Job Services Australia Demonstration Pilots Better Practice Guide 4 Case management Through the Innovation Fund projects, it became apparent that intensive case management by experienced staff can make a practical difference to employment outcomes. The case manager or case management team plays an important role in designing a suite of interventions that they believe will enable the job seeker to find employment, and will deliver services seamlessly throughout the period of service. As outlined in Better Practice Guides 1, 2 and 3, demonstration pilot providers report that case planning is best achieved when it: is based on a strong initial (and sometimes continuing) assessment includes significant input from the job seeker and relevant experts is supported by frequent, high-quality contact. Current servicing of Stream 4 job seekers Stream 4 provides integrated and intensive support to the most disadvantaged job seekers. Assistance both before and during employment is tailored to the individual needs of the job seeker. Interventions that address vocational or non-vocational barriers are delivered either sequentially or concurrently depending on the job seeker s circumstances. The Employment Services Deed establishes a broad framework for the services to be delivered. It specifies the initial and subsequent minimum contact regime, and requires providers to deliver vocational and non-vocational interventions with referral to professional support as needed. The deed is underpinned by a code of practice, service guarantees and a quality framework. Within these arrangements, providers have a lot of discretion as to how they deliver services. Job Services Australia employment service providers vary greatly in their organisational details, the environment they operate in, and in how they approach the task of assisting job seekers. There is no fixed formula of characteristics or practices that mark out high-performing sites. Instead, a combination of many factors tends to contribute to good practice, depending on each service provider s caseload, environment and business model. However, high-performing employment service providers do tend to differ from mid- and lowperforming providers in their overall approach to providing employment assistance. High performers are more likely to have a positive, problem-solving attitude; to find innovative solutions to the problems they encounter; and to make full use of the resources available to them, such as from other Government programs and the resources available in their community. High performing sites are more likely than mid- and low-performers to use practices that are goal-oriented and lead to individually tailored services for job seekers. DEEWR, Good Practice in Job Services Australia, March 2012
Providers are free to make business decisions about how the caseload is managed and divided among staff, who they employ to work with job seekers, the type of interventions that they deliver to job seekers, and how these are delivered. What are the demonstration pilots trialling? Caseloads and case management Because they spend more time with job seekers, several providers have deliberately reduced caseloads in the demonstration pilots. The lowest number of cases per case manager reported is 35, although this is not typical. The overall case management approach often determines the ration of job seekers to case managers. For example, a single case manager may have fewer cases, but a case management team may have more. The overall theme from the majority of the participants was that they appreciate the extra assistance received from Employment Case Worker. In particular, the Employment Case Worker accompanying participants to other agencies helps them to navigate the confusing pathways to accessing resources and assistance. Furthermore, the availability of the Employment Case Worker for job seekers to provide prompt assistance in dealing with external organisations is also reassuring for clients. These practices have become routine in the pilot program. Pilot providers all report that staff with the right experience, qualities, skills and strengths contribute to success. Providers may match a case manager to a particular job seeker, or spend time building the right case management team. This may include employing specialist staff or working with external providers to bring in expertise as required. The most common model among the pilots is joint case management. One staff member focuses on recruitment tasks (résumé, job application, training), while another coordinates specialist interventions to overcome non-vocational barriers to employment. The latter may have been brought into the team to provide specialist skills or experience. For example, the Service to Youth Launch pilot employs clinical case workers with expertise in mental health to work alongside traditional employment consultants. In the ASK Employment pilot, the job seeker receives assistance from employment consultants while an engagement consultant provides support for the activities that address the person s non-vocational barriers to employment. The Mental Health Coordinator offers to attend external support meetings with all job seekers to enhance their willingness, confidence and ability to attend the service referral meetings. This support is appreciated and needed which is evident by the majority of job seekers accepting this offer for the first one or two external meetings. The ultimate goal is for job seekers to develop the confidence and ability to organise and attend these services independently. PVSWorkfind BEACON pilot Where more than one staff member is supporting a job seeker, joint case conferences may be used to ensure seamless delivery of services. Outside staff are either brought in to attend case conferencing or are co-located with the rest of the case management team. Whatever the structure, there is evidence that a consistent point of contact for the job seeker builds trust and rapport.
