank you. It’s now my significant pleasure to invite three senior leaders from across the public service. I’ll just wait as they’re moving into place. So, with us, we have, so seated directly to our right, is Argiri Alisandratos. Many of you will recognise Argiri, you’ll know him already anyway, but you’ll recognise him from our previous webinars. He’ll be a familiar face to you, and he’s the Deputy Secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Next to Argiri, we have Peter McCammon, or sorry, Peta McCammon, I should know that so well. I know Peta very well, my sincere apologies, from the Department of Justice and Community Safety. Peta is Deputy Secretary in the department, and is also leading up some of the mission work within the Department of Justice as well.

And Stephen Gniel from the Department of Education and Training. So, Peta and Stephen, if I can particularly welcome you. We’ve had lots of fantastic feedback around the fact that we, today, have education and justice sitting alongside Department of Health and Human Services at the table. We found at the last webinar, many of you had questions that they cross a number of different areas. As we know, people’s lives are not siloed. Issues around education and justice and health and human services all interrelate. So, it’s fantastic to have the panel that we do in front of us today. So, I’m extremely appreciative of your time today.

Now, before we move on to questions, Argiri, I might just ask you to kinda kick off with some sort of initial broad observations, and then we’ll move into questions from there. How does that sound?

Argiri Alisandratos:     Sure, thanks, Emma. Can I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land that we meet on today? Pay respect to elders past and present. And thanks, Emma, again, for hosting this together, as we have been doing for the last little while. I think as the Minister said, these are really important forums. They engage us with our sectors. They’re critically important for how we disseminate information across the sectors, how we engage and understand the sort of challenges and issues that our sectors face, which is important for us, because it helps us calibrate the responses, the plans that we have in motion, and importantly, it enables us to get the policy settings right and to speak with ministers and government about the needs that we’re seeing across the community services environment, and how we respond actively to that.

So, I might just quickly just, whilst we’re talking about plans, we’ve talked a little bit in the past about the guidance that we’ve developed, the plans, the COVID plans, that we’ve developed across our community services sector with the community services guidance being the primary one. But, obviously, as Amanda has spoken about, we are now moving into a slightly different phase. We’re starting to easy restrictions. Government has made those announcements. We’re now starting to think about what restoration of services looks like, and how we undertake that carefully considered work for reactivating some face to face services and restoring some of those services as well.

So, on that level, we have put out, as of yesterday, guidance that assists our sectors to really start to calibrate their responses in this phase of work that we are in. So, the new guidance has gone on to the website, it’s gone on to the funded agency channel, and I urge people to really go and have a look at it. Use that as a guide, it has really important advice and key considerations to apply when determining how to deliver services safely in what we’re calling now the COVID safe environment that we are in. It has a range of tools to help organisations identify the risks of coronavirus transmissions and develop strategies for how we mitigate and respond to those risk, whilst working to transition to normal service delivery. And obviously, there’s a range of tools that help our sectors and our services to be able to make that guided decision for how we get to the COVID normal service delivery environment.

So, again, I hope that the guidance supports our sector’s continuing and existing business continuity planning and it’s complimentary to that. And I would urge people to use the advice that we provided as a really foundational level of advice. So, yeah, so I think that’s really important.

Emma King:     Thanks, Argiri, and I think of one of the things I know that you were really clear, when you’re working with us, was about the fact that you’ve engaged someone specifically with very clear health advice, which I thought you might just wanna share, because I know a number of organisations are sourcing their own advice around to have a COVID safe work environment, and I just thought it might be worth touching on the process that you’ve gone through, so that, in effect, DHHS just can be a bit of a one stop shop on that front.

Argiri Alisandratos:     Yeah, that’s very true, Emma. So, I’ve mentioned previously, and people would have heard a little bit through the various engagements about Professor John Catford. And John has been engaged by us to really help plan and organise that sort of advice that we’re putting out to our sectors. He’s been terrific in terms of being able to give that more disciplined health perspectives that assist for calibrating the guidance, and developing the tools, the assessment tools and the risk based assessment tools that we have positioned out across the sector as of yesterday. So, John has been engaged with many forums, and we’re using much of his expertise to translate that public health information. So, I wanna make that really clear. John’s not the public health person, but he’s a person of tremendous wisdom and experience in the public health environment. He takes the public health advice, he’s able to translate it for use within our social services environment, and the justice environment, ’cause I know John’s been working across a number of departments, equally assisting in that endeavour.

And equally, we’ve been working as a team to really bring our collective efforts so that we share in this information across our departments. And that’s partly the work that we’ve been doing through our mission coordination environment where we’re really thinking very critically about service continuity, reestablishing services, and bringing a COVID safe approach to the way that we undertake that work.

And that’s having a whole government approach as well. We’ve talked previously about those coordinating mechanisms that we have across government, and they’re really the reason we’re all sitting here and the reason we have many of these conversations is to essentially bring a much more integrated approach to the way that we think about service and continuity, the way that we think about restoration of services, and the way that we think about what do we take from this environment, as the Minister says, there’s lots of learnings that we’ve talked a little bit about that previously. What do we take and what do we wanna hold into the future?

So, it’s a pretty strong emphasis in terms of the way that we wanna really pick those kernels, if you like, of changes that we’ve made through COVID, that will really position us well into a future state environment as well.

Emma King:     Absolutely, and I guess it’s just a real flag as well for anyone who’s not seen the templates, et cetera, that were provided yesterday. Please do go and look at them. We know that organizations at the moment are spending lots of money, often having their own sort of case service or health and safety requirements made in the work place. So, just to be really clear that DHHS and the department more generally, has work really hard so that you’ve got that information at hand, and don’t need to go and source it independently. Because we’re very conscious of the amount of money that people are really wanting to deliver on how we provide for the Victorian community, et cetera, as well, and government is doing everything they can to make that job every little bit easier than it can possibly be.

So, I just really wanted to emphasise that, ’cause it is likely that not everyone has seen that. So, if you haven’t, please do jump online at DHHS, Department of Justice, et cetera, because that information is there, and it’s there, and it’s there for you to use as well. So, just to emphasise that.

Argiri Alisandratos:     And for funder organisations, Emma, on the funded agency channel as well. And again, we’re keen to get feedback on those tools, and as we have been doing through this period of time, iterating those on the back of strong advice and intelligence that we’ve been able to gain from the sectors.

