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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-11-12 Daily Xml
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Communities and Social Inclusion Department Screening

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (15:10): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister representing the Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion questions about the DCSI screening process.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: In addition to issues being raised in the media, in parliament and in the parliament's Budget and Finance Committee, I have been informed by National Disability Services and some disability service providers (DSPs) that there are serious concerns and challenges facing disability service providers due to the current incarnation of the DCSI screening process, including the high cost and the extensive waiting times. It is essential that this process can provide timely advice to both organisations and individuals as to the appropriateness of people applying to work with South Australians with disability.

While acknowledging this, it is also essential that adequate services are able to be provided to people with disabilities, and part of providing this is ensuring that police checks are provided in a timely and affordable fashion. If this does not occur it means that people with disabilities may not have their desired support worker (or any support worker) for up to five months while their support worker agency awaits clearance through the DCSI clearance process.

This is problematic when we already have a critical shortage of available, trained and competent support workers in the disability sector. There is also an effect in that workers might go for that same 20 weeks without any income while they await the same clearance. My questions to the minister are:

1. Does the minister agreed that up to 20 weeks is a long time for people with disability, workers and disability service providers to wait for the results of the DCSI screening process?

2. Does the minister have concerns that the need for a new application having to be applied for each time a person chooses to engage with a new agency is a costly way for both agencies and individuals to conduct themselves and their business, and could DCSI develop methods of sharing a person's clearance information across agencies?

3. Does the minister agree that the increased cost of each screening, at $100 per person per screening, has become prohibitive?

4. Will the minister agree to investigate, through the COAG process, a method to implement a more comprehensive and efficient national screening process?

5. Does the minister agree that having only two results of screening, that is, 'cleared' or 'satisfactory', does not provide clarity or detail to employers that may need to know if a person has, for example, a problematic driving record?

6. Is the minister aware that many disability service providers are being forced to run CrimTrac checks on potential workers to ascertain whether their driving record presents a problem where they might be transporting clients in their vehicles?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:13): I thank the most excellent honourable member for her very important questions and her indefatigable pursuit of important issues impacting on people living with disability in our state. I undertake to take that series of questions to the responsible minister in the other place and seek a response on her behalf.

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