June 2011 - Issue 33

Table of contents:

ATTENTION – 2010-11 final year data

Under the National Disability Agreement, Queensland has agreed to provide full year service user data to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare by August each year. As a result, you need to ensure that your data is transmitted as early as possible in July, so that we can meet this important reporting deadline.

We will be working with all service providers to try to get all submissions in by Friday 15 July 2011.

Lock this date into your calendars now!

Diary dates for 2011-12

Quarter

Start Date

End Date

Reference Week

Due Date

1

01-Jul-11

30-Sep-11

24-30 Sep 2011

15-Oct-11

2

01-Sep-11

31-Dec-11

25-31 Dec 2011

15-Jan-12

3

01-Jan-12

31-Mar-12

25-31 Mar 2012

15-Apr-12

4

01-Apr-12

30-Jun-12

24-30 Jun 2012

15-Jul-12

“Other Systems” change

Service Providers that use either in-house systems or software other than ODC, please submit your data files to this email:

      cstdanmdshelp@communities.qld.gov.au.

If you have any questions related to developing new reports from your in-house system, contact either:

Chris Hemingway       383 60467
 or Aaron Key           324 76222

Transition arrangements

Implementing Outputs Reporting

In January 2009 the then Disability Services Queensland, in response to a demand for efficiency strategies to reduce administrative burden and streamline funding approaches to FNGSPs, commenced a project to transition FNGSPs to funding for an output based service provision model and Agreement.

If you have any questions relating to the transition of your organisation please contact your Community Resource Officer.

Further information regarding output definitions, measures and reporting is available on the Funding for Output Based Service Provision webpage.

Recording service user hours and staff hours

For the purpose of NMDS reporting, certain activities are recorded against Service User Hours while others are reported as Total Staff Hours.  Service User Hours are collected only for support provided for an individual person. Staff Hours incorporate both Service User Hours as well as all the administrative duties relating to the management of the Service Type Outlet.  The following diagram provides a list of the types of activities that should be reported as Service User Hours and the activities that make up Total Staff Hours.  All Service User hours are incorporated into the staff hours.  For further clarification of what to include in staff hours see Section 4 of the data guide.

Please refer to the PDF of this Newsletter.

Identifying Service Provision for NMDS reporting

The simple rule for identifying who you need to report for is to ask yourself:

  • Does the service user receive a specialist disability service which is funded by Disability Services?
  • Is my agency responsible for that funding through a contractual obligation i.e. a Service Agreement or Funding Agreement?

If the answer is yes to both of these questions then you are responsible for reporting that service user in your NMDS reporting.

If the service user has been brokered/sub-contracted to you from Disability Services or another service provider then you do not report them in your NMDS reporting.

It is the responsibility of the service provider who initially receives the funding to report the service provision.

This means that if you broker/subcontract service provision to another provider then you are still responsible for the NMDS reporting.

Clarification of reporting a place (instance of service)

Respite codes – service types 4.021 and 4.031

These are defined as a ‘head on a pillow at midnight’ and each instance of service must be reported. Please note, hours of service are still required for these service types.

Accommodation codes

Due to the wide range of circumstances related to vacancies in these service types, the service provider is best placed to decide if a vacancy should be reported. Please consult with your Community Resource Officer if you have any queries regarding when a vacancy actually occurs.

Not Operating Service Type Outlets

Any Service Type Outlet (STO) where recorded staff hours in a given quarter equal zero should be marked in ODC as “Not operating” for that quarter.  To do this, go to the Service Type Outlet section for the corresponding quarter, select “Not operating” from the drop down menu at question 1a and click the Save button.  This is a common occurrence for Emergency and Crisis Service Type Outlets (1.082), where the services may not have been necessary during the quarter.  Service Type Outlets with zero staff hours that have not been marked as “Not operating” will appear non-compliant and can affect future payments. 

If staff hours have been recorded against the Service Type Outlet for the quarter but no Service Users were assisted, leave the outlet as operational and advise your Project Officer (Regional Support).

Staff changes

The DS NMDS Team welcomes Kaye Fryer (Brisbane region) and Jamasa Sayers (North Coast and South East regions) as Project Officers (Regional Support). They are based in Brisbane and have both recently joined the team.

Farewell to Karen Eborall who has left the team to pursue a teaching career.

Jamie Macmaster has been seconded to assist with the coming changes to BIS. Our thanks to Jamie for bringing his BIS expertise to the team, and we welcome Jan Backen to the Central Region support role. Like Jamie, Jan will be based out of Rockhampton.

Help available

Email inquiries:
cstdanmdshelp@communities.qld.gov.au

Online: Disability Services National Minimum Data Set (DS NMDS) website

Project Officers (Regional Support)

Kaye Fryer                   0403 209 436 M

kaye.fryer@communities.qld.gov.au

Brisbane region

Jan Backen                  0467 714 998 M

jan.backen@communties.qld.gov.au

Central region

Lindy O’Neill                 0434 604 844 M

melinda.oneill@communities.qld.gov.au

North Queensland/Far North Queensland regions

Jamasa Sayers            0403 209 437 M

jamasa.sayers@communities.qld.gov.au

North Coast/South East regions

Juanita White               0403 209 434 M

juanita.white3@communities.qld.gov.au

South West region

General information on the Disability Services NMDS

National Disability Agreement

The National Disability Agreement (NDA) provides the national framework and key areas of reform for the provision of government support to services for people with disabilities. The NDA replaced the Commonwealth State/Territory Disability Agreement (CSTDA) from 1 January 2009.

The Disability Services National Minimum Dataset (DS NMDS) which supports the NDA was renamed from 1 July 2009, replacing the CSTDA National Minimum Data Set.

The DS NMDS is:

  • a set of nationally significant data items that are collected in all Australian jurisdictions (i.e. states, territories and Commonwealth)

  • an agreed method of collection and transmission which facilitates the annual collation of nationally comparable data about services funded under the National Disability Agreement (NDA - formerly the Commonwealth/State-Territory Disability Agreement - CSTDA).

Queensland’s Data Collection

As a partner to the NDA, the Department of Communities is responsible for coordinating the DS NMDS collection in Queensland. The collection of data occurs quarterly, with confidentialised records provided to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) after the end of each financial year (30 June).

The collection provides information about Queensland services, which can then be compared with similar aggregated data collected from NDA funded services in other Australian jurisdictions.

DS NMDS Website

The Department of Communities website provides information and resources relevant to the collection of disability data from all service providers in Queensland that receive funding under the NDA.

This includes services that are provided directly by the Department of Communities and all other government and non-government service providers that receive funding from the Department of Communities.

Data Services Team

The DS NMDS Team, Evidence Reporting and Performance, manage this collection on behalf of the Department of Communities.

The team maintains the following information about the DS NMDS collection on the department’s website: