DEWR National Employment Forum - Canberra

Thank you Aunty Serena for that warm Welcome to Country. 

I’d also like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people as the Traditional Custodians of the lands where we are meeting. 

And paying my respects to their Elders past and present. 

I’d also like to acknowledge the officers from my Department who are hosting today’s event, particularly Deputy Secretary Tania Rishniw. 

And all the representatives from employment service providers. 

As some of you might have heard me say before, I am passionate about ensuring that as many Australians as possible have the opportunity to enjoy the dignity of work.  

Because work delivers obvious benefits, like economic security. 

But work also provides confidence, connection and community. 

Of course, there are many jobseekers who are missing out on those benefits because of the barriers to employment that they face. 

Whether it’s a skills gap, a break in their employment history, or a lack of confidence – these barriers and many others can determine someone’s distance from entering, or re-entering, the labour market. 

And for many people, overcoming these barriers can be a difficult process to navigate alone. 

That’s why it is critical that Australia has an effective and responsive employment services system that supports jobseekers to address barriers and find suitable, meaningful employment. 

And I want to acknowledge the really important role that employment service providers like yourselves can play in your local communities, by helping connect participants with job opportunities. 

However, for the last 30 years our national employment services system has been based on a one-size-fits-all approach to supporting jobseekers at different distances from the labour market. 

And that means not enough people are getting the appropriate intensity of supports that they need to move into work. 

Now of course, I know that every provider in the room will have positive stories of working together with participants, going above and beyond to help them successfully overcome barriers and move into work. 

And many employment service providers and their staff are committed to their work of helping jobseekers as best as they can. 

But at a system-wide level, the data shows us that too many jobseekers are either ending up parked in the system, or exiting and then re-entering, or disengaging from the search for employment altogether. 

The challenge we face is that the system itself has not been designed to respond to the diversity of jobseekers that are on the Workforce Australia caseload. 

And that is why, we are redesigning the system to ensure that participants are getting more appropriate supports, that reflect their individual circumstances and help people move into work. 

This in turn will drive high-quality servicing across the system, and deliver better outcomes. 

This long-overdue reforms are the most significant overhaul to Australia’s employment services system in 30 years. 

At the heart of this reform is a simple objective: to deliver high-quality services that help jobseekers find and maintain suitable employment. 

We want to see high-quality services that are responsive to an individual’s distance from the labour market, and can effectively support jobseekers to move towards, and into, employment. 

Our Government is determined to uplift the quality of services across the employment services system because we know that better services lead to better employment outcomes.

And through this reform process, we have outlined four key design elements that we have been consulting on. 

The first and most significant of these reforms is replacing the one-size-fits-all approach with three new distinct service streams. 

Each of these streams will be designed to support jobseekers at different distances from the labour market. 

We are building a new online service offering in Stream 1, for people who are digitally literate and closer to the labour market. 

By creating new online tools and providing targeted support and brief interventions where needed, the new Stream 1 service will help jobseekers move into work faster, reducing the time they spend out of the labour market. 

This will be a more effective and efficient way to support participants who require less intensive supports to get into work. 

Stream 2 will be for those jobseekers who have more significant barriers to employment and need the more specialised support that providers can deliver through face-to-face services. 

And Stream 3 will deliver more intensive services for people who are furthest from the labour market. 

Each of these service streams will have a different service offering, a different approach to mutual obligations for participants, and different funding models for providers.

We are deliberately designing these three new service streams to be distinct from each other, to remove the one-size-fits-all approach to servicing.

Because we recognise that jobseekers at different distances from the labour market need different types of support and approaches to service delivery.

And so, the organisations delivering employment services in each service stream will be required to deliver a different model of service that meets the needs of jobseekers within that stream. 

This will help avoid what we have seen occur in the current and previous iterations of employment services, where those furthest from the labour market are often under-serviced or put in the ‘too hard’ basket. 

For example, jobseekers within Stream 3 are likely to face complex barriers to employment that may include non-vocational barriers, like health and housing. 

So there will be an expectation on providers in Stream 3 that they have those strong connections to non-vocational support services, which can support participants in parallel with their employment service provider. 

Because if participants are supported to access non-vocational support services, at the same time their employment provider is working with them to address vocational barriers, then participants are more likely to make meaningful progress towards, and into, suitable, sustained employment. 

So not only will creating these three distinct service streams allow both the Government and providers to direct their resources in the most effective way, it will also allow providers to develop a more bespoke servicing approach that responds to a jobseeker’s distance from the labour market. 

Because by definition, if providers are matching the service offering and types of supports to what a participant actually needs, that will deliver a better quality of service, which will flow on to deliver better employment outcomes. 

The second design element that we are reforming is a new way for providers and participants to work together to set employment goals. 

Because a jobseeker’s individual barriers to employment, their work history and their aspirations will all have a significant impact on their goals for employment, and their ability to achieve these goals. 

So providers need to be able to account for a range of factors when they are considering how best to support a jobseeker to move towards and into employment. 

But in the current system, job plans are often little more than standardised templates, with arbitrary activities and compliance requirements that have little relevance to a person’s individual circumstances. 

