STORY - "Who Will Be Served by the One Stop Employment Shop?"

As a member of a minority group in society with an unemployment rate of about 80%, I don’t take my job for granted. As a person who is blind, I know the importance of specialist support enabling me to obtain and sustain a job. I would be very concerned if those services were no longer available to me. I would also be concerned for the staff of the service provider with whom I work, who give me much needed practical and emotional support.

In 2000, when I began working for CatholicCare (formerly Centacare) in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, I became aware of a number of other jobseekers who experience multiple barriers to employment and the important work of CatholicCare’s Community and Vocational Services (CAVS) team in supporting these clients. Last month staff of CatholicCare and the diocese were devastated to learn that they had been unsuccessful in the 14-month tender process to provide these services as part of the Federal Government’s new model of employment services. Over 25% of current providers within the Job Network system were unsuccessful. Like other organisations, CatholicCare has questions about the tender process and grave concerns about the impact on their clients of this new model of service delivery.

From 1 July CatholicCare will no longer receive funding for two significant programs offered for jobseekers facing multiple barriers to employment: Job Placement, Education and Training (JPET) and the Personal Support Program (PSP). Both provide assistance to a wide range of jobseekers facing serious disadvantage in seeking and maintaining employment. Areas of disadvantage and difficulty include, but are not limited to, literacy and numeracy, homelessness, mental health, substance abuse, early school-leavers, clients of Juvenile Justice and refugees.

According to CatholicCare’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Joseph McCarthy, “Our aim at CatholicCare was to work effectively with highly disadvantaged jobseekers to achieve sustainable outcomes that focused on individual needs. CatholicCare has focused on a personalised service, responding to specific client needs through the implementation of interventions to address barriers.”

CatholicCare currently provides JPET and PSP services from sites in Newcastle and Maitland, with Outreach services to Raymond Terrace, Belmont, Toronto, Salamander Bay and Cessnock.

The loss of JPET and PSP funding will affect 509 CatholicCare clients and 11 staff.

As a welfare agency with programs in a variety of areas of community life, CatholicCare has been able to provide ‘wrap around services’ to its clients. For example, an adult seeking employment or preparing to be ‘job ready’ could access CatholicCare’s other services and programs such as counselling and accommodation services. The CAVS team also offered clients skills training and support in areas such as tenancy, crafts, a women’s group and strategies for building and sustaining healthy relationships.

“JPET has been delivered by our agency continuously since 1996 and PSP since 2004,” Mr McCarthy said. “We work in partnership with over 100 businesses for work experience placements that were able to be tailored to jobseekers’ circumstances. We’ve also been able to place jobseekers following training and education.”

CatholicCare lost its funding for JPET and PSP as part of what media reports describe as a four billion dollar overhaul of the current Job Network, the federally funded system of employment, training and education service providers. The new model, known as Employment Services, claims to be a ‘one stop shop’ which will reduce waste and ‘red tape’, and will offer increased personalised services for highly disadvantaged job-seekers.

According to a 2008 government fact sheet, “The Future of Employment Services”, “The Job Network has been in place for a decade. Designed when unemployment was at 7.7%, it is no longer suited to a labour market characterised by lower unemployment, widespread skill shortages and a growing proportion of job seekers who are highly disadvantaged and long-term unemployed.”

Yet according to Ms Liz McDonald, Manager of CAVS, “There are concerns that the new model was developed in a time of lower unemployment and that the current economic climate will have considerable impact on the services. The economic downturn has forced more people into the job market and this may mean that those jobseekers previously assisted by CatholicCare will now find it more difficult to gain work placements.”

The same government fact sheet states that “The employment services of the future will provide more assistance to the most highly disadvantaged jobseekers. They will provide a stronger focus on skills acquisition and training, and greater incentives for meeting employer demand. A more flexible and efficient system will…enable providers to tailor solutions to individual job seekers.”

However, many of the service providers with impressive track records in supporting some of the most highly disadvantaged jobseekers were unsuccessful in the tender process for Employment Services. The list includes Centacare in Townsville, Broken Bay, Western Australia and Tasmania as well as Mission Australia, Wesley Mission and the Salvation Army.

When the successful applicants were announced in early April, concerns were raised in many quarters including the Federal Opposition, the Greens, Family First, Catholic Services Australia (representing Centacare and other Catholic Church agencies), the Australian Council of Social Services and the Employment Services Union. Their concerns included lack of clarity around why some providers were successful and others were not; some tenders being awarded to overseas employment services, and the poor outcomes, for church and other non-profit service providers, of the tender process. A number of sectors have called for an independent review or Senate Enquiry regarding the tender process.

Liz McDonald says that CatholicCare will have an opportunity to discuss its application with the government’s Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations this month.

“Our staff has been informing clients that we have not been successful and that they will be transferred to another provider. We are maintaining a very positive approach as we must make this transition for the clients as easy as possible. We are waiting for the transition guidelines to be released so that we can prepare an information pack for all current clients and hopefully answer any concerns.

“Many clients are upset with the news as it takes some a considerable period to develop a relationship with their provider and work in an environment of trust. Many of our clients have been working with their caseworker for over 12 months.”

Liz is also concerned and disappointed about the impact on the agency of losing the programs and the staff. “We lose experience, expertise, professionalism and dedication to the marginalised. There is also a loss of income to support other programs.

“The Catholic Care Executive has been very supportive and has now given priority to assisting staff to assess the current situation and secure further employment. I have received many emails and calls of support from staff throughout the agency and the diocese.”

CatholicCare is focusing on doing all it can to support clients through what is likely to be a difficult transition, but concerns remain.

“We are hoping that, under the new model, our clients will be offered a personalised service to ensure that barriers can be addressed in a timely manner without a focus on economic outcomes,” Liz said. “The new providers will be servicing many clients as seven programs have now been integrated into one service. This along with the ‘one stop shop’ approach may streamline services but emphasis must be on personalised service for the most marginalised rather than a production line.”

Catherine Mahony

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