What is the Disability Employment Network?
The Disability Employment Network is a network of specialist employment services supporting people with disability to find and maintain work in the open labour market. The network is made up of community and private organisations across Australia, providing expert support and services to people with disability, employers and co-workers.
Responsibility for the Disability Employment Network rests with the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
Why is this important?
The Disability Employment Network assists job seekers with disability to find and maintain sustainable employment. Disability Employment Network members promote the capacity of people with disability leading to improved employment opportunities and encourage innovation and continuous improvement in the provision of employment services.
Who benefits?
The Disability Employment Network is for people who have a permanent or likely to be permanent, disability and require specialist assistance for more than six months after being placed in a job; or need ongoing support to keep a job.
The Disability Employment Network also provides assistance to people with disability in 'employment in jeopardy' situations. Employees who are likely to lose their job as a result of their disability may be able to receive immediate support from a Disability Employment Network member to keep their job.
The Helping People with Mental Illness Enter and Remain in Employment measure outlined in the Council of Australian Governments' (COAG) National Action Plan on Mental Health 2006 - 2011 aims to provide, through the Disability Employment Network, additional post placement support for people with mental illness and more support for people who are at risk of losing or leaving their jobs as a result of their mental illness. This represents a specific focus on people with mental illness as part of a holistic approach to assisting people with disability to find and maintain employment in the open labour market.
The existing Disability Employment Network has not fundamentally changed and the provisions were developed in anticipation of increased demand for Disability Employment Network services for people with mental health issues.
Accordingly additional funding has been provided for more Employment in Jeopardy support for workers with mental health disability and the introduction of a new Intermittent Support Fee (Mental Health) of $550 (excluding Goods and Services Tax) with an increase to four occasions of support being available to assist the worker in the job over 12 months.
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What does the Disability Employment Network deliver?
Disability Employment Network members provide a range of specialist services individually tailored to meet the employment needs of people with disability and their employers. They also provide a range of services to employers and co-workers to assist them to hire and retain a person with disability, and advocate on behalf of people with disability to promote the benefits of employing this group to the local community.
Services include:
- help to prepare for work, including training in specific job skills;
- job search support, such as resume development, interview skills training and help to look for suitable jobs;
- support when first placed into a job, including on-the-job training and support for co-workers and employers;
- ongoing support in a job if required; and
- vocational training and other assistance.
How does it work?
The Disability Employment Network is made up of community and private organisations across Australia, which provide a range of services to job seekers with disability in order to prepare them to return to work, as outlined above.
The Disability Employment Network includes:
- the capped stream for those people with disability who are assessed as likely to require ongoing support to retain employment after they have found a job. Job seekers/workers do not need to be on income support to access capped services. Where required, Disability Employment Network members also provide ongoing support to a person in the capped stream to assist them to retain their job; and
- the uncapped (demand driven) stream for those people who have an obligation to look for work and are assessed as being able to work 15-29 hours per week independently at full award wages with up to two years of employment assistance.
There are a number of Disability Employment Network members who specialise in assisting job seekers with specific disability types. This includes assisting people with vision impairment, hearing impairment and mental health conditions.
What funding is attached to this measure?
The Commonwealth's component of the Council of Australian Governments' (COAG) National Action Plan on Mental Health 2006 - 2011 included $40 million over five years to Help People with Mental Illness Find and Retain Employment. Additional support provisions for the Disability Employment Network implemented on 1 January 2007, were allocated nearly $5 million over five years to allow delivery until 2010-11.
When did the Disability Employment Network start?
The Disability Employment Network commenced in 1986 (and was previously known as Disability Open Employment Services) to provide job seekers with disability various forms of assistance to find and maintain employment in the open labour market. In February 2008 across Australia there were 225 Disability Employment Network members operating from 726 sites.
The Disability Employment Network capped program has around 38,000 places available at a point in time. In 2006-07, over 20,000 jobs seekers with disability commenced in the capped stream.
Uncapped services in the Disability Employment Network commenced on 1 July 2006. In 2006-07, over 8,000 people commenced in the uncapped stream.
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What's been done in the past?
As part of the 2007-08 Budget announcements an additional $39.8 million, over four years was committed to further support people with disability find and maintain sustainable employment. The support includes 987 additional capped places for the Disability Employment Network nationally.
Further information
To locate a Disability Employment Network provider: http://jobsearch.gov.au/provider/ProviderLocation.aspx?ProviderType=DOE.
For information and practical resources for people with a disability in employment - JobAccess: http://www.jobaccess.gov.au/joac/home.
For further information on the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and employment services: http://www.workplace.gov.au.
For general information on jobs and employment: https://jobsearch.gov.au/Login/Login.aspx?WHCode=0.
For information on the review of disability employment services - http://www.workplace.gov.au/workplace/Publications/PolicyReviews/DisabilityEmploymentServicesReview/.
Page currency, Latest update: 16 October, 2008