Emma King:     Thank you, now, obviously, COVID-19, it’s very much driven up costs, it’s impacted on volunteers as we spoke about earlier today, as well as affecting income I guess in fund raising efforts as well. So, unsurprisingly, a lot of the questions that we’ve had for today’s forums have been around funding. So, we might just whip through a few of these.

So, in terms of programs that had, we were previously, we would have anticipated that our budget would have been in May, COVID has changed all of that, we’re now anticipating that that will be in October or November. That obviously has a significant impact for some programs, particularly those that were only funded through to the 30th of June. I understand government’s made some decisions on that front. So, perhaps, Argiri, if you’d like to walk through what those decision are and the planning that organizations can now undertake as a consequence of those.

Argiri Alisandratos:     Yeah, sure, thank you, Emma, it’s been one of the critical question that sector colleagues have been asking for clarity for some period of time, recognising that many of our organisations are businesses as well. They are there to deliver services, but they rely heavily on the funding and the people that they engage through that funding.

So, yeah, we are now in the position to say that for those programs that were due to be lapsing at the 30th of June, they will continue to the end of September. So, they will roll over, recognising the budget, obviously has been delayed, and will now take place in October of this year. So, we’ve got some continuation of those lapsing programs. We’ve put out advice today across our peak bodies of that nature, and outlining the activities that were due to lapse, and will be continuing. That, hopefully, provides the assurance for continuation of those critical services, and the people that are employed to provide those services.

I will continue to urge organisations to talk to their contacts, their funding contacts, in the departments and across the departments to really make sure that they are clear about what elements, if they’re not absolutely clear, and there’ll be more advice that will be coming out directly to organisations as well.

So, I think we’ve got some movement, some positive movement in that regard that gives some clarity to people about those lapsing initiatives. And if there aren’t, there might be some initiatives, that for a range of reasons, may not be continuing, that discussion will be had with each of the organisations that have those activities.

Emma King:     And then, in terms of that gap, I guess one of the question we’ve been asked a lot, is a round the gap between end of September, whenever budget will be held, end of year, et cetera, I’m imagining those conversations are ongoing, is that correct?

Argiri Alisandratos:     They are, they are. They’re ongoing with government, they’re ongoing with our central agencies, and whilst I’m not in a position to really give you any more clarity about that here and now, hopefully, over the coming days and weeks, we will get more clarity about that, we will be able to communicate that. We’ll use those forums and other mechanisms that we have to make sure that our sectors have that information as soon as we’ve got clarity on it so that the importance of, as I’ve heard from many, many of the organisations, they need to plan proactively and be ready for continuation of those funded initiatives.

Emma King:     Thanks, Argiri. In terms of, this particular question’s been submitted by a neighborhood house, will there be any across the board increases in funding in recognition of the challenging circumstances that community services are in?

Argiri Alisandratos:     So, again, many of our organizations have talked about the impact of COVID-19, on their sustainability, on the resource base, particularly around fundraising that perhaps is not at the levels where it had been previously. And we are talking with government about looking at all of those impacts, ’cause they vary across the sectors, as you can imagine, small organisations like neighborhood houses are profoundly impacted by any of those shifts in the revenue streams that they receive. Equally, larger organisations, who are delivering a broader range of services, have a different amount of impact as well. And we’re undertaking some work at the moment to really look at all of those impacts to be able to collect those sort of intelligence across organisations to engage with government about what those impacts are really doing to services and how they might be impacting on the delivery end for people, ultimately, that are reliant on that support.

So, more work that we need to do on that, more engagement that we’ll have across our sectors, and more advice that we’ll positioning to government about those impacts and how we might treat those impacts going forward.

Emma King:     Fantastic, thank you Argiri, and I’ll come back with some more questions for you.

Stephen, I might just throw to you for a moment, we’ve had lots of questions, unsurprisingly, about laptops and devices, and in terms of students who are, likely I guess, one of the things that we’ve seen, I know I think there’s been the very best intention in terms of looking to roll out devices and internet access, it’s not been perfect, but gee, it’s been a pretty fundamental start compared to what was in place beforehand. So, in terms of students now starting to return to school, and my understanding is kids can have the laptops and assistance until really the end of term two, curious to think in terms of I guess what happens in terms of the formal schooling from home period in terms of the devices in as far as you’re able to say, I guess, yeah.

Stephen Gniel:     No problem, Emma. And I gonna start with two things, just to acknowledge the land on which we’re meeting as well, and particularly this week. And I know a lotta people are searching for different things to do at this stage. And Netflix was high on my list the other night, but I was on ABC iview watching “The Australian Dream”, which is the story about Adam Goodes, of course, told by Stan Grant, and just a really heart wrenching and reality check for us, I think, is where we’re up to in reconciliation. So, I would just recommend that to anyone out there, looking for something to watch.

And the other thing, Emma, and to both Peta and Argiri, is that it’s really important for Education and Training to be here, and sit at the table, and I think, before I get into the devices element of this, just the overwhelming sense of partnership that this has brought through. I think we talk a lot about students and teachers, and the partnership there. I think extrapolating that out into our parents has been a clear thing that’s happened over these last number of months. And I’d personally extend that out to our community organisations, who I think have done absolutely outstanding job of supporting some of those most vulnerable children and families. And without that base level support, some of those kids would have no opportunity to continue their learning. So, just put that out there.

And I guess the other thing to recognise is I think there’s been some great work, and I appreciate that, Emma. I think it’s also been different in different places. And probably call out, as I always used to in a former role, where Argiri and I worked very closely together, was what’s happening in Port Mill when it’s not necessarily the same down in Mallacoota, or Swiss Creek, or whilst up in O’Malley, et cetera. So, I think there’s been some differential experience of what’s out there, and yes, I call that out, because I know a lot of the people online will see that face to face with some of those things.

On the devices, it’s been a pretty full-on time for that part of our department, and for schools as well. We’ve actually made over 61,000 devices available to students. Which is pretty significant, and that’s in the government sector alone. So, there’s around 650,000 students. So, it’s sort of a 10% rate of providing devices. And about 23,000 internet sort of hotspots, dongles, I think that’s the technical term as well. And I think a lot of that is making sure that those students could access education, and without those things, remote learning’s pretty hard.

I think it also drew, into stark relief though, about some of the inequities across our whole communities, where we could provide a device and a dongle, but if there’s actually not internet capability within that community or up in the mountains and those things, then we’ve had to use different approaches. So, right through to hard copy printouts for some students.

