November 2009 - Issue 28

New Reporting Dates

On 1 January 2009 the Commonwealth State/Territory Disability Agreement (CSTDA) was replaced with the National Disability Agreement (NDA).

Under this new agreement, the Department of Communities is now required to provide National Minimum Data Set information to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare within even tighter timeframes than previously. 

In order to meet these new deadlines, and to improve our quarterly collection processes, we are therefore requesting agencies to please consider submitting their data as early as possible following the end of each reporting quarter.

Please note, our regional support officers are willing and ready to assist you in providing your data!

Diary Dates to consider for 2009-10

Quarter	Date	Activity
Q2. 1 October to 31 December	15-Jan	Second quarter lodgement
Q3. 1 January to 31 March	15-Apr	Third quarter lodgement
Q4. 1 April to 30 June	15-Jul	Fourth quarter lodgement

Who is your Regional Support Officer (RSO)?

Assistance with all aspects of the Disability Services National Minimum Data Set (DS NMDS) collection*:

Brisbane Region:

Central Queensland/South West Regions:

North Coast/South East Regions:

North Queensland/Far North Queensland:

*Please note there have been some changes to region names and RSO regional responsibilities however this will have minimal impact on the NMDS collection.

Data Quality Update – Does your data contain a lot of not known or not stated responses?

"Not Known" or "Not Stated" responses should only be used temporarily when entering new clients (for example, when service user data may not yet be available).

If you do have "Not Known" or "Not Stated" responses included in your dataset, these can be updated at any time. We also recommend that agencies review all client data annually (at a minimum) to ensure "Not Known" or "Not Stated" responses are removed. Regional Support Officers (RSOs) will be contacting service providers with regard to their data quality in the near future.

DS NMDS compliance rates

A huge thank you to everybody who provided DS NMDS data for the 2008-09 collection year. Both Disability Services and Funded Non-Government Sevice Providers achieved 100% compliance for the third year running, which is a fantastic effort!

NEW codes rolling out in 2009–10

Emergency and Crisis (E&C) codes

From 1 July 2009 all E&C funding needs to be reported under specific E&C service type codes:

• 1.082 All E&C Accommodation / Accommodation Support
• 4.051 All E&C Respite

Due to the short-term nature of E&C these codes do not require service type approval.

Please contact your Regional Support Officer for information on how to open and report on an E&C outlet, as well as information regarding completion of Grant Budget Proposals for E&C.

Having trouble entering data in ODC?

Only Data Entry and Authorising Officer roles can enter data into ODC - if you are logged in as System Administrator you will not have access. Please log in with the correct role or contact your Regional Support Officer if you forget your other log-in details.

Did you receive one–off funding this quarter?

It is imperative that ALL Disability Services funding is reported to the DS NMDS. This includes any non-recurrent or one-off funding.

If you receive additional funding this year and do not have the appropriate service type outlets open for reporting, please get in touch with your local Regional Support Officer as soon as possible.

Are you an own system user?

Naming convention for subject headings:

When submitting your data via email to cstdanmdsdata@disability.qld.gov.au , could you please include your service provider name and location in the subject header.
This will make it easier for us to track and monitor your quarterly returns. The subject naming convention for the email is:
Submission  
For example: Q2 Disability Care Brisbane Submission 2 Validation Errors corrected

Are your service provider contact details up to date?

A reminder to all service providers to update your contact details with the Data Services team in the event of: moving premises, changing phone details and/ or email address. This will ensure Regional Support Officers are able to respond to your concerns quickly and efficiently and also enable you to continue to receive updated information from the Data Services team. Please contact your Regional Support Officer with any updates.

Want to know more about the new Department of Communities?

The first annual report for the new Department of Communities is now available from the department's website: www.communities.qld.gov.au/about/annual-reports/

The report highlights the department's financial and non financial performance for 2008-09. Highlights include providing or funding services to more people with a disability and their cares - with more than 47,362 instances of service in Queensland during 2008-2009 - an increase of about 3,039 services compared with last year.

Disabilitiy Servives NMDS help available

For any enquiries, please call the RSOs or email us using these details