NESA National Conference - Brisbane
I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands where we are meeting, the Yagera and Turrbal peoples. And I pay my respects to their Elders, past and present. I’d also like to acknowledge CEO Kath Mandla, for her advocacy on behalf of NESA and its members.
As well as the Secretary of my Department, Simon Duggan, who will be speaking to you later today. But most importantly, all the employment service providers in the room. It’s a pleasure to be back at this year’s NESA National Conference.
As I said to you last year, I have always been motivated by the belief in the dignity of meaningful work. Because work is about more than just a job. Work can provide economic security, social connection and psychological wellbeing.
But of course, as you would all know, there are many jobseekers who are missing out on the benefits of work because of the barriers to employment that they face. Whether it’s a skills gap, a break in their employment history, or a lack of confidence – these barriers and many others can determine someone’s distance from entering, or re-entering, the labour market.
And for many people, overcoming these barriers can be a difficult process to navigate on their own. So it is absolutely critical that Australia has an effective and responsive employment services system that can help jobseekers address those barriers and find suitable, meaningful employment. And I want to recognise, upfront, the critical work that you do as employment services providers within your communities and the broader economy, by helping connect people with work.
But as I also said to you last year, the one-size-fits-all design that underpins our current employment services system is not meeting the diverse needs of jobseekers at different distances from the labour market. As a result, not enough jobseekers are getting the appropriate type and intensity of supports that they need to move into work. Now of course, I know all of you here will be able to point to positive examples of working with participants to help them successfully overcome barriers and move into work.
And I know that many employment service providers, and your staff, are deeply committed to helping jobseekers achieve the best possible employment outcomes. But when we look across the system as a whole, the evidence tells us that too many jobseekers are being parked in the system, and too many people are cycling in and out of the system. And while of course I recognise that not every job placement will be successful, more can be done to ensure more placements lead to suitable, sustainable employment outcomes.
The challenge we face is that the employment services system itself has not been designed to respond to the diversity of jobseekers that are on the Workforce Australia caseload. That is why in May this year, at the National Press Club, I announced the most significant reforms to Australia’s employment services system in 30 years. At the heart of these reforms is a clear objective: to deliver high-quality employment services that is better able to respond to an individual’s distance from the labour market, and can effectively support jobseekers to move towards, and into, employment – no matter their distance from the labour market.
And today, I want to expand a little on what these reforms will mean for you as providers. The first and most significant element of reform is the creation of three distinct service streams, to support jobseekers at different distances from the labour market. Because our Government recognises that jobseekers at different distances from the labour market need different types of support and approaches to service delivery from their provider.
Service Stream One will be a brand-new online service, for jobseekers who are digitally literate and closer to the labour market. This will be a more effective and efficient way to support participants who require less intensive supports, by helping them move into work faster and reducing the time they spend out of the labour market. Service Stream Two will deliver targeted provider-led services for jobseekers who have more significant barriers to employment, and need the specialised support that providers can deliver through face-to-face services.
And Service Stream Three will provide more intensive services for jobseekers who are furthest from the labour market, with complex barriers to employment. Now of course, some previous versions of the employment services system also used streams to categorise jobseekers by their need and their distance from the labour market. But the problem with those versions was that they did little to change the fundamental problem at the heart of the system: a one-size-fits-all approach to service design, funding arrangements and mutual obligations.
And as a result, those jobseekers furthest from the labour market are often under-serviced, or put in the ‘too hard’ basket. So to ensure that all jobseekers in the reformed system get the type and intensity of support that they need, the service design and delivery of providers will be completely distinct between each service stream. Each service stream will have a different service design, a different approach to mutual obligations for participants, and different funding models for providers.
This will allow the organisations delivering employment services in each service stream to develop bespoke servicing approaches that meet the needs of jobseekers within that stream. For example, jobseekers within Service Stream 3 will likely have complex barriers to employment that include non-work-related barriers, like poor mental health or homelessness. So providers in this stream will be expected to have strong connections to local health and social services that can support jobseekers to tackle those non-work-related barriers – at the same time as their employment service provider is helping them overcome work-related barriers and make progress towards their employment goal.