Of course, that works better for some than others. If you’re doing VCE, I think that was the group we were sort of most concerned about, as well as our sort of priority cohorts, they were the ones we wanted to get those devices and internet access out to as soon as possible.

And in fact, we worked with our colleagues sitting here, to really identify which cohorts should we list first to get those devices. And so, our students in youth justice was one of those cohorts, our kids in out of home care, our aboriginal students, and then, sort of rolling out from there. And 61,000 sounds like a lot, but we actually couldn’t get enough devices in the country. That’s where we got to. And we ran out of dongles to that sort of point. So, and most of those devices were actually devices that were in schools. So, it was really utilising the stock and the resources that schools had to support students.

So, it’s a good news story, but as you mentioned, Emma, there are places where it wasn’t as good as I think we would have all liked, and we need to learn from that.

Emma King:     Yeah, absolutely, and I suspect you may not be in a position to comment, but any thoughts on what happens beyond the end of term two relating to devices?

Stephen Gniel:     Yeah, so, we’ve actually said into term three for those devices. I think one of the challenging bits of that is that, because so many of them were school based devices, they’ve just gotta balance that with what’s available at school sort of every day as well. And, look, I think schools are up for that challenge. I think they would recognise that for some of those students, it’s really brought it to the forefront that they don’t have that access, right?

So, it wasn’t just the fact that they need to learn remotely during the day, I think of those students going home, who are doing year 11 and 12, or doesn’t even have to be that, young kids, and not having that access to continue to learn out of sorta those regular school hours, I think is a challenge that we’re sort of taking on from this. This is a learning element for us. And not that I don’t think people have told us, probably people of the web called, to be honest. But I think it really brought it out that we sort of see if you live in the city, you think everyone’s got access, and this is all good, but there are place out there where that’s not true. And that includes in the city places as well about accessibility.

Emma King:     Yeah, and I think it highlights, as you say, some of the things that state schools relief and others have spoken about this at length around the requests on their services going from things what used to be a school top, for example, now there are requests around devices, that are significantly more expensive, that they don’t have the funding, as a general rule, to provide. So, it’s kinda highlighted an issue I think that we already knew existed, but also a real inequity between can you continue to learn at home or can’t you, ’cause you’ve either got a device or you haven’t got a device. So, I think there’s more with hopefully we can do in partnership around that front as well.

Stephen Gniel:     Yeah I agree, and calling that, look, as you say, Emma, and I don’t think we know all of them of where people have just lent devices to people or found them, or whatever that might be, or rebuilt old ones and given them to kids. So, and that’s what I meant in the start that I do think we’ve seen a real partnership kind of for everyone, right back to just that basic human need sort of aspect is let’s make sure that people are fed, and those sort of things, and they have access to those things, but also, trying to ensure that there isn’t a widening of the gap in terms of education and the equity.

Emma King:     Yes, absolutely.

Argiri Alisandratos:     I think Emma, that that digital divide is something that we’re very, very conscious of. And particularly the issue about where we’ve had families, not having access to that equipment that’s required. Some of the funding allocations that we’ve been able to make has meant that they’ve at least had the financial capacity to be able to gain some of those devices to be able to then engage in the schooling and be able to support their kids.

And equally, on the innovation side, I think if I think about the partnership between schools and kids in out of home cares as an example, where we have residential care facilities, residential care workers, who have been schooling the kids and engaging in that learning environment, and some of the things that we’ve heard, and this is something for us to take forward in our future state, that some kids have really responded very positively on the online learning, on the web based learning channels. And we’ve talked about this previously in terms of how they take to it a little bit better than some of us. So, again, I think it’s an extraordinary period of learning that we need to really think about how do we take those models of learning beyond the COVID space and how do we prepare for hybrid models of delivering those arrangements across different groups.

Emma King:     We very much look forward to working with you on that. I know we’ve had a number of our out of home care providers who have spoken to us about exactly that, where it’s worked particularly well for some student, who potentially wouldn’t have a, it possibly leads to my next question as well, Stephen.

So, in terms of we know of a normal year, and almost defies comprehension really, we know that about 10,000 students just drop out of our education system, which is more than heartbreaking enough as it is, do we have a sense as a consequence of COVID, do we know yet how many sort of additional students we think may have dropped out? And I know there’s been some really great initiatives. One of the local learning and employment networks sent me through some information yesterday. We had our recent partnership from the Department of Education and Training, some young people there who were talking about how’d they’d found remote learning and some good things and some challenging things, and as a consequence of that, one of the local learning and employment networks who was on the line, gave some students some grants around some sort of welcome back to school, money for welcome back to school activities, which was really great I think around the celebration of coming back into school. Just interested to know whether you’ve got any insight at the moment around how many students have dropped out or whether you’re still compiling that.

Stephen Gniel:     Yeah, look, firstly, this is a real area of passion of mine. And so, I think it is still one of our challenging parts of the education system is how we deal with that really pointy end, where the completion rates have increased over the number of years. And thankfully so, but there’s still that cohort that we still I think are failing at times. And I think some of the things we talk about a lot is that that doesn’t happen, it’s not usually one day, a kid wakes up and just says, “Ah, I don’t feel like, “I’m not gonna go to school forever from now.” It’s actually how we work with families right back in prep. And we see those kids, and if you talk to teachers, they’ll say, prep teachers, they’ll say, “I can tell you the kids that are gonna struggle.”

And it’s that kind of post code destiny element, and it’s not every kid. But the average is that it averages out that more of them don’t make it through. So, I think this government in particular have been very committed to keeping those kids connected and in schools, and there’s sort of hundreds of millions of dollars out there in equity funding for schools to be able to use in that way.

I think through this process, it’s been really interesting. I’ve got some information here sort of just in front of me that I’ll bring up so I make sure the numbers are right. I’ve got this really interesting graph around the lead up to when we went to home schooling, and so, in fact, we had that it sort of hovers around that 90% attendance, on a normal daily basis, it’s a 90% attendance across the state. That dropped right off in the week, or the couple of weeks, before we went to actually learning at home, we had a lot of people sort of taking their kids out, who were probably scares, worried about the health implications. If you think about back to that time, we were in a pretty dark space, looking around the world what was happening and running on. Actually, learning from home in terms of attendance now, and I’ll get to what that means, but attendance was actually right up around that 90% as well. Now, what people then respond to me generally about when I say that is, “Yes, they may have been there, but how engaged where they? What did that look like?” And that’s a normal question for us in everyday school life. And I think a lot of people on the web will also be parents, and they will have seen this, I’ve got three kids, and they’re in the years groups that none of them are back yet. So, I had no influence over that, obviously. So, what we’re seeing is high rates of attendance of students on site in comparison to last year. So, lots of people are coming back.

