Will the pay equity payments that are currently paid separately continue to apply to current applications? (Darwin) SACS supplementation will still be applicable to grants in the new programmes. Due to the establishment of the SACS Special Account, supplementation will be drawn from there and shown as a separate milestone in grant agreements. It will be assumed all wage information provided by grant applicants will include the costs of the annual SACS wage increases and the SACS team in DSS will work backwards to determine the appropriate amount of funding to be drawn from the programme appropriation as opposed to the SACS Special Account. Service providers who have any queries regarding SACS are encouraged to email their queries to the SACS inbox (). How can we be sure that this deregulation agenda just result in cost won’t shifting to the sector? (Brisbane) The Government is committed to reducing red tape for providers. The goal of the Government’s broader red tape reduction agenda is to allow service providers to have more resources to conduct their business. The new grant programmes provide greater freedom for service providers who will no longer be restricted by overly prescriptive Programme Guidelines that can hinder solutions to community needs. In particular, reporting processes will be simplified and standardised to reduce the administrative effort of service providers and allow them to focus more on service delivery. The new approach will be collaborative and share this information back with service providers to help them improve client and community outcomes. The Government’s deregulation agenda has resulted in several changes to the way the Department works with grants. These changes include: simplified grant programme arrangements longer term grant agreements a new DSS streamlined agreement a move to a single grant agreement per service provider a transition towards web based applications a new DSS acquittal policy What is the difference between red and green tape? (Mildura) Red tape is the administrative burden relating to processes and requirements imposed by government on business, community organisations and individuals. For DSS funded organisations an example of these processes and requirements includes performance and financial reporting.
Will the pay equity payments that are currently paid separately continue to apply to current applications? (Darwin) SACS supplementation will still be applicable to grants in the new programmes. Due to the establishment of the SACS Special Account, supplementation will be drawn from there and shown as a separate milestone in grant agreements. It will be assumed all wage information provided by grant applicants will include the costs of the annual SACS wage increases and the SACS team in DSS will work backwards to determine the appropriate amount of funding to be drawn from the programme appropriation as opposed to the SACS Special Account. Service providers who have any queries regarding SACS are encouraged to email their queries to the SACS inbox (). How can we be sure that this deregulation agenda won’t just result in cost shifting to the sector? (Brisbane) The Government is committed to reducing red tape for providers. The goal of the Government’s broader red tape reduction agenda is to allow service providers to have more resources to conduct their business. The new grant programmes provide greater freedom for service providers who will no longer be restricted by overly prescriptive Programme Guidelines that can hinder solutions to community needs. In particular, reporting processes will be simplified and standardised to reduce the administrative effort of service providers and allow them to focus more on service delivery. The new approach will be collaborative and share this information back with service providers to help them improve client and community outcomes. The Government’s deregulation agenda has resulted in several changes to the way the Department works with grants. These changes include: simplified grant programme arrangements longer term grant agreements a new DSS streamlined agreement a move to a single grant agreement per service provider a transition towards web based applications a new DSS acquittal policy What is the difference between red and green tape? (Mildura) Red tape is the administrative burden relating to processes and requirements imposed by government on business, community organisations and individuals. For DSS funded organisations an example of these processes and requirements includes performance and financial reporting.
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