Listing the progress status of each action under pillar 2.
Actions under this pillar aim to improve health and wellbeing outcomes.
2.1.1 Evaluating the Disability Liaison Officer program in health services to inform system improvements and workforce development opportunities
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.1.2 Establishing a framework for health services to share their disability action plans with their community and report on outcomes.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.1.3 Developing ‘disability champion/lead’ models in each health service partnership to promote/guide knowledge, professional development, and capacity-building.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.1.4 Supporting health services to enhance referral pathways at key intake points to recognise and respond to the needs of people with disability.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.1.5 Developing design guidelines and assessment tools to ensure autistic people can access inclusive hospital emergency departments that meet their needs.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.1.6 Working within the Victorian Health Building Authority to implement the universal design policy and charter and build workforce capacity to deliver good practice. This includes a review of the Australasian health facilities guidelines to strengthen application of universal design principles in health facilities.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.1.7 Looking for opportunities to develop e-learning and other training packages and courses that are co-designed with people with disability, and which promote inclusion, foster a culture of respect and change attitudes towards people with disability.
Status: Still to be progressed
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.1.8 Leveraging broader work around community attitude campaigns and Disability Liaison Officers in health services to include a focus on attitudes towards people with disability in health settings.
Status: Still to be progressed
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.1.9 Working with relevant peak bodies to promote workforce development strategies.
Status: Still to be progressed
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.1.10 Investigating opportunities for training to be included in pre-service qualifications.
Status: Still to be progressed
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.1.11 Working to identify barriers to inclusive sexual and reproductive health and viral hepatitis health care for people with disability, including LGBTIQA+ people with disability, recently arrived migrants with disability and other identified priority populations.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.1.12 Identifying good practice in inclusive sexual and reproductive health services, including co-design and training delivery with people with disability, to ensure health professionals support people with disability to exercise their rights to make decisions for themselves.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.1.13 DLOs build disability competency within their health services through coordinating education opportunities for health service staff.
Status: New Action
Agency responsible: Department of Health2.2.1 Convening a diverse community working group to give expert advice and guidance on developing of a diverse communities’ mental health and wellbeing framework and a blueprint for action.
Status: Completed
Responsible agency: Department of Health
2.2.2 Co-designing a diverse communities mental health and wellbeing framework that: delivers safe and inclusive mental health treatment, care and support; better integrates community organisations and mental health and wellbeing services; and promotes good mental health and wellbeing.
Status: On track
Responsible agency: Department of Health
2.2.3 Building the capacity of specialist mental health services and the capability of the mental health workforce to engage and support people with disability and carers throughout the NDIS access, planning, plan implementation and review processes.
Status: On track
Responsible agency: Department of Health2.3.1 Collaborating with the building and construction industry and disability advocates to transition to the new minimum accessible housing standards that are planned to come into effect through the National Construction Code in 2022.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action2.3.2 Ensuring all new social housing dwellings delivered as part of the Big Housing Build will meet a minimum silver rating and incorporate key elements of the Liveable Housing design guidelines gold standards.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Homes Victoria2.3.3 Ensuring five per cent of the social housing constructed by Homes Victoria have a high level of physical accessibility to meet the needs of Victorians with significant disability. Drop-off areas, paths, lifts, and car parking will be included to make all homes easily accessible. Inside the home, kitchens, bathrooms, and storage will also be accessible.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Homes Victoria2.3.4 Ensuring that at least 50 per cent of remaining homes are designed as ‘adaptable’ in line with the Apartment design guidelines for Victoria.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Homes Victoria2.3.5 Creating and designing outdoor spaces that provide access to all residents, including adequate spaces and functionality for people with disability. Accessible dwellings will also accommodate electric wheelchair and scooter access, storage and charging within the entry area
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Homes Victoria2.3.6 Supporting the implementation of accessibility standards in social housing dwellings delivered under the Big Housing Build to ensure properties not constructed by Homes Victoria still prioritise good design and quality builds. We will do this through procurement and grant evaluation processes and by working with other agencies and industry to support implementation of the standards