There’s some other factors around that, though. People aren’t taking holidays. So, we’re not seeing that impact. And again, I think what we’re really focused on, Emma, and this is where we’ll have to work with our partners across the board on this is yeah, how are those kids that were probably at most risk already, how are they transitioning back into school? At the moment, we’ve got year 11 and 12 back in those senior groups. I think I’m personally more worried about those kids that are on the edge in year eight, the 14, 15 year olds, that I think were probably just keeping going to school, and there were people really focused on keeping them engaged, and whether this has just cropped that out a bit. So, look, it’s one where you’re right, we probably don’t have the specific information we need right now, but it’s well and truly on our agenda that we’ve gotta make sure that we know who they are and then respond.

Emma King:     Yeah, thank you.

Peta, I might throw a couple of questions over to you. I guess just thinking about as well about we suddenly have everything closed down, children and young people who would normally be involved at school, and potentially in community based activities and sport, et cetera, suddenly it all closes, and we’re told to stay safe and stay at home, we know all the challenges that are there for people who perhaps don’t have secure housing, and all those sorts of things as well. One of our members has referred to reports of some fairly heavy handed policing, particularly with regards to vulnerable, young people. Can you talk about what oversight is in place for that? I know I moving into sort of the next stage, but I guess any observations you have around what’s happened to date, but what the thinking is moving forward, given that we’re still in a state of emergency for another two and a half weeks still.

Peta Mccammon:     Sure, and I might take the opportunity just to make a couple of contextual comments as well, piggybacking on what Argiri was talking about, and also just to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we’re all meeting today.

And this is probably the most exciting thing that’s happened to me since March to come here today. And it’s really great to be invited and to see people face to face.

I think before we get to the pointy end of that question in terms of police oversight, I just wanted to really pick up on some of the comments that Argiri made and also Stephen, in relation to the work that we’re doing across government together, not just through the mission’s work, but we started some of this work pre-COVID through the common client’s work, which it’d be great to have an opportunity to talk about that today, because I think all of the contextual information we’ve had today highlights that the work that happens in DHS, the work that happens in DET, ultimately, we end up the recipients, that’s a terrible way of saying that, but we absolutely see our work as part of a system. So, the justice system is part of the DHHS and the education system.

So, I was also reflecting coming here that there’s something about the way that we work in an emergency. So, we’ve been working I think in an emergency since February, or December, really. So, we forget that we had the bush fires. And so, that really, the year that we have in terms of the way that we’ve all been working, the sector as well, we’ve been working in this emergency type way of working.

And I think there’s something though that there’s a natural way that we default in an emergency. And I think we default to collaboration. And I think I found too we default to quickly identifying what are those things that really matter. So, I know in our space, we’ve been really focused on getting a handle on what’s happening with family violence. So, and we’ve changed the way we’ve even been working in terms of how do we get operational type intelligence quickly in to our policy makers so that we can advise government quickly about what might need to change, what are some of the gaps.

So, I think there’s something about that that taking those learnings about that emergency style working, the natural way of collaboration, and I’ve really felt that I’ve spent almost as much time with Argiri than I have as my justice colleagues. And we have governance set up in relation to making sure that we don’t duplicate, I think we’ve been begging, stealing, borrowing, but I think coming today here was just I think another natural progression of that.

So, really looking forward to more types of engagement with the sector coming together. Because I think also, the other point I’d make is we don’t really know what’s next. We have economic measures, we have this idea, and I think we’re now officially allowed to call it a recession, I think now.

Emma King:     Well, the Treasurer has, so.

Peta Mccammon:     But I think we have this sense of what’s coming, but this is unprecedented. So, I think we can draw on our data, and I know our two teams across our two departments have been doing a lot of work around trying to get an early heads up on that. But I think there is something about hearing from people on the ground as well about early intelligence that I think we need to be really great, to keep discussions with these type of forums for us to have that.

But in terms of the police oversight, I think picking up on the comments that I’ve made about the common client work, ultimately, we’re looking to roll out, we started with four pilot sites, we wanna get back going on those four pilot sites to look at how do we work together with our colleagues in DHHS and police in relation to a more integrated service model for people.

And I think one of the things through COVID that is coming through is the importance of looking particularly at young people. I think the data is starting to demonstrate in relation to young people as a growing risk.

So, I think in terms of looking forward, in terms of improvements to the system, that’s something I definitely wanna come back and talk in more detail to this group, but in terms of the police oversight, I can’t speak for police, the police are their own agency, but if people do have concerns in relation to police behaviour, there’s opportunities to make complaints directly to police. And then, there’s a number of type of complaints that automatically go to IBAC. So, IBAC is the key agency in terms of police oversight.

I would say too, that the police have a number of initiatives, particularly in relation to young people. So, they have youth specialist officers within the police force, looking to draw on evidence and to also assist I guess in capacity building for the broader police force in relation to how to deal with young people. But I think if people do have, and it’s obviously a very sensitive topic at the moment, not just here, but internationally, I think I’d encourage people to, and we can make more details available, but to make complaints in relation to that any sort of types of behaviour, and also there’s also, as I’ve said, IBAC.

Argiri Alisandratos:     I might just add to that, Emma. I think it might have been at the last forum we had, I talked a little bit about the work that we’re doing with Vic Pol on this very issue, particularly for kids of out of home care, Peta, but it also extends into other cohorts that would have incoming interaction with Vic Pol, particularly around people with a mental health issue, people with a disability that may not have been responding well to stay at home provisions.

And Vic Pol were terrific in terms of coming to the table, being able to engage with us to work up a protocol, to be able to disseminate that protocol across their organisation, and particularly, out to the local level, and to respond to particular examples, where in the early days, we had a few situations that probably could have been managed differently and more productively, but to their credit, they were absolutely on to it and were responsive. And, of course, the defining of a protocol and a working agreement, I think just meant that we can input into that and really demonstrate the sort of vulnerabilities that some of our cohorts have, and how police then can calibrate their responses to it as well.

So, I think it’s been a terrific, as both my colleagues have said, another example of terrific partnership in an environment where we’ve got unprecedented sort of actions and decisions that are being made by government.

