ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER

ELECTED BODY

(Reference: Estimates process 2014-15)

Members:

MR ROD LITTLE (The Chair)

MS JOANNE CHIVERS

MS JOANNE DONOVAN

MR MAURICE WALKER

MR ROSS FOWLER

Apologies:

MS DIANE COLLINS (The Deputy Chair)

MR FRED MONAGHAN

TRANSCRIPT OF EVIDENCE

CANBERRA

THURSDAY, 4 DECEMBER 2014

Committee contact officer:

Ms Margaret Beattie

ATSIEB Secretariat

Office of Multicultural, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs

Community Services Directorate

GPO Box 158

CANBERRA CITY ACT 2601

APPEARANCES

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ACT Health 132

Canberra Institute of Technology 94

Education and Training Directorate 77

Justice and Community Safety Directorate 101

Territory and Municipal Services Directorate 120

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The elected body met at 9.30 am.

Education and Training Directorate

Joseph, Ms Diane, Director-General

Gniel, Mr Stephen, Deputy Director-General, Education Strategy

Mitchell, Ms Beth, Director, Student Engagement, Education Strategy

Wright, Ms Leanne, Director, Learning and Teaching, Education Strategy

Craddy, Ms Beth, Manager, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education, Student Engagement, Education Strategy

McAlister, Ms Coralie, Director, People and Performance, Organisational Integrity

THE CHAIR: Welcome, Di, and your team. First of all, I would like to do an acknowledgement of country and pay respects to the Ngunnawal on whose lands we meet today.

I will just give a quick introduction to the members. First of all, we have got JoDonovan. I am not sure whether many of you guys have met Jo yet. And we have JoChivers, Maurice Walker and, of course, Ross Fowler. Ross will lead this session, and other members will chime in with some additional questions along the way.

Ms Joseph: Could I also acknowledge the traditional custodians and people here with us this morning. And I acknowledge the role of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body. We have particularly appreciated the regular meetings that we have been able to establish. I would like to acknowledge the work of Masepah Banu and Ross Fowler over the last 12 months. The collaboration and the connections through that, and having regular meetings, have really helped our interaction. Our report came to you, I think, in the last couple of days.

THE CHAIR: Yes.

Ms Joseph: We tried to get that to you as soon as possible. The key point in that report is that we have the building blocks of a strong education system around quality teaching and learning, the quality of our workforce and how we have high expectations for every student. Our strategies are really based around universal strategies for all students, inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and then specific students to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who may not be attending, achieving or performing at their highest levels.

I think what we are most proud about is the case management approach, the individual learning plan approach and our approach to supporting and promoting high achievement through our aspirations programs and so forth. We are really pleased to be able to come and work with you this morning.

THE CHAIR: I will hand over to Ross to lead this session.

MR FOWLER: Thank you, Diane, for the opening statement in relation to tabling the report in the Legislative Assembly a couple of days ago. We have asked all directors-general at the beginning of the hearings if they would like to make an opening statement; as you have already done so, I will move on directly with the questions.

The first question I have for you is around the whole-of-government agreement. As you know, directors-general have had discussions around this, and the elected body have been consulted on this particular document and moving forward with our community in conjunction with all directorates. On that note, as the director-general, can you please tell members how you see the directorate participating in the whole-of-government agreement? What are your thoughts, what are your aspirations and how will you influence these and other D-Gs in the agreement?

Ms Joseph: I was not at the strategic board meeting the other week, but I am really pleased with the progress. My role as director-general has been to commit myself to those meetings with the subcommittee of the strategic board and help in the drafting. In doing the drafting, it is making sure that we are setting aspirations and we are setting measurable targets so that we can actually achieve, so that at regular intervals we can actually say, “Yes, there has been progress.”

The important element in the collaboration in getting to that agreement is that it is not the government doing to; it is the government doing with. It is working together to say, “What are our combined aspirations for our communities?” and seeking the expertise of the elected body and the community to say, “No; we can help advise you how to actually get to the outcomes.” I have really enjoyed the drafting process. I believe it is nearly ready to sign off. We are nearly there. I think we have got a really good document there.

Each year our directorate produces an action plan. This will be out of date by next week, but it is really to say to our stakeholders and our schools what is important. When we flip over, we have our indicators and targets, what are our key things. And then, within the back here, we say to our schools, in particular: what are we going to focus on? What are the things that I am going to hold you accountable to? What are the things we need to talk about?

I am really pleased to be able to say that for 2015—which will be released next week—we have the commitment to the whole-of-government agreement. I do not think we have got the wording quite right, but I have still put it in here as well. There is a clear indication, a clear leadership role for me, to say that it is not just around what we do in our education plan, which our schools are engaged in; it is what is the next level of that and how do we contribute to whole-of-government achievement and closing the gap not just in education but more broadly.

I see my role as a leadership role. I see there is a role not just in supporting the education direction in telling our principals, “There is not just this plan, there is a whole-of-government agreement, so we have to be aligned in our efforts.” But it is also in how we work with our workforce and how we promote and encourage our workforce. The leadership role I particularly will be playing there is, as you know, through championing the ACT public service Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander network.

