Children in South Australia will benefit from early intervention to address developmental delay or disability.
Minister for Social Services Dan Tehan today announced $47 million in Early Childhood and Early Intervention (ECEI) services from the Turnbull Government would be provided through the South Australian Department for Communities and Social Inclusion (DCSI) across the state from March 2018.
ECEI services will help South Australian children with developmental delay or disability to achieve better long-term outcomes by assisting families to support children early to develop the skills they need to take part in daily activities.
“Early support gives each child the best chance of achieving their potential and providing quality services early in a child’s life reduces the possible need for longer-term intervention,” Mr Tehan said.
“This is a significant outcome for children with development delay or disability and an important milestone in the roll out of the NDIS in South Australia as the scheme reaches full operation in the state in July this year.
“The NDIS is expected to boost the South Australian economy by $740 million and bring more than 5,000 new jobs in disability services to the state.
“The number of people accessing supports is expected to grow from 17,000 to 32,300 people in South Australia.”
Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham said the investment would boost services for South Australian children and families.
“The Turnbull Government understands the extra hurdles children with developmental delay or disability can face,” Minister Birmingham said.
“We’re fully funding the NDIS to ensure tens of thousands of families and children in South Australia get the support they need.
“We understand how important the earliest years of learning are for a child’s development and this investment will give more of our littlest learners access to valuable early education.”
The Government last month also announced $72 million for the delivery of Local Area Co-ordination (LAC) services in South Australia. Today’s announcement finalises NDIS partner arrangements in South Australia.
In an Australian first, South Australian Government staff currently working in Child and Youth Services will form a Public Service Mutual, also known as an employee-led mutual, to deliver the NDIS ECEI services for South Australia.
“The creation of the South Australian employee-led mutual is an example of the innovation and creativity required to deliver the NDIS, a world-first, ground-breaking scheme.”
Public Service Mutuals are organisations which operate outside of the formal public sector, but continue to deliver public services led by experienced and qualified staff with strong local knowledge and understanding of the community’s needs.
The DCSI employee-led mutual will deliver across the whole state of South Australia, with service areas grouped into in four ECEI service regions being:
- Metro North (Northern Adelaide and Barossa Light and Lower North service areas);
- Metro South (Southern Adelaide, Eastern Adelaide, Western Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills service areas);
- Country North (Yorke and Mid North, Eyre Western and Far North service areas); and
- Country South (Murray and Mallee, Limestone Coast, and Fleurieu Kangaroo Island service areas)
There are 13,223 South Australians with disability accessing the NDIS and more than 1,300 disability service providers in South Australia.
Further information on the NDIS partners in South Australia is available at: https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/our-sites/SA.html