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Homes Victoria2.3.7 Ensuring the needs of people with disability are recognised in the 10-year strategy for social and affordable housing that will be released in early 2022. This includes building upon the commitments around Specialist Disability Accommodation and universal design
This action has been reviewed and revised to: Ensuring the needs of people with disability are recognised in approaches to delivering social and affordable housing. This includes building upon the commitments around universal design
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Homes Victoria2.3.8 Aligning social housing approaches defined within Mana-na woorn-tyeen maar-takoort: Every Aboriginal person has a Home - The Victorian Aboriginal housing and homelessness framework that sets the direction to increase housing outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians, including Aboriginal people with disability
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Homes Victoria2.3.9 Promoting compliance with new laws under the recently reviewed Residential Tenancies Act which state that:
- rental providers must not unreasonably refuse disability-related modifications under the Equal Opportunity Act without good reason
- renters no longer have to provide private information protected in the Equal Opportunity Act when applying for a rental property - this includes information about their disability, ethnicity or gender identity
- rental agreement forms must include an information statement that educates applicants, rental providers and agents about unlawful discrimination
Status: On Track
Agency responsible: Department of Government Services2.3.10 Allocating the $38.51 million funded in the 2021–22 Victorian State Budget over four years to provide tailored wellbeing supports for people living with psychosocial disability housed through the 2,000 supported housing dwellings for people living with mental illness, with funding held in contingency subject to dwelling completion schedules
This action has been reviewed and revised to: Allocation of funding to provide tailored wellbeing supports for people living with psychosocial disability
Status: Still to be progressed
Agency responsible: Homes Victoria, Department of Health2.3.11 Ensuring that supported homes for adults living with mental illness (including psychosocial disability) are:
- prioritised for adults living with mental illness, through the reforms to the Victorian Housing Register that better identify people who are living with mental health challenges. This may include adults with psychosocial disability who have access to NDIS or State funded psychosocial supports
- delivered in a range of housing configurations including standalone units, self-contained units with shared amenities and various forms of clustered independent units on a single-site property
- appropriately located, provide for people living with mental illness and are co-designed by Homes Victoria, representatives appointed by the Mental Health and Wellbeing Division and people with lived experience of mental illness
- accompanied by an appropriate level of integrated, multidisciplinary and individually tailored mental health and wellbeing treatment, care and support
This action has been reviewed and revised to: Ensuring that social housing for adults living with mental illness (including psychosocial disability) is:
- prioritised for adults living with mental illness, through the reforms to the Victorian Housing Register that better identify people who are living with mental health challenges. This may include adults with psychosocial disability who have access to NDIS or State funded psychosocial supports
- delivered in a range of housing configurations including standalone units, self-contained units with shared amenities and various forms of clustered independent units on a single-site property
- appropriately located, provide for people living with mental illness and 500 homes are purpose-built and informed by the adult supported housing co-design project
- accompanied by an appropriate level of mental health and wellbeing support
Status: Still to be progressed
Agency responsible: Homes Victoria, Department of Health2.3.12 Allocating $30 million to upgrade and improve 450 existing government-owned specialist disability accommodation (SDA) properties throughout Victoria.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Homes Victoria2.3.13 Completing upgrades and improvements to 450 current government-owned SDA properties.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Homes Victoria2.3.14 Initiating an ambitious renewal, replacement and growth program to improve the range and quality of Government-owned SDA in Victoria.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Homes Victoria2.4.1 Continuing to advocate to the Commonwealth Government and the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and by directly supporting opportunities for meaningful input from people with disability to any proposed changes to the NDIS.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.4.2 Supporting the Victorian NDIS Community Advisory Council in its role to provide advice about the operation and implementation of the NDIS in Victoria.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.4.3 Representing and advocating for the needs of Victorians with disability in all forums including the Disability Reform Ministers meetings and the Victorian Executive Steering Committee, as a joint funder of the NDIS.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.4.4 Working with the NDIA on shared responsibility to support more coordinated and person-centred responses for people accessing support across and within service systems.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.4.5 Pursuing research to identify barriers that result in some NDIS participants not making full use of their plan and to support disability policy through advanced research and analysis.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.4.6 Continuing to work with the Commonwealth and other states and territories to ensure the NDIS continues to be based on lifetime insurance principles and provides equitable access for all eligible Victorians with disability.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.4.7 Continuing to support groups of at-risk Victorians with disability who are ineligible for the NDIS.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.4.8 Continuation of working across the Victorian Government to ensure employment, jobs and skills initiatives result in positive outcomes for the disability workforce. This includes:
- the formation of Parliamentary Secretary led Disability Workforce Working Party bringing together sector leaders, union and government departments to undertake exploratory work identifying issues for disability workforce in Victoria, levers and relevant stakeholders to mitigate and address
- targeted recruitment campaigns to promote disability career opportunities: Disability Scholarships Program and Inclusion Scholarships including encouraging more Aboriginal and multicultural workers into the disability sector
- the Community and Social Services Graduate program connecting employers to qualified graduates and providing enhanced career entry support to graduates.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.4.9 Supporting skills and training authorities to design and deliver educational programs and resources tailored to the needs of disability workers and promote best practice and culturally responsive service delivery outcomes for people with disability.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions2.4.10 Advocating to ensure NDIS pricing is adequate to provide disability employers and workers with the conditions needed to attract, train and retain a quality NDIS workforce, including in regional and rural areas.
This action has been reviewed and revised to: Deliver projects to support disability employers and workers to attract, train and retain a quality workforce.
Status: On Track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.2.4.11 Identifying service gaps and service system interface issues to inform strategies that will support development of a thriving disability workforce and market.
This action has been reviewed and revised to: Strengthening the approach to identifying service needs to inform projects that will support development of an effective disability workforce.
Status: On Track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.4.12 Support the Victorian NDIS Community Advisory Council to provide advice to the Victorian Executive Steering Committee on the operation of the Scheme in Victorian during the period of implementation of the disability reforms.
Status: New Action
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.5.1 Building the capacity of parents and families to help prevent children with complex disability support needs from requiring care outside of their family home. The types of support may include advocacy and advice, practical support and/or material aid, counselling, parent-child interaction and community connection and social inclusion. This includes providing culturally safe support to Aboriginal families and children.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.5.2 Helping families to navigate the NDIS. We will help parents develop skills to advocate for NDIS plans that contain parenting and disability support that help maintain and improve family functioning and the sustainability of family-based care.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.5.3 Building on the learnings from the funding of 34 specialist disability practitioner roles across 17 departmental areas to support vulnerable families with disability in order to build disability inclusion and NDIS capacity across the sector in future.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.5.4 Building on the learnings from the Steps to Confident Parenting program, which has provided flexible and tailored support to parents with cognitive impairment/disability with a child or children at risk of requiring care. The types of support have included: intensive home-based and case management responses through a multidisciplinary team of dedicated family services, early parenting and disability practitioners. This includes providing culturally safe support to Aboriginal parents with cognitive impairment/disability.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.5.5 Delivering disability practice advice teams, comprising two positions in each of four departmental operational divisions, who work with child protection practitioners to improve outcomes for children with disability who are subject to child protection involvement. This includes supporting assessments and decision making in relation to individual children in all phases of child protection involvement and capacity building across the workforce to ensure children receive optimal disability support through the NDIS. The teams also provide a strategic liaison role with the NDIA in relation to children with complex disability support needs involved with child protection.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.5.6 Working with parents with disability and advocacy agencies to identify program and service improvements, including for those navigating the child protection system.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.5.7 Bolstering the care services system to better support children with disability, with a specialist approach that draws on improved partnership with the NDIS.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing2.5.8 Building the capacity of child protection practitioners in supporting families with children with disability with complex needs, including through a dedicated professional development package.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing
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