Emma King:     Yeah, I think this time has been very much defined by I would say information and sort of the critical sorts of information and collaboration, which has been, we’ll touch a little more a bit later in terms of some of the things we don’t wanna lose. And I know we’re keen to do more work around that as well.

And Peta, if I can just go back, ’cause I know one of the challenges that we’ve had around is around the number of fines that have been issued, and there’s been lots of commentary around that, I don’t intend to revisit it, but we’ve had more than 6,000 fines that have been issued in Victoria. One of the challenges that we know is that if someone’s poor basically, and they’re vulnerable, they don’t have $1,600 plus really in terms of each fine. So, in terms of we’ve had questions from members around well, what do we tell our clients? If they’ve been issued with a fine for over $1,600, they have no capacity to pay whatsoever. Or if they do pay, it means that they’re simply, they’re destitute.

What, and I guess this is a question across the board, really, so what can we do in those circumstance and what do we tell people?

Peta Mccammon:     Yeah, and I think like a lot of the things we’re talking about today, these aren’t new issues, they’re issues that have been I guess exacerbated in the COVID environment. So, and it is a difficult issue, obviously, this is a pandemic, a major health emergency, and there’s an appropriateness too in terms of the police and the health officers in terms of issuing fines.

Look, there are special circumstances that people can apply for. So, people should apply to Fines Victoria. So, there’s special circumstances in relation to homelessness and also mental health. And I understand there’s been nearly 40 internal reviews that we’re aware of at this stage that have been subject to that. So, in the first instance, people should get in touch with Fines Victoria.

There’s also a special unit in DJCS. I think it’s called Customer Care Team, that are actually looking at some of the more complex cases. And there’s opportunities in relation to payment plans or holding patterns.

So, I think in the first instance that there is an opportunity for review and there is an opportunity to look at some of those more complex cases. But look, it’s a challenging issue, and as I said, it’s not new in terms of some of the proportion of vulnerable people who end up subject to fines.

Emma King:     That they have no capacity to pay, but I think that the point that you raise is a really important one around looking at where people can go, if they if they get a fine they can’t pay, knowing that there’s somewhere that you can go to actually seek help, assistance, et cetera, from there. It’s a starting point, so.

Peta Mccammon:     Yeah, and we can make sure those details are available.

Emma King:     That would be great, we’ll make sure that we distribute those after the forum today as well.

So, I guess, Argiri, going back to you, in terms of looking, and we touched on this earlier, around the crisis driving a whole lot of new people into hardship, whom I suspect probably never thought they would find themselves, and we hear this a lot, of people who present a member organisation, saying I never thought this would be me. I now need to come and ask for emergency relief, they’re asking for financial counselling, they might be in a family where they had jobs and now the jobs have disappeared. Interested in terms of the work that’s being done to reach this cohort and making sure that people are getting the support they need, and I guess in asking that question too, I do wanna be very clear that in no way does it dismiss people who have consistently found themselves in that situation as well, but we’ve now got people who are already in entrenched disadvantaged and poverty, people who are teetering on the edge, and now, we’ve got a new group of people who were probably doing fine, and finding themselves in that first category as well.

Argiri Alisandratos:     Yeah, I agree, and I might call on Peta to help me with this one, because it really crosses over much of the work.

Emma King:     It does.

Argiri Alisandratos:     That we’ve been talking about, and Peta’s already alluded to. So, we recognise there are new cohorts of people that are coming into need, whether that be through financial stress, unemployment, and we know that that’s a real factor for people, that potentially leads to mental health challenges. And again, these are people that perhaps have not been in our traditional sort of scope of delivery, but through the circumstances that they’ve found themselves in through COVID-19, it is exacerbating and pushing them into needing more support.

And as you’ve seen, many of the announcement that government has made, it tries to tackle both elements. Those that are already in our services that we know have got substantial need, and those that are newly potentially coming into services. And we have to think about them in slightly different ways, because the traditional delivery arrangement for our traditional cohorts may not be the right delivery arrangements and may not hit the mark for some of those newly emerged disadvantaged cohorts and vulnerable cohorts. So, part of the work that we’ve been doing and thinking about throughout our mission coordination is really to think about what’s the service response, because clearly we don’t wanna draw them more deeply into existing services, but equally, we’ve gotta have an attuned response and a service model that understands the differentiator between previous cohorts and current emerging cohorts, and data analysis will be critical to that. Our service organisations and the intelligence that they bring, and the policy setting that we’ve created to enable a more agile way of responding to the needs of those cohorts.

So, I think they’re all in the mix in terms of of work that we’ve been doing, but equally, they’re front and centre of government’s thinking, particularly about economic participation and initiatives that will reestablish economic participation for many of those that have fallen out of work, the Working for Victoria Fund, as you know, has been an important initiative on how we get that pool of people back into work, meaningful work, and supporting meaningful endeavours of government delivery and other delivery.

So, they’re some of the initiatives, and by no stretch of the imagination will they be the only ones, but it really begs the question about how do we think about a different service system response and how do we engage and collaborate with our service sectors to really help us on that journey.

Peta Mccammon:     Yeah, yeah, and just to add maybe to even complicated some of these forums going forward, I think picking up on Argiri’s point in terms of some of the mission work, the Department of Jobs and Precincts is a really important player in this in terms of access to jobs, and the government’s made a number of very significant infrastructure investments. What’s the role in terms of social procurement, in terms of opportunities for people for work? And the other, I guess is also the Commonwealth in this space in terms of we’ve got particular points coming up in relation to Jobkeeper, Jobseeker.

So, I think how do we work, we’ve had discussions or decisions about national cabinet. There is moment here in relation to the Commonwealth and our interaction with them that I think, in the last bit of time, that I think they’re another important player in relation to some of that linking the economic decisions and opportunities with some of the social outcomes.

Emma King:     I could not agree more.

Stephen Gniel:     Can I just jump in as well?

Emma King:     Yeah.

Stephen Gniel:     And I think this is why, and I agree with Peta, that having jobs raisings here is part of that mix as well, but it just shows you why the collaboration and coordination across government and with community sector organisations is so important. Now, as I was sort of listening there as well, remembering that yeah, the Department of Education is training as well. And, of course, a lot of this is about what we might need to do to retrain people that have lost jobs, or the industries are falling over, and those sort of things.

And also, part of that education portfolio’s kindergarten, and long daycare, and those things, so, you can see that as soon as you start to think like that, all of these things are important. Just thinking about those people that have lost their job, but their kids may not be at school or at kindergarten, how do they then put the time into applying for jobs? And seeking different training and all those things. So, it’s all interlinked.

