Disability Services

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:45): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding disability service jobs. Can the minister please provide an update on the Marshall Liberal government's commitment to deliver new traineeships across Adelaide and the regions?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:46): I thank the honourable member for her question. Indeed, in the 2020-21 state budget, the Marshall Liberal government announced $32.9 million over four years to support 750 additional traineeship and apprenticeship places in government agencies and funded projects. This includes 175 places in disability services over the next two years, through a $9.5 million commitment.

We announced on 12 March a recruitment drive to hire the first 85 of the 175 trainee disability services officers to deliver traineeships across Adelaide and the regions. This government-funded employment and training opportunity will equip people to move into employment opportunities in the growing disability market, which is expanding and diversifying in response to the demand driven by the NDIS.

This is on top of a range of other measures that have taken place in this space in South Australia. There is a national workforce strategy. The Health, Disability, Aged Care and Community Services Industry Skills Council is looking into local workforce insights to inform national work, given that a lot of the drivers are through the commonwealth government, which also released its Growing the NDIS Market and Workforce Strategy in 2019, which outlines its approach to NDIS market and workforce development.

We have seen that the number of participants in South Australia has greatly outstripped what the initial estimates were, in that under the old Disability SA there were some 16,000 what we refer to as participants. That has grown, not just doubled to the 32,000 as predicted but is up somewhere near the 38,000 participants mark, which clearly means that there is a great deal of demand for services in the sector.

The model that we are providing is that the trainees will be employed in our state government run accommodation services on the completion of their training. They will be able to work with whichever provider they choose to. I must say that the Minister for Innovation and Skills, who is a great enthusiast for apprenticeships and traineeships, pushes all of his cabinet colleagues in a range of areas to ensure that we are engaging people in this space.

There are a lot of opportunities. Some people who may be experiencing underemployment due to their particular industries suffering downturn during COVID are able to upskill and pivot to provide services in this area, and so we greatly encourage people who are interested in working in this field to apply.