DADHC - Disability Services corporate and regional restructure

The Department has, over the past few weeks, been holding meetings of staff in all the regions talking about their proposed restructure. Whilst most of these meetings have involved House Managers, Assistant Managers and Managers, the Department has advised the PSA that it will be doing another round of meetings for other staff.

The PSA was able to have an official present at most of these meetings, At times however we received less than one days notice of the meeting which made it impossible to make the necessary arrangements. This was particularly the case for the meetings arranged in the Northern Region and we apologise to our members for this. We will ensure that the Department organises the next round of meetings better with appropriate notice.

This newsletter focuses on the issues which have been raised by members who have attended the meetings to date and aims to provide answers to many of your questions about what the Department is proposing.

The documents, which were made available at the meetings and are now available on the intranet and hard copy distribution, are as follows:

• Position descriptions for all new positions.
• Table detailing potential career options in new structure.
• Network managers proposed conditions of employment.
• Table showing split of current House Manager duties under new structure.
• Copies of slide show.

The common questions raised by members at these meetings and the answers are as follows:

Q. What is the timeframe for the Department's proposed new structure? A. The Department is currently holding regional meetings to brief staff and get feedback on the proposal. The draft position descriptions are being distributed and PSA members have been invited to send feedback on these to the PSA.

The working parties, which comprise of Department and PSA delegates, will be meeting on 4 July to further discuss the draft PDs.

Further discussions with the Department will be held early the following week. PSA delegates will then be considering the outcome of these discussions and will decide whether the PSA will agree to the Department advertising Stage 2 positions ie: the positions graded at 11/12 and 9/10.

If this proceeds there will then be further consultations including statewide meetings of RSWs to discuss issues relating to the proposed Network Manager position.

Q. What are the outstanding issues?

A. Issues which are still subject of discussion between the PSA and the Department include:

• Supervision Span for new Manager positions.
• Role of Team Leaders in CSTs and Day Programs.
• Conditions of employment for Network Manager.
• Resource requirements Network Manager.
• After Hours Support.
• Unit clustering arrangements.
• Establishment of RSW 3 positions in units.
• Clinical and professional supervision of Therapists, Psychologists and Social Workers.
• Management of the EOI process for redeployment.

Q. What is the status of the draft position descriptions?

A. The position descriptions which have now been widely distributed are still being discussed by the joint PSA/Department working parties. The grades shown for the new positions are indicative only and that all positions are subject to a formal job evaluation process which will establish the actual grade. This has not as yet been done for any of the positions below Senior Officer Positions.

Q. How will positions be filled?

A. There are 5 steps in the process:

1. Call for expressions of interest within the Department to allow potentially displaced staff to apply for internal redeployment at their substantive grade.
2. Advertise the remaining positions within the Department to allow all departmental staff to apply for transfer or promotion.
3. Appointment of long-term temporary employees to positions if they meet the requirements of the Act.
4. Refer any remaining positions to the Workforce Management Centre for redeployment from other Departments.
5. External recruitment.

Some of the EOI and advertising steps may be run concurrently to save time. In these instances the EOI applications will be considered first.

The Department has not yet worked out details of the EOI process such as what aspects would be managed centrally and what will be managed at the Regional level.

The Department has been saying that it believes all staff will be redeployed into appropriate positions The PSA will be ensuring that this is the case for all its members. The onus is on the Department to show why an individual cannot be redeployed to another position at similar grade.

Q. What will be the options under the proposal?

A. The Department has distributed a table listing the redeployment options for the affected groups of staff. We have included that table at the end of the newsletter for the information of PSA members.

Q. What will be the options for House Managers?

A. House Managers are not paid under the A&C scale however their salary rate is equivalent to A&C grade 6. The options therefore are:

• Under the new structure there are positions at this grade ie: System Support Officer and Client Liaison Officer. These are potential redeployment options however the roles of these positions are different to the role of House Manager. Those House Managers who are interested in these positions would be given retraining by the Department.

• The potential for redeployment on grade to the position of Network Manager will depend on the grade of this position once it is evaluated.

• House Managers would also have the opportunity to apply for any of the higher graded positions through the internal EOI process ie: Network Manager and Systems Support Officer.

• House Managers could also choose to be redeployed as RSWs. In this instance the Department has agreed that House managers would be redeployed to the top step of RSW level 3 with the normal salary maintenance provisions applying. There would be no requirement to do CBT assessment.

Q. What will happen to staff who have been acting in higher duty positions?

A. These staff are will return to their substantive positions unless otherwise successful through the recruitment and redeployment process. Strategies which have been put in place to assist staff in this position, are:

• Premiers Department has given approval for the Department to fill the new positions through internal EOI prior to external recruitment.

• Staff who have been acting in House Manager positions for a long period and have not been given the opportunity to have CBT assessment are currently being fast tracked through that process. This will prevent the situation where an acting House Manager returns to a substantive position, which might be level1.

• Years of service acting as House Managers will count towards the incremental step of the officer's substantive position.

Q. How will the cluster of units be determined?

A. There has been some preliminary modelling of cluster arrangements for units already done by Regional Management.

The Department has agreed that the cluster arrangements in each Region would be subject to consultation with the PSA. This will be done in the first instance at the Area JCC.

The Department has acknowledged that there will be instances where there will be a House Manager retained in the unit in particular in remote areas.

Q. What is the situation with RSW level 3 positions?

A. Level 3 RSWs are shiftworkers. The statement of duties will not change as a result of the House Manager not being in the unit. They do not have supervision responsibilities.

In relation to the numbers of level 3 RSWs in each unit:- Members will recall that when the PSA sent the new Award out to members towards end of 2002, we also gave members a copy of the agreement made between the Department and the PSA in relation to the number of RSW level 3 positions. The agreement provided for at least one RSW 3 per unit. There was also a set of criteria whereby a unit that met one or more of the criteria would be allocated additional RSW 3 positions.

The criteria were based on a model where each unit had a House Manager.

One of the issues the PSA has raised is that the criteria may need to be revisited if the new model for group homes and respite services does not have a House Manager based in the unit.

Q. What are the developments with CSTs and Day Programs?

A. The Department has recently agreed to keep Team Leaders in Community Support Teams and Day Programs due to concerns expressed relating to supervision spans of the new Manager positions. There will be further discussions with the Department about the expected role of the Team Leader and whether this in fact alleviates the concerns members have.

Issues that are still unresolved include:

• Clinical supervision, Senior Therapists, Social Workers and Psychologists.
  
• Lack of adequate management structure for Day Programs.

We have attempted to include the main issues raised by members. If there are any other questions or issues members have about the restructure, please send your enquiries to the PSA's Head Office. The Senior Industrial Officer, Ayshe Lewis is coordinating the feedback from members and ensuring the issues are forwarded to your delegates on the State Consultative Forum.

Contact details are:
Phone: 9220 0961
E-mail: alewis@psa.asn.au
Fax: 9262 1623

The PSA's Disability Services Departmental Committee as well as the advisory groups will be meeting within the next week to further consider the Department's proposal. We will send a further update to advise members any decisions made by your delegates on these matters.

Potential Career Options in New Structure