Department of Premier and Cabinet

A registration and accreditation scheme for disability workers in Victoria

Plain language version–September2017

Purpose of this consultation paper

This is a consultation paper about the Victorian Government’s proposedregistration and accreditation scheme (the scheme) for Victoria’s disability workforce.

The independent and legislated scheme aims to provide effective tools to ensure people with disability are safe and receive high quality services.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will be fully rolled outin Victoria by 1 July 2019.

The Australian Government will have regulations for suppliers of services under the NDIS. The regulations will be called the national Quality and Safeguarding Framework (QSF). The Victorian scheme will regulate workers and complement the QSF.

We aim for disability services in Victoria to:

  • be high quality
  • have support workers with the best experience and skills.

In this paper we ask for your feedback on key features of the scheme. We want to know:

  • who the scheme should apply to
  • what the functions of the scheme should be
  • whether registration of workers should be mandatory or voluntary
  • how the scheme should operate
  • how the scheme should be implemented.

People interested in giving feedbackabout this scheme can:

  • fill outthe questions on page 18 of this document
  • upload responses to engage.vic.gov.au/registrationandaccreditation
  • email responses to
  • answer questions online atengage.vic.gov.au/registrationandaccreditation
  • post responses toDisability Workforce, NDIS Branch, Department of Premier and Cabinet, GPO Box 4912, Melbourne, Victoria 3001.

If you would like to receive this paper in an accessible format, such as large print, please phone Katie Davison on (03) 9097 7282.

Why register disability workers in Victoria?

In May 2016, the Victorian Government investigated disability services and
found that:

  • there are many dedicated and caring support workers
  • there are lots of improvements needed to uphold the rights of people with disability.

The Victorian Government now has a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to the abuse of people with disability. The scheme will help to protect people with disability and promote high quality services.

Better safeguards and a quality workforce

When the NDIS starts, there will be increased demand for disability services. The number of workers will need to grow to meet this demand.

We want disability workers to:

  • support clients’ rights
  • treat clients with compassion and respect
  • be talented and compassionate people
  • have a rewarding career.

We need to:

  • lift the profile and capability of the disability workforce
  • encourage more workers to choose disability services as a long-term
    career path.

Under the NDIS, people with disability will:

  • have more control over their supports
  • have better information to make informed choices about
    service providers.

The Victorian Government needs to have quality information to:

  • find worker and system weaknesses
  • enable people to have greater choice and control in their lives
  • achieve a best-practice workforce
  • support continuous improvement of disability services
  • ensure good linkages between the disability sector and other sectors.

What does a registration and accreditation scheme do?

A scheme establishes a regulator that:

  • sets minimum standards to enter and work in an occupation
  • deals with workers who breach minimum standards.

The regulator has the power to regulate members of a specific occupation.

Typical tasks of aregulator are to:

  • screen and check applicants for registration
  • set qualifications required to practice in an occupation
  • assure the quality of worker education and training programs
  • maintain a public register of workers
  • provide practice guidance for workers
  • receive and investigate complaints about workers’ conduct
  • manage worker discipline and prosecute unregistered workers who must
    be registered.

Principles of the scheme

The Victorian Government has developed principles that will guide the set-up of
the scheme.

The new scheme will be designed to:

  • reflect the objectives of the NDIS,supporting people with disability to have more choice and control
  • be risk and evidencebased
  • support the objectives of the QSF
  • consider the diverse needs of people with disability
  • consider the wide variety of supports that workers provide.

The new scheme will also be designed to:

  • recognise the skills and experience of workers
  • integrate with other schemes, if needed
  • consider resourcing issues – the affordability for workers and the impact on providers and people with disability.

Scheme framework

Defining the disability workforce

People with disability are supported by a network of formal and informal supports including:

  • carers
  • friends
  • volunteers
  • paid workers.

Types of disability support

The formal disability workforce supports people with:

  • a range of needs
  • varied severity and complexity of disability.

The disability worker’s role, the skills needed and the risks involved vary depending on the participant’s needs and services required.

Some disability workers are in jobs where registration is already required,
for example:

  • nurses
  • occupational therapists
  • physiotherapists
  • psychologists
  • teachers.

Other disability workers are not covered by a registration scheme.

For example:

  • direct support workers (care workers, accommodation support workers, respite care workers)
  • some professional direct support workers (speech pathologists, dieticians, social workers)
  • managers in disability service delivery (CEOs, directors of human resources, service managers).

Training and qualifications for disability support workers

The government sector disability workforce in Victoria is highly qualified.

Different roles require different qualifications,for example:

  • Certificate IV in Disability Work
  • Advanced Certificate in Residential and Community Services
  • Advanced Diploma in Disability
  • tertiary level qualifications such as social work, psychology, speech pathology.

Disability workers in the health sector often have formal qualifications.

Non-government sector disability workers have less consistent levels of qualifications.

The new scheme will need to take into consideration different levels and types of qualifications across disability services.

Policy context

The design of the Victorian scheme will be aligned with, or take account of, international, national and state policy.

Australia has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This aims to:

  • uphold the rights of people with disability
  • give people with disability choice, control and independence.

Victoria has endorsed the National Disability Strategy 2010–2020. This aims to:

  • make disability systems and services more open to people with disability
  • help carers and family access systems more easily.

Government and parliamentary inquiries

Several government and parliamentary committee inquiries have looked at:

  • the quality of disability services delivery
  • the regulation of disability workers.

The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Abuse in Disability Serviceslooked at abuse in disability services and found that, while the disability workforce had dedicated and caring support workers, reform was needed to protect people from harm.

The Victorian Ombudsman investigationlooked at how abuse allegations in disability services are reported and found that the system was not protecting people in a consistent way.

The Australian Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee Inquirylooked at the abuse and neglect of people with a disability and found that a national disability worker registration system was needed.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuseis looking at how schools, churches, sports clubs and government institutions have responded to child sexual abuse.

The Royal Commission into Family Violencefound that women with a disability experienced violence at a higher rate and from a wider range of people (e.g. family, carers and co-residents) and recommended training for disability workers to identify and report this.

Relevant legislation

There are laws to consider when developing the scheme. These include:

  • The Victorian Disability Act 2006
  • The Victorian Equal Opportunity Act 2010
  • The CommonwealthNational Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013
  • The Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act 1992
  • The Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006.

The National Quality and Safeguarding Framework will require all workers who provide NDIS-funded disability services to comply with a code of conduct. There will also be banning powers that apply to:

  • employees
  • contractors
  • consultants
  • volunteers
  • self-employed people.

The scheme will be designed to:

  • operate alongside national reforms
  • consider joint processes with health sector schemes
  • enable information sharing between regulators.

Who should the scheme apply to?

When designing the scheme, we need to consider the scope, for example:

  • what classes of worker should be regulated?
  • what types of service or activity should be regulated?
  • should the scheme regulate all disability workers?
  • what should registered workers be allowed to do?
  • what should unregistered workers be prevented from doing?

Possible options about who the Victorian scheme could apply to are detailed below.

A broad scope

Thiswould require all Victorian disability workersto be registered if they wanted to provide disability services.

To make this approach effective, the scheme would:

  • define different classes of disability worker
  • enable the regulator to set qualification requirements for each class of worker
  • tailor qualification and practice standards to the class of worker.

A targeted scope

This would require Victorian disability workers who do activities that may put people with disability at risk to be registered.

For example, direct care roles that involve:

  • intimate activities, such as help with toileting and showering
  • accessing personal information
  • unsupervised access to people with limited ability to report crime
  • designing or applying restrictive practices.

Another option would be to register only certain classes of disability worker, for example:

  • people who manage direct support services
  • people who work in jobs that directly engage with people with disability.

What about disability workers registered under other schemes?

There are three options for workers who are already registered under another scheme:

  1. Workers must register regardless.
  2. Workers are exempt as long as they remain registered under another statutory registration scheme.
  3. Workers are given automatic registration if they are registered under another statutory registration scheme.

What about workers who are not required to register?

If registration is voluntary, oronly applies to certain disability sector roles, some workers could continue to provide services outside of the scheme.

Where a disability worker breaches the NDIS code of conduct and is banned from working in the NDIS, they could work in a non-NDIS disability service or other service sector in Victoria.

There are a number of options for dealing with this risk. For example, under the scheme there could be stronger powers to ban workers from working in non-NDIS disability services or other health or human services sectors in Victoria.

Exploring the risks

If we keep things the same:

  • disability workers in the NDIS will be covered by the QSF
  • disability workers outside the NDIS may be covered by other screening arrangements
  • despite screening arrangements, it may be difficult to stop a worker banned from the NDIS from working in another sector, for example, aged care or mental health.

If stronger banning powers covering all disability workers in Victoria were implemented, it would be possible to stop a worker who abused or harmed a person with disability from moving to another role in the health or human services sector.

How should the scheme operate?

Voluntary or mandatory registration

Registration could be voluntary or mandatory or a mixture of both.