And I guess wanting to give that sort of assurance that I think particularly the three of us, but across the government, that those people with those key portfolio responsibilities are well aware that we need to respond to people’s needs in a coordinated fashion, rather than push what that portfolio kind of approach might be. And I think, certainly, that’s something I’ve heard of in terms of frustration from some of the community sector organisations. They don’t even have the funding with multiple funding sort of things. And I sort of talked about that as we need the adults to together to support, in my case, it’s toward children, of course, and young people, but I think for all of us, it’s those common clients, how do we work together, starting from the people and the individuals, and recognising that their touch points are across all of different government services.

Emma King:     I think you’ve repeated what all my lines would be, Stephen, in terms of well, no, because it’s his part to just say it’s not like we always talk about it, and knowing that the challenges that individual bureaucrats have in their own day job, but it’s the part about actually where do we rise above it and work together, and it is one of the interesting things out of a crisis time. And we all know, for example, if a child starts school from behind, it’s unlikely they’re ever gonna catch up. That’s the case without a crisis.

And the chance to extend this conversation out to Department of Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, absolutely, that would be fantastic, and as you know, we’ve been working really closely with them, for example around Working for Victoria, and again, the really instrumental role of the Department of Education and Training has played on that front has been really critical.

I might just get to, I’m mindful we’ve got about sort of 10 minutes left for question, a couple of key things, and I do just wanna pick up on a point I think each of you are making, and I can probably take it to a different level, but the part around Jobseeker and Jobkeeper is really critical. We know that we’re at a really key point at the moment in terms of we know that for people who are on what was Newstart is now Jobseeker. The amount was doubled. We know that makes this extraordinary difference of people in terms of of being able to put petrol in the car, or being able to buy shoes for the kids, those kinds of things. And I know that’s a federal issue, and I know, I suspect all of you are working really hard to keep that on the agenda alongside looking at how Jobkeeper might be adapted and actually delivering for people who desperately need that.

I’m not sure whether you can comment on this at the moment, but keeping in mind around some of the people who are excluded from Jobkeeper, for example, Argiri, in knowing that I’m not sure whether there’s an opportunity here to talk about the challenges that are facing people, for example, who are refugees, on temporary protection visas, et cetera, who are currently, they’re not able to access federal government assistance, such as Jobseeker and Jobkeeper. I know there’s been some work that’s been undertaken in terms of helping families or people who fall into that category. Are you able to just briefly touch on that as well or is that something you need to kinda come back to talk on in more detail?

Argiri Alisandratos:     No, no, no, no, no, I’m happy to make some comments about that. So, I think I absolutely agree with all those comments, Emma. The role that National Cabinet will continue to play, and I think for all of us, and you would have all heard, the Prime Minister’s announcement about the more enduring nature of National Cabinet, I think is gonna be really important for how we keep the Commonwealth leaders connected with the state and jurisdictional policy settings. So, I think that that’s incredibly important.

But to your point, we recognise that there are particular groups that fall out of some of those income support initiatives and enhancements that have been made at the Commonwealth level and that the Victorian Government has been very, very focused on. So, I might run through some of those. I know we’re short on time. So, it might be quicker for me to just give some visibility.

One to let people know that from a health service delivery perspective, our Victorian health services, will continue to deliver health support and health intervention to all of those people that are not eligible for Medicare or don’t have a residency status, and that’s an important fundamental element of how we support people through what is a health crisis.

Equally, the Victorian Government recently made a range of announcements of supports through the helping multicultural Victorians have through Coronavirus package. So, $2 million being invested to battle social isolation and strengthen community connections, with up to 150 multicultural community organisations to provide IT support, enhance digital capacity, and increase outreach services to those in need, to make sure that young people in multicultural communities have the right support.

Nearly $5 million has been made available to support vulnerable in that risk youth and families in financial hardship who need essential items, such as food and clothing, $2.2 million will be made available to provide basic needs assistance to thousands of asylum seekers. And $1.1 million towards cultural appropriate family violence prevention and early intervention services, which is really important. That package also includes $1 million to boost translated messages across government departments. So, Victorians with English as a second language can better navigate their way through the pandemic, and in our engagements with the Victorian Multicultural Commission, this is an important initiative, and one that those communities can keep calling on government to make sure that we target the communication, we make it appropriate and accessible, so that’s an important initiative.

At a previous forum, I spoke about the range of supports available to people seeking asylum, refugee communities, and other vulnerable temporary migrants, including $3 million that was allocated in the ’19, ’20 budget to address rising asylum seeker destitution vulnerability by boosting the capacity of specialist asylum seeker programs to deliver crisis support.

So, as you can see, there are a range of initiatives, and probably more that are incoming, I would say, Emma. So, stay tuned for maybe a few more announcements that target specific cohorts, and the Victorian government is very, very committed to understanding the needs of those groups, and our community service organisations continue to fly the flag, local government, same, and do a lot of work to engage and support those communities as well.

Emma King:     Thanks, Argiri, we’ll keep our, we’re listening eagerly, waiting for potential future announcements on that front.

There’s a couple of other points I wanna get to, and I may not get to them all today, but one of the key things I think is looking at the large number of people who’ve been placed in emergency accommodation during this time, possibly in a way that before we were told, to be frank, was impossible, and we’ve seen it happen. And people who were without a home.

And so, I’m interested, and I guess, I wanna name up in a way that possibly the three of you can know in terms of how I can’t, I’m devastated by the Federal Government’s announcement today of throwing money at people who, to be frank, don’t need it, for renovations, when I think that money could have gone to social housing and providing homes to people who simply don’t have one. I think it’s a no brainer as an economic stimulus, it provides jobs, it provides homes for people who need it.

So, I name that by way of commentary, and it’s an observation on a broader point from the Federal Government. I guess my hope is that state government can continue to influence federal government to do more work on that front in terms of social housing.

I know that it’s not your portfolio, Argiri, and again, but it probably, it reaches all of you in terms of in the work that you do. I’m interested to know whether anything along the lines of sort of a housing first model might be considered long term. If none of you are able to answer that, we can take it offline and look at who might be better placed to do so. But it is a question that’s come through, and I think it’s a particularly valid one. We were very hopeful in terms of the Federal Government announcement, there would be some prospect there for social housing because it’s a no brainer. Unfortunately, we haven’t see that today. I guess interested in any reflection you may have or whether it’s something that you need to take on notice.

