Enhancing Disability Confidence of Professionals
The Australian Government’s Department of Social Services has engaged the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) to better understand and identify opportunities to improve the capability of key professionals working with people with disability. The project will include a guide to implementing disability confidence training and education for health, education, social science, and justice workforces in Australia.
The issue of poor attitudes from key professionals working with people with disability has also been a recurring theme throughout the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (the Royal Commission).
The project aims to develop an evidence-based Action Plan to help improve the confidence among key professionals, to be better responsive to people with disability through training and professional development.
The project’s output will be a report that will cover the following:
An overview of the education landscape and context of disability in Australia.
Analysis of evidence-based best and good practice approaches, and what does not work, to develop and enhance disability confidence education and training for health, education, social services, and justice workforces, initially and throughout their careers.
An assessment of Australian career opportunities and pathways to learn disability confidence for health, education, social science, and justice workforces.
Development of an Action Plan to implement disability confidence training and education for health, education, social science, and justice workforces and learning institutions, drawn from the report’s analysis of the evidence.
The project has an Expert Working Group (see below) of people with both lived experience of and strong academic records around disability. ACOLA is working with a mix of stakeholders including people with disability, Fellows from various Academies, peak bodies, other researchers, experts and critical friends across Australia.
This project’s deliverables form part of the Australian Government’s commitments under the Strategy’s Community Attitudes Targeted Action Plan.
ACOLA’s approach to developing the Action Plan will build upon previous external reports and processes that have involved comprehensive consultation with key stakeholders.
We are engaging with a range of people with disability to deliver this project, and opportunities for targeted input to the process of developing the Action Plan will occur in May 2022.
To contact the ACOLA team for this project, please email disability@acola.org.au
Expert Working Group
Reflecting ACOLA’s convening power of Australia’s leading minds and expertise to deliver interdisciplinary evidence-based advice, ACOLA has convened an Expert Working Group (EWG) to guide the development of this project. This group draws input from several disciplines to create a well-considered, balanced and peer-reviewed report. The role of the EWG is to provide strategic oversight and provide expert input, analysis and provocative thinking.
| Professor Karen Fisher FASSA (Co-Chair) | Professor Iva Strnadová (Co-Chair) |
| Professor Gerad Goggin FAHA | Professor Cathie Sherrington FAHMS |
| Dr Erol Harvey FTSE |
Project Management
| Dr Lauren Palmer | Tim Wotton |
| Ryan Winn | Ellen Wong |
| Judita Hudson | Dr Jade McEwen |
Project Funding and Support
Funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. Go to www.dss.gov.au for more information.
Minister Ruston’s media release regarding the announcement of the project, on 7 March 2022, can be found here.
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Acknowledgement of Country
ACOLA acknowledges the Traditional Owners and custodians of the lands on which our company is located and where we conduct our business. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.
