The State Labor Government is set to ignore the pleas of parents, clients and supporters of the Sylvanvale Disability Service at Sutherland to save their day programs for recent school leavers, Shadow Minister for Disability Services John Ryan said today.
"The State Government will break their hearts telling them that their Community Participation will be shut down over the next few weeks," Mr Ryan said.
“The Sylvanvale service will lose State Government funding of up to $250,000 for fifteen clients in their Community participation program operated by the Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care," he said.
ReplyDelete“Sylvanvale is only one of up to 28 non profit organisations across the state in a similar position.
“Last year, the State Government directed all of the charitable groups who were funded to provide Community Participation Programs that they would have to respond to a tender to receive continued funding.
“28 non profit organisations were unsuccessful in the tender and the families of up to 350 disability clients have now been directed to select a new service.
“At least one hundred workers employed in the programs face an uncertain future.
“This assessment was entirely on paper; none of organisations facing the axe were monitored or inspected before being told that they would lose their funding.
“Parents and carers are devastated that their children will be separated from friends and staff they have known for years.
“It is incredibly hard for parents of young people with autism to find a service where their children can settle, make friends and develop important skills like speech.
“Now these families face the task of doing it all over again because in some cases their organisation’s paper work in the tendering process did not address issues such as multiculturalism and aboriginal relations adequately."