September 2018 NDIS Regional Community Planning Report: Katherine Region © 2018 PricewaterhouseCoopers. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the Australian member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. This content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional advisors. At PwC Australia our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We’re a network of firms in 158 countries with more than 236,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, tax and advisory services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com.au Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation Contents Page 1 Introduction Regional Community Planning 5 Contributing PIC Projects 6 2 The Katherine Region Katherine Region Communities 8 Roper Gulf Regional Council Area 9 Victoria Daly Regional Council Area 12 3 Stakeholder Engagement in the Katherine Region Community Engagement in Katherine Region 15 Stakeholdersconsulted 16 4 Katherine Region Service Profile Services available for people with disability 19 Expressed need for services 20 Adjacent services in the Katherine Region 21 Katherine SWOT analysis 22 Stories from the Katherine Region 23 5 Concluding Comments Concluding Comments from the Katherine Region 26 6 Acknowledgements 27 Please note: this document contains images of people. All necessary permissions have been obtained, and our best efforts have been made to ensure it does not contain images of people recently passed, however please be warned that this may be a possibility. PwC’s Indigenous Consulting 3 1 Introduction PwC’s Indigenous Consulting Regional Community Planning The Northern Territory Department of Health, Office of Disability engaged PIC initially to undertake the Community Planning Project for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in the East Arnhem region. Due to the success of the engagement with East Arnhem stakeholders the project methodology was replicated in the remaining four project regions (Top End, Katherine, Barkly and Central Australia). Community engagement was the focus of the work that was undertaken by PIC during the project and the reports reflect the thoughts of those people ‘on the ground’ in each region, including people with disability and their circle of support, current and potential service providers and support workers. At all points of engagement PIC focused on what the NDIS could bring to communities and promoted collaboration, as opposed to a strictly market based competitive environment, putting people with disability at the centre of all conversations. The knowledge and wisdom of the people engaged, which included high representation from Aboriginal people either living or working in remote communities, has been captured in an effort to provide solutions for a way forward in the implementation of the NDIS in remote regions. Reporting for the completed project comprises six separate reports. The Community Planning for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in the Northern Territory is the main report for the project. This report contains the overall findings, including information gathered on workforce considerations, opportunities and potential market development that highlights opportunities for new jobs under the NDIS for Aboriginal people living in remote communities. While many of the overall findings across the remote communities that PIC visited were similar, the regional reports provide more detailed information on the makeup of individual regions and communities and should be read in conjunction with the main report. It is important to note that communities in each region are in themselves unique with their own challenges which demonstrates a need to take a place based approach as opposed to ‘a one size fits all’ that will compromise the successful roll out of the NDIS in remote regions of the Northern Territory. PwC’s Indigenous Consulting 5 Contributing PIC Projects PIC completed an additional three projects focusing on the NDIS, the findings of which have contributed to the Community Planning Project. NDIS Community of Practice Project The nine organisations who formed the Community of Practice had applied under the NT NDIS Innovation Grants Program to undertake projects related to place based community engagement and examine ways to leverage existing activities, and those activities undertaken by others in their respective communities, to provide new services for people with disability. The organisations were a mix of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (6) and mainstream organisations (3) that have strong links to the communities where their services are provided. Participant organisations in the Katherine Region were: Alawa Aboriginal Corporation and Mabunji Aboriginal Resource Indigenous Corporation. Photo credit: PIC Djilpin Aboriginal Arts in Wugularr is an ACCO that may provide opportunities for NDIS funded activities in the future. Meeting and Exceeding Cultural Safety in the Workplace Project Workshops were delivered