Olga Tennison Autism PhD scholarship

In 2008 La Trobe University established The Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre. The Centre is offering a competitive PhD research scholarship to be awarded to the best candidate-supervisor team with an innovative research proposal in the area of autism.

Please click here for more information

Changes to the Helping Children with Autism Funding

Please click to view a flowchart that explains the changes

FaHCSIA has recently announced changes to the Helping Children with Autism funding package that will allow families more time to use their funding. These changes will come into effect on the 19th October 2009.

Previously families only had access to the funding until the day before their children turned 6, unless they met FaHCSIA’s criteria for Special Consideration. Families who have the HCWA funding will now have until the day before their children turn 7 to use their funding. Families who had access to the funding, but ‘lost’ it because their children turned 6 between 27th October 2008 and 18th October 2009, will have 12 months from 19th October 2009 to 18th October 2010 to spend up to $6000 of their funding. Please note that children will only qualify for the HCWA funding if they are assessed as eligible for the HCWA before they turn 6, and these changes will replace the Special Consideration criteria. Therefore, if your child is about to turn 6 it is very important that you submit your application with all of your documents before your child’s 6th birthday.

Also note that the maximum amount of funding that any child can use will still be $12,000 (maximum of $6000 per financial year), but families will have more time to use their funding. Parents will receive a letter from FaHCSIA confirming these changes in the near future. In the meantime, if you want more information, see the Media Release at Jenny Macklin’s website:

http://www.jennymacklin.fahcsia.gov.au/internet/jennymacklin.nsf/content/autism_services_22sept09.htm

Alternatively, contact your Autism Advisor, or ring Autism Victoria on 96571600 and choose the Helping Children with Autism option.

There have also been changes to the Early Intervention Resources Policy that allow more families to use part of their funding on equipment and resources. Equipment and resources will still need to be ordered through an approved Provider and will still need to be an integral part of children’s therapy. However, there is no longer the requirement that the equipment must be stocked by the Provider, and the long list of items that could not be ordered will no longer apply. Families can still only spend a maximum of 35% of their children’s funding (i.e. $2100 per financial year) on equipment. If you would like to spend part of your child’s funding on equipment, speak to your Provider. Please note that Providers are under no obligation to supply equipment, and please understand that some smaller Providers do not have the administrative resources to order equipment.

There will also be changes allowing single practitioners, e.g. speech pathologists, psychologists and occupational therapists to become Providers, but FaHCSIA will provide more details on this closer to the time it will be implemented.

Autism Accreditation at Autism Victoria

In 2009 Autism Victoria signed a working franchise with the National Autistic Society’s Autism Accreditation Branch to deliver Autism Accreditation to individuals and services offering support to individual’s with Autism. Autism Accreditation is a well established quality assurance and best practice program and has been operating in the UK since 1993. The Autism Accreditation programme has international recognition and as a quality and best practice system has been accredited and is recognized internationally by The International Society for Quality in Health care (ISQua). 

Autism Accreditation offers Autism-specific review for services and individuals working with people with Autism. Autism-specific criteria is applied to each area of the organisation reviewed, based upon evidence and reaching specific Autism Accreditation standards. There are core Autism standards that any professional working with individuals with Autism evidence and there are also specialist standards specific to the type of service that is offered to the individuals with ASD  e.g. early intervention, schooling, adult day care, respite, residential care, supported employment, elderly care etc. At this initial stage Autism Victoria is only seeking interest in registration from services and individuals who work in the area of early intervention to undergo the process of Accreditation.

The purpose of Autism Accreditation is to ensure that there is consistent working practice and benchmarks for knowledge and expertise across the profession of people working with individuals with an ASD. Using an Autism Accreditation system with visible logo, families will be able to easily identify those professionals and services that have ASD specific knowledge and expertise reviewed by an independent body giving peace of mind when looking to purchase and engage in services. For services and providers offering support to individuals with ASD who undergo statutory inspection and review it can often be difficult to demonstrate specialist knowledge and expertise. Often the approaches to effectively support individuals with an ASD are in contrast  to what generic disability standards stipulate. Autism Accreditation is a good tool for services who have specialist knowledge or skill in ASD to demonstrate their expertise and to affirm within their own service that what they do is of an evidence based Autism specific nature. Many services and individuals in the UK and across Europe use the Autism Accreditation programme as development tool to assist in strategic planning and identifying future development goals.

There are a number of benefits for services and individuals who register for Autism Accreditation:

• membership to the world's only Autism Accreditation programme, using standards developed by an internationally renowned standards panel
• a copy of the Client guidance manual
• a copy of the Self-audit and autism accreditation standards manual
• automatic membership to Autism Victoria
• Certification for Accredited services
• support from an Accreditation Advisor in identifying service strengths and needs and in preparing the Self-Audit and Service Improvement Plan
• support in identifying training and development resources
• External Review & Audit of Service, presented to an Independent Accreditation Panel
• promotion of service vacancies through Autism Accreditation
• promotion of your service on the Autism Accreditation website
• a quality audit review: the organisation must receive a review within three years of registering the service (the management are entitled to request a review earlier if desired)
• once accredited, the service may use the Autism Accreditation logo along with the word 'Accredited' on promotional materials
• professional accreditation review team training opportunities to member professionals to be involved in the process of accreditation peer review and information sharing
• opportunity to promote job vacancies through the Autism Accreditation website and network
• once accredited, the organisation will receive ongoing support and a review every three years
• opportunity to attend Regional Network Meetings 2 per annum
• Best Autism Practice Seminars 2 per annum

It is Autism Victoria's vision that individuals with an ASD and their families can confidently access consistent best quality support and expertise across the range of services available.

Autism Accreditation will be operational by mid 2010. If you are interested in Autism Accreditation and would like any further information please email accreditation@autismvictoria.org.au or call Julie on (03) 9657 1607.