Bedford said the move could “directly impact 1,400 people with disability across South Australia” but was hopeful the federal government would throw it a financial lifeline.<\/p>\n
The organisation, headquartered in Adelaide, has more than 400 employees and supports more than 6,000 customers.\u00a0 (ABC News: Luke Pike)<\/p>\n
According to the document sent by Maxima to workers on Thursday, the Department of Social Services (DSS) set an embargo on telling clients and the broader public about the tender outcome.<\/p>\n
The document stated the DSS set the embargo “to allow providers to work with their teams without \u2026 additional external pressure arising from wider knowledge”.<\/p>\n
“We understand that you may need to speak to your family during this difficult time,” the document states.<\/p>\n
“We ask that yourself and any person you disclose this information to, refrains from discussing the details with other people outside of Maxima, including customers and employers, during the embargo period.<\/p>\n
“Over the following week, we will provide you with the relevant information to share with customers in preparation for the outcome being publicly announced.”<\/p>\n
Maxima management wrote that they expected the embargo to lift “within the first week of August”.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is still very new information and we had not anticipated this outcome,\u201d the document sent to workers states.<\/p>\n
A Maxima spokesperson told ABC News the organisation was unable to comment on the outcome of the IEA tender as it was under embargo by the federal government.<\/p>\n
“The outcome of the IEA tender is under embargo by the federal government, so we are unable to comment publicly at this time,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
they said.<\/p>\n
“Our other services \u2013 Recruitment, Traineeships and Apprenticeships, and Indigenous Employment \u2013 continue as usual and are unaffected by the IEA tender.<\/p>\n
“We will continue to support our employees and customers and communicate with our customers once the Federal Government embargo is lifted, ahead of new IEA contracts taking effect from November.”<\/p>\n
Federal government ‘reforming’ sector<\/p>\n
A spokesperson from the Department of Social Services said the federal government was “reforming disability employment services” which “reflect extensive consultation” with the disability community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The changes will mean more people accessing services, more tailored support, more accountability and more support for providers. The new program will help an extra 15,000 people with disability across the country find a job that they love,” they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“To implement the changes, a competitive, open tender process was conducted to select providers for the next five years. As with any tender, some organisations have been successful and others haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n
“There is no reduction of services in any area in the country, including South Australia.”<\/p>\n
They said those living with a disability still had access to about 20 organisations under Inclusive Employment Australia.<\/p>\n
“This includes an increase in access to providers who have specialist expertise in working with people with particular disabilities or from particular cohorts,” the spokesperson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The DSS did not confirm the change but said “people with a disability who are currently supported by Maxima don’t need to do anything just yet”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They will be able to choose a new provider in their area that best suits their needs.\u00a0Support will be available to help with that process, including a dedicated hotline to provide any help that participants need,” they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the DSS website, IEA is “a new specialist disability employment program” that would support people with disability, as well as those with injury or health conditions, to “prepare for, find and maintain work, and grow their career”.<\/p>\n
The website states IEA would replace the current “Disability Employment Program” and would “improve and simplify services for people looking for work”.<\/p>\n
“A diverse network of high-quality providers will deliver the new program,” the website states.<\/p>\n
“There will be greater focus on providers with staff and leadership reflecting the diversity of their community.”<\/p>\n
‘Not the end of Maxima’<\/p>\n
According to the document sent by Maxima to workers on Thursday, the organisation was “not closing”.<\/p>\n
“We are committed to continuing to deliver DES (disability employment services) in Western Australia, and our recruitment services, group training, Indigenous employment, and labour hire programs \u2014 all programs which remain key pillars of our business,” it said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“While this is a significant and difficult change, this is not the end of Maxima”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major disability employment provider supporting more than 6,000 Australians living with disability has told staff it has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":90761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[25403,59010,64,60358,7931,60355,60360,2142,1258,60356,60359,420,60357,6743,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-90760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-adelaide","9":"tag-bedford","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-department-for-social-services","12":"tag-disability","13":"tag-disability-provider","14":"tag-employment-provider","15":"tag-federal-government","16":"tag-funding","17":"tag-government-funding","18":"tag-inclusive-employment-australia","19":"tag-jobs","20":"tag-maxima","21":"tag-south-australia","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114912634132728432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}