If registration is voluntary:

  • a worker who meets the registration requirements could use a reserved professional title, for example, Registered Disability Worker
  • a worker who does not register could still work in disability services but could not use the reservedprofessional title or pretend to be registered
  • a public register would include the names of all registered workers, with their qualifications and conditions of practice.

If registration is mandatory:

  • all disability workers would be required to register
  • only registered disability workers could do certain jobs, for example,a direct support worker role
  • registration requirements would be tailored to the different classes of worker
  • a worker who meets the registration requirements could use a reserved professional title, for example, Registered Disability Worker.

Regulator power and functions

We need to think about which powers and functions the regulator should have.

Registration powers

The regulator could:

  • set qualifications and ethical standards for registration
  • check the criminal history and references ofworkers
  • check professional indemnity insurance of workers
  • monitor the behaviour of workers and uphold the rights of people with disability
  • endorse professional development activities.

Accreditation powers

The regulator could:

  • set standards for worker training programs
  • assess worker training programs against the standards
  • give accreditation to education providers who meet the standards
  • publish a list of accredited training programs and providers
  • monitor compliance of education providers with standards.

Investigation and immediate action powers

The regulator could:

  • receive and investigate complaints
  • take immediate action to suspend a worker’s registration where there is a serious risk to the health and safety of a client
  • assess the competence of a worker.

Disciplinary and prosecution powers

The regulator could:

  • initiate court proceedings when there has been serious misconduct
  • seek a court order to cancel a worker’s registration and ban them from practice elsewhere
  • prosecute an unregistered worker for pretending to be registered.

Information sharing

The regulator could:

  • maintain a public, searchable list of registered workers and workers who have had their registration cancelled and banned from practice elsewhere
  • ensure people with disability, carers and employers can access
    the register
  • share information with other regulators when needed.

Guidance and workforce development

The regulator could:

  • provideexpert advice on good practice in disability services
  • host workforce development activities.

Appeals

A tribunal could:

  • review decisions by the regulator to not register a person
  • review decisions by the regulator to suspend a person’s registration or put conditions on their practice.

Disciplinary process

We want to make sure people using disability services are protected.

The scheme will be designed to make sure complaints about a breach of standards by individual workers are dealt with.

In the scheme, the person who makes a complaint has a very important role at the beginning of the disciplinary process – to help identify a problem.

The person making a complaint will give the regulator evidence to help the regulator investigate a worker and work out if any action is needed to limit, cancel or suspend the worker’s registration.

The regulator will make sure a person making a complaint has appropriatesupport.

How should the regulator be constituted?

The constitution of the regulator and the way people are appointed to perform a role with the regulator will be written in the law.

The regulator could be:

  • a board of people
  • a single commissioner.

If the regulator is made up of a board, the members could include:

  • people who have disability or live with someone with disability
  • disability workers
  • other people from the community who are not disability workers.

How should the scheme be implemented?

Workers who might apply for registration include:

  • currently employed disability workers
  • disability workers without formal qualifications
  • people with disability who are working, or want to work, in the disability sector.

Registration of currently employed disability workers could be streamlined so they are not disadvantaged by the introduction of the new scheme.

If the regulator decides that workers should have a minimum qualification, registration will need to be flexible for disability workers who have no formal qualifications but have had on-the-job training and experience. A worker might be registered first and then given time to complete the necessary qualification following registration.

There will be new opportunities for people with disability who work, or want to work, in the disability sector. The scheme will try to help people with disability get registered as well.

The scheme will need to support workforce growth in disability services.

Some of the ways the scheme coulddo this include:

  • flexible, competency-based pathways to registration
  • the ability to register workers after induction training and allow for time to upgrade qualifications later
  • setting registration fees at an affordable level
  • having multi-year renewal of registration– for example, three or five years rather than an annual renewal.

Assessing the impact of a scheme

The Victorian Government will:

  • implement a scheme that benefitsboth participants and workers
  • consider the policy context
  • carefully consider costs, service and workforce implications.

Following this consultation, a detailed assessment will be done to understand the possible impact of scheme options.

Quick response form

The information you provide below is voluntary. To ensure we comply with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014, please do not include any identifiable information about anyone other than yourself in your submission.

Are you:

a person with disability accessing disability services

a parent, family member or carer of a person with disability

an advocate

a disability worker

a registered health practitioner

an employer of disability workers

a professional association

a peak body

a regulator

other (please specify) ______

What opportunities or benefits could a Victorian registration and accreditation scheme provide?