By creating these distinct service streams, both the Government and providers will be able to direct their resources in the most effective way. But providers will also be able to better match their service and types of support to what a participant actually needs. This will deliver a better quality of service, which in turn will deliver better employment outcomes.
Our Government is also transforming the key design elements that underpin each of these service streams, to support you as providers to deliver high-quality, effective employment services. One of these design elements is the introduction of new Employment Goal Plans for jobseekers. Currently, job plans are very often just a box-ticking exercise, with generic activities that are irrelevant to an individual’s circumstances and distance from the labour market.
The new Employment Goals Plans will bring together activities, supports and mutual obligation requirements to provide jobseekers with a clear pathway to work that is tailored to their barriers to employment, their aspirations and their distance from the labour market. These Employment Goal Plans will provide clear expectations and joint accountability about the activities participants will engage in, the support that providers will deliver.
Critically, the Goal Plans will also be responsive to local labour market conditions, by ensuring jobseekers’ employment goals are aligned with the available jobs in their area. This will enable providers to deliver more personalised support by focusing their efforts on activities that genuinely help participants move towards suitable employment. And we have already seen the evidence that this kind of meaningful goal planning can deliver benefits for both participants and providers, through the reforms that our Government has delivered in Inclusive Employment Australia.
Since IEA was established in November last year, I’ve been hearing very positive early feedback about how it is operating – particularly the introduction of meaningful engagement job plans. Participants and provider staff have been able to use this process of developing meaningful and relevant goal plans to build stronger relationships, and agree on activities that participants want to engage in because they can see that these activities represent clear progress towards their employment goals.
Another key design element is the redesign of mutual obligation requirements for jobseekers. Mutual obligations will remain an integral part of the employment services system, because they promote ongoing engagement and ensure that jobseekers are not disconnecting from the system. But we have heard strong feedback from providers that mutual obligations should move away from a compliance-first approach to focus on positive engagement and meaningful activities.
And we also know that the inflexibility of the current mutual obligations framework means providers are spending too much time administering compliance, reducing their capacity to build meaningful relationships with participants. So through the reform process, our Government is removing the one-size-fits-all approach to mutual obligations to ensure that they are fair, proportionate, and above all, effective.
Mutual obligations will be calibrated to an individual’s distance from the labour market and clearly connected to a jobseeker’s employment goals, as set out in their Employment Goal Plan. Whether that might be a focus on meaningful engagement and building readiness to work for jobseekers in Service Stream Three, or a focus on vocational activities like job searches in Service Stream One.
Whichever service stream a jobseeker is in, what’s critically important is that mutual obligations represent clear, meaningful progress towards their employment goals. Because that will promote positive engagement with the employment services system. And again, the outcomes from IEA demonstrate that a more targeted approach to mutual obligations can enable provider staff to shift their focus away from a compliance-first approach, towards helping participants make real progress towards employment.
Of course, what is key to the success of all these elements I have outlined is having a high-quality initial assessment for jobseekers that captures all the relevant information, so providers can deliver the most appropriate type and intensity of support. And that’s what we intend to do with our reforms to the assessment and triaging processes. This will replace the current Job Seeker Classification Instrument, to provide a more holistic understanding of a jobseeker’s barriers to employment and their motivation for work.
Enhancing the quality of the information gathered upfront will also help you as providers by ensuring that you are not starting from scratch. Having that information will allow you to hit the ground running when it comes to tailoring employment goal plans and mutual obligations requirements for individual jobseekers. And by giving providers better information about participants, the new assessment process will support more targeted interventions, better quality of service and improved employment outcomes.
Together, these reforms are designed to support providers to deliver higher-quality, more effective employment services. By combining personalised goal setting and tailored mutual obligations with appropriate service design and delivery, the reformed system will enable providers to deliver more responsive support to jobseekers, that will place people into suitable and sustainable employment outcomes.
Of course, our Government recognises that the success of these improved design elements does depend on the skills and capability of frontline staff to implement them. For example, frontline staff will not only need the ability to develop meaningful relationships with jobseekers. They will also need the skills and expertise to develop practical and achievable employment goal plans, incorporating tailored mutual obligations.