That’s why, through the reform process, we are working on the development of an Employment Goal Plan that can bring together activities, supports and mutual obligations to give every participant, in every service stream, a clear pathway to work. 

These Employment Goal Plans will provide joint accountability about the activities participants will engage in, and the support that providers will deliver. 

Having this clear accountability for all parties will help drive an uplift in quality services by creating clear, shared expectations between providers and jobseekers. 

In a reformed system, I expect to see providers building relationships with participants that are based on trust and respect. 

And I want to see providers working with participants to develop a goal plan that actually helps jobseekers move towards, and into, employment. 

And we see evidence that this kind of meaningful goal planning can deliver improved outcomes for both participants and providers. 

In my previous portfolio, I led the reforms that saw the introduction of Inclusive Employment Australia. 

And since IEA was established in November last year, I have been hearing some really positive feedback about how it is operating. 

The introduction of meaningful engagement job plans, for example, has led to reports of successfully re-engaging participants that have been suspended from the caseload for years.

Participants and provider staff have been able to build relationships and agree on activities that participants want to engage with and believe will actually help them achieve their employment goal. 

Employment service staff are enjoying their work more because they are able to do more of the parts of their job that they really love.

And compliance action is down, because participants are genuinely engaging in the service, helping them concentrate their efforts on getting and keeping a job.

Of course, having high quality services does depend on frontline staff having the capability to build these meaningful relationships with jobseekers, and the expertise to develop these bespoke employment goal plans. 

And this will be a key question as we go through reform, about how we can build the skills and capability of frontline staff to deliver high-quality services that improve outcomes, including the ability to establish and work towards implementing the participant’s employment goal plan. 

The third design element that we are reforming is changing mutual obligation requirements, so that they reflective of an individual’s distance from the labour market and designed to actually help people get a suitable job. 

Because when a participant’s activities are relevant, achievable and tailored to their circumstances, they are more likely to support genuine engagement and progress towards employment. 

Which is why our Government is reforming the design of mutual obligations to be fair, effective and calibrated to a participant’s distance from the labour market, across all three service streams. 

These reforms will help drive an uplift in quality by enabling providers to move away from a compliance-first approach, and be more responsive to an individual participant’s circumstances. 

Now I would like to be very clear. 

Mutual obligations will remain an important part of the employment services system. 

Our Government believes they reflect an important community expectation that people who are receiving income support should be taking active steps to obtain work. 

But I have heard directly from many participants and providers that the current design of mutual obligations is based on an ineffective one-size-fits-all approach that does little to help people actually move towards employment.  

So through this reform process, our Government is looking at ways that mutual obligations requirements can be calibrated to an individual’s distance from the labour market, and clearly connected to a participant’s employment goals, as set out in their employment goal plan. 

Whether that might be a focus on meaningful engagement and building readiness to work in Stream 3, or a focus on vocational activities like job searches in Stream 1.  

What’s critically important is that mutual obligations represent clear progress towards a participant’s employment goals, which will promote positive engagement with the employment service system. 

Of course, what is key to each of the design elements I have outlined so far is accurate, relevant information.  

That information is vital for providers to assess and triage a participant into the correct service stream, to help that participant develop a much more tailored employment goal plan, and to calibrate a participant’s mutual obligations requirements. 

But the feedback I have been receiving from both participants and providers is that the current Job Seeker Classification Instrument is not an effective tool at identifying the specific barriers to employment that someone might face. 

That’s why the fourth design element that we are reforming is a new assessment and triaging process for jobseekers when they enter the employment services system. 

This new assessment process will capture a much more holistic range of information, compared to what is currently in place, including more detailed information on a participant’s barriers to employment and their motivation to find work. 

Enhancing the quality of the information gathered will also help drive improved quality of services, by helping providers create the tailored goal plan and mutual obligation requirements that are more likely to lead to successful employment outcomes. 

All of these reformed design elements that I have outlined are intended to drive an uplift in quality within our employment services system and ensure services are responsive, effective and centred on the needs of participants. 

Now of course, a lot of the design detail under each of these key elements is still being worked through, in extensive consultation with stakeholders. 

I and my colleague, Assistant Minister Gorman, have been meeting with participants and providers at forums across the country, to hear directly from them about how we can better target supports.  

Those conversations have been really valuable, and they emphasised the importance of working in partnership with providers throughout the reform process. 

Because no one is better placed to provide a practical understanding of what is working on the ground. 

And I know that you will have insights about how the system can be improved.

Today is a fantastic opportunity for you to share those insights. 

As you will have seen on today’s program, several of the key reform elements I have highlighted are the focus of workshops and discussion over the course of the day. 

I, and my Department, are very keen to hear from you on these topics. 

Your frontline experience is invaluable as we consider how to design a system that delivers better outcomes for participants, and empowers providers to do what you do best. 

So I’d encourage you to share your frank suggestions. 

Because your feedback will play an important role in shaping the next phase of reform. 

I’d like to close by thanking you all for your willingness to help shape the reform process. 

Our Government will continue working closely with providers to ensure the reformed employment services system is focused on delivering suitable, meaningful employment outcomes for Australians. 

Please enjoy the rest of the day. 

Thank you.