The Australian and Victorian governments are working together to improve how they respond to, and manage, coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreaks in disability residential care. They are limiting the number of places a staff member can work and implementing a new Disability Response Centre.
Many people with disability, their families and support workers are worried about COVID-19, particularly people living in residential care and group homes.
One of the highest risks of the virus getting into residential services is staff that work across a number of different sites.
The Australian and Victorian governments are working to reduce the movement of staff between residences, while also making sure that staff are still getting enough income.
The governments have set up a $15 million scheme to support disability service providers to have a ‘one worker-two sites’ cap.
The Worker Mobility Reduction Payment scheme will cover any lost hours of work for staff and the cost of hiring extra workers. The scheme will run until December 2020.
The new Disability Response Centre will include people from the:
- National Disability Insurance Agency
- NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
- Commonwealth Department of Social Services
- Victorian Department of Health and Services.
You can read more in a press release on the Premier of Victoria’s website.
