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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-11-28 Daily Xml
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Principal Community Visitor

Mr DULUK (Davenport) (15:23): My question is to the Minister for Disabilities. Does the minister have any concerns that the Principal Community Visitor annual report has been truncated into a 17-page document for 2016-17 when the 2015-16 report was 80 pages?

Ms Redmond: They directed it to be shorter. They demanded it be shorter.

The SPEAKER: The member for Heysen is warned.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Disabilities, Minister Assisting the Minister for Recreation and Sport) (15:23): Thank you very much to the member for his question. I am really pleased to be able to remind the house that our Labor government expanded the Community Visitor Scheme in 2012 to establish a disability community visitors scheme. It was established to protect the rights of people with disability who are living in disability accommodation services, in supported residential facilities—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —or attending and participating in day options programs.

The SPEAKER: The member for Light is warned.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: The Community Visitor Scheme, as the member would know, conducts regular visits and inspections to audit and to report on services to identify gaps in supports that are available and also, very importantly—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned a second and final time.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —to report back to our community with the very important goal of improving the quality of services for people with disability. The Community Visitor Scheme also advocates for people with disability to assist them in resolving issues relating to their care and to their service provision—

Mr Griffiths interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Goyder is called to order.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —and the scheme rightly has a—

Members interjecting:

Mr DULUK: Supplementary, sir.

The SPEAKER: No, I'm sure I have warned the member for Goyder before.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: I'm still going with my answer.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Not very much, but I have done it.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: I haven't finished my answer.

The SPEAKER: Member for Davenport.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: I haven't finished my answer.

The SPEAKER: Minister.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: The scheme has a really close and ongoing relationship with the department in this regard. The scheme is incredibly important for people with disability. It leads to improvements in care and the services provided, and where this improvement doesn't occur the community visitor really importantly advocates for people with disability to get any of those issues identified resolved.

The Department for Communities and Social Inclusion and I are in regular contact with the Community Visitor Scheme and with the Principal Community Visitor, and this report I think provides a really useful overview. The annual report does give an overview of what support the Community Visitor Scheme has provided, where improvements have been made in the system and where improvements can be made.

As the member would know, the report includes quite detailed information on volunteer recruitment and training, communication between staff and residents, the suitability of facilities, the maintenance of environment—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I call the member for MacKillop to order.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —and food provision. It includes information and reports on care plans, restrictive practices, the personal safety of both residents and staff, and it also provides detailed information about advocacy assistance that has been provided. I was really pleased to note in the report that during the last financial year the community visitor undertook 583 visits—453 of those visits to disability supported accommodation sites, 41 to supported residential facilities and 89 visits to disability day options programs. I understand that the community visitor will be providing a further report, which I very much look forward to discussing with him in detail when I meet with him in the coming days and weeks.

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