Argiri Alisandratos:     Yeah, I might kick it off, Emma, and then my colleagues can jump in. But you’re right, strong commitment from the Victorian government about people deserving safe and secure accommodation, and one that’s enduring.

So, and whilst I haven’t got all the details and happy to make that more details available, the government has invested nearly $15 million to protect people experiencing homelessness, as we’ve seen, hotel accommodation support that has been implemented through this COVID-19 period of time so that they get the right support, are protected, and we minimise transmission. So, really important initiative.

Equally, we know through the housing and homelessness system there are a range of pathways that are now being activated to really start to plan for the transition of those people into more sustainable options. So, that’s an important bit of work that we are continuing to do, and obviously, private rental assistance programs and a whole range of other social and public housing initiatives will be critical to that endeavour.

Also, as part of the $2.7 billion building works package, almost $500 million has been allocated to build and refurbish social housing, including $30 million to upgrade emergency and transitional housing for people at risk or are experiencing homelessness.

So, you can see, from the Victorian government perspective, that’s a huge investment. Certainly, it’s not gonna address all the need, but it’ll go a fair way to be able to attend to the needs of those people, and equally, have the benefit of creating employment opportunities at the same time as we build up and scale that sort of building approaches.

Stephen Gniel:     Yeah, just, Emma, it’s connected in a way, in two ways, one of the things that we continue to do is provide transport for school students during the pandemic. And I think what we see with homelessness and the impact on families can be that moving and potentially losing the sort of bedrock of those children’s lives to have had that connectivity. So, again, that’s something that we’ve been working on more across government is how do you look at finding homes, but also how do you maintain those social connections and fabric for those children.

And the other call that I just wanted to make, Emma, was to communities like East Gippsland what are still suffering from the bush fires as well, and again, what we see with some of those is temporary moving around. And so, that’s something where we’re mindful of as well in looking at the data of yeah, student movement between schools as well, and how we try and support families where that is sort of the best way for them to keep within a home. But the impact can be fairly marked on those students too. So, it’s how do we make sure we continue to support them, even if they are having to move houses? But also schools at times.

Emma King:     Yeah, thank you. Now, I’m very mindful of time, and we’re in our final couple of minutes. So, that’s probably all the time I’ve got time for questions today.

Can I say a huge thank you to all of you? It’s just that I think it speaks volumes that we’ve got the Department of Education and Training, Justice and Community Safety, Health and Human Services sitting here together, and having had your other colleagues with us earlier today as well, very happy, we’d be thrilled to have Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions at our next forum as well.

Thank you to everyone for submitting all of your questions in the lead up for today, and thank you for everyone for fronting up to answer them. I know it’s not always easy to do so.

Can I also say a really huge thank you to the VCOSS and the DHHS staff who’ve worked incredibly hard to bring today together, and to everyone who’s been involved in today? There’s a huge amount of work behind the scenes.

And of course, a huge thanks to all of you who’ve submitted questions as well. I’m very mindful that we didn’t get to all of those questions today. We will answer everything offline that we possibly can and post the answers to questions. For example, there was some great questions around young people and mental health and the work that schools are doing to support them. So, we’ll follow up on those and we’ll make sure that we post those questions online.

By way of reminder, and I guess also for follow up, these forums are now being held monthly on the first Thursday of each month. So, make sure that you get your questions in for the next forum. We’re really keen to get as many questions in as we can, and very focused on making this as much of a getting your questions answered forum as much as we possibly can.

So, the next forum, if you pop it into your diary, Thursday, the 2nd of July. We hope to see you then, if not beforehand.

Stay safe, everyone, thank you very much for being with us, and wishing you all the best, thank you everyone.

This page contains general guidance only. VCOSS does not provide direct health or legal advice. We encourage you to also visit official government websites:

• Victorian vaccine rollout hub
• Federal vaccine rollout overview.
• “When will I get a COVID-19 vaccine?”
• Vaccination consent (disability and aged care)
• COVID vaccine explainers (including Auslan) 

‘Vaccinating Victoria’

A rolling briefing series providing critical information about the COVID-19 vaccine program.

These sessions were recorded live on April 19th, 2021, with guest presenters;

• Professor Ben Cowie, Victorian COVID Immunisation Team
• Melissa Scadden and Taboka Finn, law firm Justitia

Past briefings

Information for workplaces

PPE requests

• DHHS has established a streamlined process to manage the distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for members of the community sector. Demand for PPE is very high at the moment, and the government is urging community organisations to source PPE independently before making a request. DHHS has also developed guidelines and a risk assessment checklist for workers in how to use PPE properly for face-to-face interactions with clients.

Other resources

HSHPIC Meeting Summaries

The Human Services and Health Partnership Implementation Committee (HSHPIC) COVID-19 Response Group is meeting fortnightly. An informal summary will be published following each meeting. You can learn more about HSHPIC here.

• 28 May 2020
• 12 May 2020
• 30 April 2020
• 16 April 2020

Victoria’s social service leaders are voicing concern about the uncertain future of a piece of Federal Government funding that means their staff can be paid fairly.

The funding—called the Equal Remuneration Order Supplementation—was put in place almost a decade ago.

It allows organisations to provide fair pay to workers across highly feminised sectors like homelessness, food relief, domestic violence and mental health.

But the Federal Government is yet to commit to the continuation of this critical funding.

A new survey of community service leaders has revealed that without the renewal of this funding, many organisations would have to cut staff or axe services.

The survey was conducted by the UNSW Social Policy Research Centre in collaboration with the Councils of Social Service of Australia, supported by Community Sector Banking. (See attached.)

The survey shows roughly 45% of community service organisations in Victoria currently receive the Equal Remuneration Order Supplementation funding.

VCOSS CEO Emma King said it would be a tragedy if any funding was removed.

“Community service workers deserve fair pay for their important work,” she said.

“Cutting funding for community sector workers means less people to help those who reach out in times of great need.”

“We’re deeply concerned the Federal Government is yet to commit to the continuation of this vital funding.”

Bevan Warner, CEO of homelessness organisation Launch Housing, said discontinuing the funding was “an absurd proposition”.

“We’d have no option but to lay off staff and deliver fewer services,” he said.

“Housing workers are on society’s front line, responding to people with personal safety issues and trauma every day.”

“These highly qualified members of the community are doing this work for $31 per hour. We can’t reduce this amount.”