See also Better Practice Guide 5 Organisational collaboration Some job seekers may take it as a message of disrespect when staff move, especially at short notice. Case Managers report that job seekers do not want to tell their story all over again and feel they have already seen a lot of people. This has messages of care and diligence for internal changes Workskills SET project Previously I kept getting moved from employment consultant to employment consultant. Things got better when they kept me stable with one employment consultant. My employment case worker and employment consultant are fantastic people. They have helped me by teaching me strategies to cope and work in a team. They have given me a list of organisations I could possibly work for around my qualifications in Community Service. BoysTown is good because the people are nice and they enjoy their job and want to be there. Job seeker Mentoring While case managers are often informal mentors, formal mentoring may also be among the interventions delivered to job seekers as part of a particular pilot. In the Workskills SET project at the time of the interim evaluation, 69 of the 83 participants were receiving mentoring support. Workskills has mobile mentors who support pilot job seekers off-site. Mentors help with training, work experience, preparation for job interviews, on-the-job support, and access to other government and community programs (such as crisis support). In its interim evaluation, Workskills found that the most effective mentors accept participants with complex barriers and have the life experience to deliver wise counsel ; they are also experienced in delivering government services and developing partnerships with case managers. The suite of interventions Because services for Stream 4 job seekers are tailored to the individual, it is hard to identify a single approach by case managers or management teams. Most demonstration pilot providers do not choose either a support-first approach, where intensive support is delivered before employment preparation begins, or a work-first approach, where employment-focused support is paramount and often includes rapid work placement. Rather they take a parallel approach, delivering vocational and non-vocational support side-by-side. However, this broad direction is modified according to the needs and capabilities of individual job seekers. In all pilots, the case manager or management team draw on a mix of vocational and non-vocational training, work experience and volunteering, and health and welfare interventions. In line with better practice, pilot providers link training and work experience to the job seeker s specific vocational goals and the skills that are in demand in the local area. Several pilots deliver a time-limited, structured program of support. For example, participants in Max Employment s MAXimise your life attend life skills training with Centacare. The lessons covered in these group sessions are reinforced in individual sessions with the case manager. Work experience, volunteering and health and social activities are interspersed throughout the 13-week program, and the job seeker has access to community programs, including training and counselling in financial management, as required.
Early learnings Caseload and case management Pilot providers report that, to support Stream 4 job seekers and to build engagement and rapport, case managers need to spend time. To make this possible, providers structure caseloads and manage staff so they can work meaningfully with pilot participants. Separation of elements of case management (such as recruitment services and tailored interventions) enables staff to focus on one aspect of service delivery according to their skills or strengths. A staff member is not expected to be all things to all job seekers. A team of people with a range of skills can provide more knowledgeable and appropriate interventions. Some pilot providers report that case-sharing leads to more creative solutions. Given the prevalence of mental health conditions among Stream 4 job seekers, demonstration pilot providers often include a mental health professional on the internal case management team. This results in faster identification of mental health issues, and more immediate and targeted intervention. The mobility of the teams in the demonstration pilots, including mentors, allows consultants to build strong relationships with employers and to intervene effectively when issues arise after a job placement. Joint case management ensures that several people know the job seeker s case in detail, so help can be provided at any time. Regarding an employer site visit: Due to workloads, a traditional employment consultant role would not have this flexibility or capacity or the support from an employment consultant to develop further relationships with both employers and clients. The Employment Consultant and the Clinical Case Manager both know what is going on with my life and what I am doing. It s good. Sometimes we all meet together and other times it is separate. They help me out in different ways but it all has to do with me getting a job. Job seeker, Service to Youth Launch project Mentoring Most of the pilots do not engage in formal mentoring. Workskills SET pilot, which does provide mentors, reports that 84 per cent of participants found mentoring to be helpful or very helpful. The case managers involved in the pilot would like to have a dedicated mentor at each Workskills site and to extend mentoring services to Stream 3 job seekers as well. Partner organisations also commented that they would value regular visits and liaison from mentors. The suite of interventions Pilot providers tend to favour a parallel focus on employment and non-vocational support to engage disadvantaged job seekers where this works for the job seeker. Even where non-vocational barriers need immediate attention, it is important to convey the message that employment is the ultimate goal.
Implications for 2015 High-performing providers value the flexibility to deliver services according to their strengths and experience. The demonstration pilots suggest that there may be significant benefits in using internal case management teams to deliver support to Stream 4 job seekers, and that access to staff with mental health expertise can speed up treatment for job seekers with mental health conditions. The pilots prefer parallel servicing of job seekers, where non-vocational interventions complement preparation for employment and job searching. Approaches known to be beneficial to Stream 4 job seekers could be embedded in servicing arrangements and reinforced through the quality and performance framework. Where evidence shows that a particular intervention is beneficial to job seekers with particular characteristics or under particular circumstances, this could be shared among providers and partner organisations. These Better Practice Guides reflect the processes and strategies providers have used to deliver services under the Job Service Australia Demonstration Pilots. They are not intended to offer evidence about the performance of the pilots. The Guides disaggregate pilot services into distinct service elements to aid in presentation and reference only. Interactions occur between all aspects of services and all areas should be considered when looking at the provision of good practice services to highly disadvantaged job seekers.