Disability Services Ministers’ Conference
Improved outcomes for people with a disability, their families and carers are central to the progress made by the Commonwealth, State and Territory Disability Ministers meeting in Melbourne recently.
The Disability Ministers endorsed the strong progress being made on implementing the new National Disability Reform Agenda. Reform to the disability system is long overdue, and the commitment by all governments to a national reform agenda is a significant step forward.
Key areas agreed upon include:
- Better measurement of current and future need;
- National population benchmarks; and
- Workforce capacity
Ministers are also working toward the development of a National Population Benchmarking Framework with initial benchmarking, based on existing information, to be implemented by the end of 2009.
It was agreed that support for ageing carers and respite services would be priority areas for the benchmarking framework and that benchmarking would take account of tailored approaches such as individual support packages.