So there are those things. Then there is my role in acknowledging cultural competency. I know we do not get the title for that quite right all the time, but through the strategic board there is a commitment to making sure we are reviewing, updating, continuing learning and improving our own cultural understanding so that we can lead the ACT community and strategic board directions in support of the agreement. In addition to that, we have a commitment at the Education and Training Directorate through cultural competency of our staff and we have programs at different levels for all of that. We have a commitment for a whole day for our full corporate executive plus leading managers early next year. We will be doing a full day with Grant Sara—a really intensive cultural competency.

If I look at what is my role, it is the individual things that are in the agreement, obviously, but it is that leadership role: I have to be able to walk it, talk it, believe it, show it and lead my 5,000 workforce so that it impacts on our 40,000 students, not just our 1,500 or so Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their families.

MR FOWLER: Thanks, Di.

THE CHAIR: What is the plan again?

Ms Joseph: It is the report.

THE CHAIR: That is the report for this year. And Ross has got the latest plan?

Ms Joseph: Yes.

THE CHAIR: Are both of those available somewhere online?

Ms Joseph: I am sure that, if it is not, it will be immediately after the hearings.

THE CHAIR: Thank you.

MR FOWLER: Members, did you want to add anything to that? No.

The next question I have for you, Diane, is around the national disability incentive scheme. Can you please tell members a little more about the national disability incentive scheme from an education and training perspective and how this will impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their families? In our one-on-ones, we have our monthly meetings, and you have outlined the position, but I just want you to outline it this morning for members—particularly, and I may have this wrong, the Aboriginal support officers that work with the students and their families.

Ms Joseph: The national disability insurance scheme, as you know, is a commonwealth scheme that the ACT government is supporting and is contributing to. Very generally, ACT government resources have been combined with commonwealth resources so that the offer to people with disabilities is under their choice and control. The scheme itself is run by the National Disability Insurance Agency, a commonwealth agency, and the ACT government has contributed funds. The ACT government had to look at what services the government should continue providing and what services come under the national disability insurance scheme through the National Disability Insurance Agency.

The specifics for the ACT Education and Training Directorate have been, at this stage, around early intervention services. I will be able to pass over to Beth, who can talk a bit more about that. Primarily, each year the ACT Education and Training Directorate has delivered services to about 300 students in the years before school. They are early intervention services—not education services per se, but actually assisting students and their families to be ready for school. Traditionally, of those 300 students in those early interventions, at least half would transition into mainstream schooling and then use the mainstream education disability services—our learning support assistance, our transport system, our other supports that are provided in schools, our specialist schools for therapy assistance and so forth. We say they are mainstream services and they are education services.

At this point in time, the services that are currently delivered to students with disabilities in our schools from kinder to year 12 are still education; that is not part of the scheme. What will be part of the scheme will be in these early years and the students with disabilities who qualify for the disability insurance scheme transitioning out of schools. At the moment, we are looking at the 300 students who would have been in our services next year; we are dealing with those families on an individual basis.

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families who might be in that category would be working directly with a support officer through the Education and Training Directorate. Where that family identifies as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and would like that extra support, we make sure that support is around so that whatever arrangements are put in place by the NDIA support what they would like—choice and control. And for those students transitioning from this year into our mainstream services, again it is that case management approach around those families transitioning in. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, as for other students, we would put the case management around those students.

For the students exiting our schools with disability who then are getting a package from the National Disability Insurance Agency, similarly we are supporting them. We make sure that we are supporting them, getting their plan, making their decisions around what services they want to get from the National Disability Insurance Agency. Again, where those students and families need support in negotiating how they are going to that scheme, that is what we have been able to provide.

MR FOWLER: That is entry in. Can you tell me a bit more about what we mean by the package?

Ms Joseph: The package? This is my understanding; to be exact you would need to get it from the National Disability Insurance Agency.

MR FOWLER: Not a problem.

Ms Joseph: First of all, people contact the agency and say, “I have got a disability; I believe I should be in the scheme.” Then I think the agency assigns a caseworker or a planner. Then they go through the criteria, which are national criteria, and decide whether they are in the scheme or not in the scheme. Then, dependent on the adjustments they would need to participate in life and community, they are assessed and given a package.

I think that at the moment the average package across Australia stands at around $35,000, but obviously that would be an average; there would be from a few dollars to more dollars. The emphasis on early intervention, which is our real interest, is that we think it is in everybody’s interests, particularly the National Disability Insurance Agency, to make sure you invest in the early years. You are better off over diagnosing and including people than excluding people. Our experience so far with the National Disability Insurance Agency is that we believe that is what they are doing.

THE CHAIR: I have a couple of questions to explore the reporting a bit further—informing yourselves, as well as the body, about the numbers. You have mentioned 300 already at this point. We would be interested in the figures around that and then perhaps those transferring from those specific services into the mainstream. Obviously there are the reporting mechanisms to the federal framework, but at a local level it is good to have an understanding of the need. Then they would be able to look at the transitions and the progress, with a view to looking at how, in their educational journey, they are improving.