Australian Council of Social Service CEO Cassandra Goldie, said Australia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and people should be able to rely on community services in times of need.

“It’s incredibly concerning that the Federal Government has yet to commit to the continuation of funding put in place to ensure staff are paid fairly in this sector, which is made up of 80% women.”

“In Australia, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, people should be able to rely on community services.”

“In the lead up to International Women’s Day, we’re calling on the Federal Government to commit to continuing to provide to Equal Remuneration Order Supplementation funding, which was established almost a decade ago to provide fair pay in the feminised community service sector,” Dr Goldie said.

But behind the neat native garden and unassuming exterior is a bustling engine-room of community health, resilience and wellbeing.

The Morwell Neighbourhood House has been operating since 1982, with a mission to support individuals, bring people together and develop the community’s capacity to solve local challenges. Most recently, the centre played a pivotal role after the destructive Morwell Mine Fire of 2014.

Last year the Neighbourhood House set itself a challenge. They knew their centre was productive and much-loved, but they wanted to actually measure its true social impact. Knowing its value to the community would help enormously when planning future operations, and dealing with funders and stakeholders.

Morwell Neighbourhood House engaged prominent consulting firm Deloitte Access Economics to provide an estimate of the social impact of the Neighbourhood House over one calendar year.

The Social impact study of Morwell Neighbourhood House final report found that in 2017, from a total income of just $134,039, Morwell Neighbourhood House provided more than $600,000 in value to the local community. That is a 350% return on investment.

As well as this outstanding financial return, the report also found that Morwell Neighbourhood House provided significant community benefit by building individual and community resilience.

The report analysed social impacts of the services provided by Morwell Neighbourhood House in a number of areas, including:

• Health and wellbeing
• Pride
• Independence
• Resilience

According to the report, a range of services offered by the Neighbourhood House—including social groups, community lunches, and community meeting and support groups—all contributed to resilient and sustainable relationships, personal wellbeing and confidence.

In addition, weekly activities provided an inclusive environment for people with a disability, leading to stronger community relationships and improved social connectedness.

The promotion of the Neighbourhood House and its activities in local media, the free lawnmower program and the leadership offered to other community organisations all contributed to greater community pride of place and empowerment.

The role of volunteers in the Neighbourhood House, and the courses that were run in general education, life skills, craft and computer programs, all assisted local people to acquire valuable skills. The food bank, Gippsland period project and direct financial aid provided access to resources for people in need. These helped to build the resilience of the local community by ensuring better access to essential resources and crisis support.

Neighbourhood Houses help Victorians make friends, get involved in their community and become economically engaged.

The report stated that Morwell Neighbourhood House’s ‘true impact on the community is likely to be much greater,’ and that ‘the reader should keep in mind that the true impact of such a vibrant and responsive organisation on a community like Morwell and its surrounds is likely to be much greater’.

Deloitte Access Economics noted that there is scope for further research, in particular in relation to how much government money is saved through grassroots prevention activities like those taken by Morwell Neighbourhood House.

Neighbourhood Houses help Victorians make friends, get involved in their community and become economically engaged. They create inclusive and welcoming environments where people of any ability, background or age can connect, learn and share. They are also a cost-effective way of combatting loneliness and social isolation, improving people’s wellbeing and reducing their reliance on acute and other government services.

With the increase in funding for Neighbourhood Houses in the recent Victorian Budget, the Victorian Government can be satisfied that this investment has a profound return.

Download

This submission has been produced by the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) in partnership with the:

• Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS)
• Australian Capital Territory Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS)
• New South Wales Council of Social Service (NCOSS)
• Northern Territory Council of Social Service (NTCOSS)
• Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS)
• South Australian Council of Social Service (SACOSS)
• Tasmanian Council of Social Service (TasCOSS)
• Western Australian Council of Social Service (WACOSS)

The nine Councils of Social Service are the respective National, State and Territory peak bodies of the community services sector and a voice for the needs of people affected by poverty and inequality.

These findings turn on its head any perception that the community sector is a cost to society. Rather it is a key asset.

The sector is made up of a vast range of organisations, both in terms of their size, and the services they provide. They also generate income from a wide range of sources. These organisations face a myriad of reporting requirements, which in many cases are becoming ever more complex, time-consuming and costly.

This report details the economic contribution of Victoria’s community sector charities, analysing the data these organisations have provided to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission (ACNC) in 2014 Annual Information Statements. It also details the reporting burden being borne by organisations. In the future many of these reporting obligation issues could be addressed through state and Commonwealth governments working together with the community sector to streamline reporting and accountability mechanisms.

Key findings

• Victoria’s community sector charities form an $11 billion industry.
• Victoria’s community sector charities draw on a diverse range of funding sources, with just over half their income (54%) derived from sources other than government funding, including donations, bequests and other revenue generation activities.
• Just over half (52%) of Victoria’s community sector charities receive income from government grants and the vast majority (86%) generate income from other revenue sources (including service fees and charges).
• Employee expenses make up the majority (54%) of community sector charities’ expenses.
• The majority of community sector charities operate balanced budgets (68%). A further 21% operate surplus budgets.
• Victoria’s community sector charities employ 134,958 workers across the state.
• Almost a quarter (22%) of community sector workers are employed casually, and therefore face an insecure employment situation.
• Victoria’s community sector charities make a strong economic contribution in regional areas, and provide significant employment in these areas.
• ACNC and case study data show Victorian community sector charities face a range of reporting and compliance challenges including:
  • Spending on average 291 paid staff hours and 47 unpaid hours a year reporting to either Commonwealth or state government agencies.
  • Large organisations on average spending 523 paid staff hours and 80 unpaid hours on reporting obligations.
  • Social services and other health service delivery subsectors spending the most time and bearing the greatest cost meeting reporting obligations, spending far more time and money meeting reporting obligations than, for example, the aged care subsector, despite having far lower annual incomes than the aged care subsector.
  • Spending an estimated $23 million across the sector to fulfil reporting obligations.
  • Multiple and duplicated reporting and auditing requirements.
  • Inconsistent auditing requirements of the same standards from different funding bodies.
  • Being required to provide information to funding bodies that is irrelevant to service quality improvement and delivery.
  • Financial reporting requirements that do not equate to the level of funding or the risk associated.
  • Inconsistency in funding acquittals and reporting formats.
  • Inconsistency in definitions between funding streams.
  • Frequent changes in reporting requirements.