As I have already mentioned, each jobseeker’s Employment Goal Plan will need to be aligned with the available jobs in their area. Because one of the most consistent themes that has come out of the public consultation process is the importance of employment service providers being responsive to local labour market conditions. So frontline staff will need to develop a deep understanding of their local labour market and incorporate that knowledge into their work.
And in many circumstances, that relies on frontline staff building strong relationships with local employers. Of course, I know that there are questions about how we can uplift the capability of employment service staff across the board to be able to do this – whether that’s increasing the proportion of staff across the sector that have had formal training, or establishing more communities of practice, or other ways to strengthen workforce capability.
And these questions are absolutely front of mind for our Government, as I know they are for you also, and we welcome your feedback on this as we continue through the reform process. Now of course, as you are all aware, there is a lot of design detail underneath each of these elements that we are working through. That consultation process is ongoing, which means many of the specific policy and program settings are not yet settled.
But what I would like to say is that I am committed to working closely with providers like yourselves, people with lived experience, with academics and with employers as we develop a system that can deliver high-quality services for all jobseekers. I and my colleague, Assistant Minister Gorman, have met with providers and participants at community forums across the country, to directly hear their perspective on reform.
These conversations have been really valuable, and they highlighted the importance of working together with providers throughout this process. Of course, reform doesn’t happen overnight. That’s why, at the National Press Club, I also announced a 16-month extension of all current Workforce Australia contracts.
But our Government is also not waiting to develop a whole new system before we make improvements. There are early steps we are implementing right now that will improve quality across the system, many of which have been developed in consultation with employment service providers. One of the steps we have taken is the introduction of an updated performance framework for providers.
In January, our Government introduced a more streamlined, assessment framework that sets clear expectations for providers. It helps give providers more meaningful insights into how well they are supporting participants. And it can identify areas requiring improvement at an earlier stage, ensuring providers can address problems before they escalate.
Our Government is committed to consulting with employment service providers through these immediate improvements, as well as the broader reform process. Your input is incredibly valuable, because no one is better placed to provide a practical understanding of what is, and isn’t, working on the ground. For example, the 12-week employment outcome measure has been retained within the performance framework, because the feedback we heard from you was that it is a critical milestone for jobseekers with complex barriers.
The old Tailored Servicing measure has also been removed from the framework, based on your feedback that it was an administrative burden. And it has been replaced with a more streamlined and practical approach. These changes to the performance framework, among others, provide clearer expectations for providers and a simpler, more transparent approach to assessing performance.
As I said, ensuring people are getting the right support is critical. While our reform is focused on better responding to different barriers participants face, we are not waiting for reform to take action. This year, I introduced discretion into the allocation of participants to Workforce Australia Online.
This change means that participants with low digital literacy are referred directly to a provider from the outset, as this is the most appropriate service to meet their needs. Because as you will all know, just because someone has digital doesn’t mean they have digital For any participants already in the online service who undergo a re-assessment and are identified with low digital literacy, they will be referred to a provider-led service.
I also spoke earlier about ensuring mutual obligations are better aligned to relevant, meaningful activities. That’s why our Government recently made changes to the Points Based Activation System. These changes will give greater weightings to effort and activities that focus on meaningfully increasing job-readiness – to incentivise engagement in activities that address barriers to employment rather than multiple, lower-value tasks.
And I expect providers to be making participants aware of these changes and actively encouraging them to choose activities that move them closer to, and into employment. These changes to the performance framework, referral processes and Points Based Activation System are all about moving the current service closer towards what we want to see in a reformed employment service system.
So as we look to the future, the task is clear. Australia needs an employment services system that can respond to a diverse caseload of jobseekers at different distances from the labour market. And an employment services system that enables providers to deliver responsive, high-quality services.
That is what our Government’s reforms are designed to achieve. Delivering these reforms successfully will depend on continued partnership between government and providers, drawing on your expertise and your understanding of the communities you serve. So I’d like to thank NESA and its members for your ongoing engagement throughout this reform process.
I look forward to continuing that work with you.