Prime minister's advisers say government's employment services fail to deliver for those with chronic conditions
Four respected independent advisory bodies to the prime minister say the government's employment services system fails to deliver for Australians with chronic mental health conditions.
The public rebuke has been delivered by the heads of the Australian Social Inclusion Board, the Prime Minister's Council on Homelessness, the National Mental Health Commission and the Australian National Council on Drugs.
The advisory bodies say Job Services Australia– the outsourced network of agencies who help unemployed people find work – is not delivering for people with mental health conditions, and it is important to keep those jobseekers engaged.
The leaders of the organisations – Lin Hatfield Dodds (Australian Social Inclusion Board), Tony Nicholson (Prime Minister's Council on Homelessness), Allan Fels (National Mental Health Commission) and John Herron (Australian National Council on Drugs) – issued a joint statement saying the current review of the employment services system presented an opportunity to do better.
"Employment is critically important for those who are experiencing alcohol, drug, mental health, homelessness and other social exclusion issues and can help people to successfully address and manage such problems," the statement says.
"Effective employment services for the significant number of people affected by these issues can have real benefits for affected people, their families, the community, and the economy."
The advisory bodies point out that people with mental health issues are capable of taking part in the labour market but they have complex needs.
They say the current employment network is not resourced sufficiently to deal with these complexities and this means there is insufficient follow-through to ensure people have suitable job opportunities.
The four groups say the government has an opportunity to better co-ordinate resources across portfolios. "Directly utilising the specialist services from the homelessness, alcohol and other drugs, and mental health sectors to address unemployment for people with complex needs is a reform that would reduce the significant barriers to employment," they say.
The job network system is under review. This is expected to result in adjustments to the policy to take effect in 2015, when the current batch of job services contracts expire.