in all regional centres for mainstream providers to build their cultural safety capacity as required under Domain 5 (Cultural Safety, Security and Competency) of the Northern Quality and Safeguarding Framework 2016. Five organisations generously shared their time and experience to assist in the development of content and format for the workshops. The Meeting and Exceeding Cultural Safety in the Workplace Project also delivered a suite of resources for organisations to use in the delivery of culturally appropriate services. Engaging Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations in disability service provision PIC was engaged to promote involvement of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) with the NDIS. This work is embedded in the Community Planning Project with PIC building on existing relationships and utilising multiple approaches for community engagement in communication with ACCOs. None of the ACCOs that PIC consulted with provided disability services as a major part of their overall suite of services. Where it was provided, support services to people with disability was integrated into other services such as aged care. Those ACCOs providing mental health services all expressed concern regarding the transfer of Commonwealth funding under the Personal Helpers and Mentors Scheme (PHaMs) into the NDIS which may render many people ineligible for continuation of services. However, overall there was a keen interest expressed by ACCOs consulted in exploring possibilities for expansion of services under the NDIS. PwC’s Indigenous Consulting 6 2 The Katherine Region PwC’s Indigenous Consulting Katherine Region Communities As a major regional service centre, Katherine lies at the centre of the Victoria Daly and Roper Gulf Regional Council areas. Katherine is the fourth largest town in the Northern Territory and is located 312 km south-east of Darwin on the Katherine River. Katherine offers a wide range of services to communities from the Western Australian border to the Gulf of Carpentaria on the Queensland border. Katherine houses the regional offices of a number of commercial and not-for-profit service providers as well as Commonwealth, Territory and Local Government services. It was agreed with the Office of Disability that the PIC team would visit 8 communities in this region representing a variety of geographic, population, cultural and linguistic characteristics. Minyerri was also visited as part of the NDIS Community of Practice Project The infographic below indicates the relative population size of each community, its distance from Katherine and its linguistic complexity. Shire Languages spoken Community Pop. Distance to Nauyiu at home Katherine (km) Nambiu Barunga Numbulwar Beswick Victoria English only 34.4% Nauyiu 380 250 Daly Gurindji 12.1% Nambiu Kriol 11.2% Katherine Ngukurr Ngarinyman 6.9% Kalkarinji 7510 353 Gudanji 1.6% Bilinarra 1.3% Borroloola Katherine English only 65.1% Kalkarinji Kriol 4.5%, Katherine 9,781 - Tagalog 1.2%, Filipino 0.7% Malayalam 0.6% Warlpiri 0.5% Roper Gulf English only 27.8% Numbulwar 723 470 Kriol 48.6% Nunggubuyu 3.7% Garrwa 1.7% Ngukurr 1,149 320 Anindilyakwa 1.1% Yanyuwa 0.3% Borroloola 871 660 Beswick 531 111 Katherine Region Barunga 363 80 Source: Google Maps, 2017, https://www.google.com.au/maps, Bushtel http://www.bushtel.nt.gov.au/ ABS Census 2016 8 PwC’s Indigenous Consulting Roper Gulf Regional Council Area From the Gulf of Carpentaria to west of the Stuart Highway, from just north of Elliot to the southern edge of Kakadu, from the Queensland border to 100 km from the East Arnhem Coast the Roper Gulf Region stretches over 186,000 km2 The 2016 census records a population of 6,505 persons, of whom 5,186 (or 79.7%) identified as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. The population had a median age of 26 years. The Council provides core local government services, CDP programs and aged and disability support services in Source: Google Maps, 2017, https://www.google.com.au/maps, Barunga, Beswick and Bulman, Roper Gulf Regional Council http://www.ropergulf.nt.gov.au/. Bushtel http://www.bushtel.nt.gov.au/ Ngukurr, Numbulwar and Borroloola. The Council has recently recruited an NDIS co-ordinator with extensive disability sector experience to enact its decision to provide a range of direct services to people with a disability who are NDIS participants. Barunga Community Indigenous people who serviced the Maranboy gold and tin mine moved to the area in the early 1900s initially settling at a site which is now the Beswick community. By 1965, Beswick had grown to such a size that an additional Camp was formed, this Camp was named Bamyili by the Elders and in 1984, the name was subsequently changed to Barunga. Remoteness & Access Barunga is classified as ‘very remote’ by the ABS. It is located 80 km east of Katherine on the Central Arnhem Road. Only during severe flooding (which occurs sporadically) does the road become inaccessible. Barunga may also be accessed via chartered small aircraft.