Mrs BRAHAM - 2007-02-14
I seek clarification of what is happening to the Community Day Patrol in Alice Springs. It is my understanding the Commonwealth funds the Night Patrol and the Youth Patrol, but the Northern Territory government, at the end of last year, funded the Community Day Patrol. I would like to know whether it is still operational because I have not seen it. Have you done any evaluation on it? Is it going to continue?
I know you have talked about ACPOs taking over but, if we take them away from the jobs they are doing, that creates a hole that we cannot afford. Would you please tell me was it $300 000-odd you gave them? Is it still operational? If so, where? Can you give us an evaluation of it? Could we perhaps get a better service for the dollars?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Braitling for her very genuine interest in the Community Day Patrol in Alice Springs. Last year, I announced that my Department of Family and Community Services had done an intensive evaluation of the Day Patrol service. As a result of that evaluation, we entered into negotiations with Tangentyere to change the nature of the service that existed in Alice Springs. Essentially, the evaluation found that rather than the service being a transport service to town camps, it really needed to be a patrol service in the true sense of the word and be out in the public areas of Alice Springs. Some intensive negotiations did occur from about mid-last year to rework the service in its entirety.
I am very pleased to say that as a result of successful negotiations with Tangentyere, my department is funding the Day Patrol service. It is $373 000 annually. We will renegotiate that funding mid-year, and we are already commencing discussions about the recurrent nature of that funding.
The Community Day Patrol was developed in consultation through that evaluation with stakeholders in Alice Springs. They included Northern Territory Police, the Alice Springs Hospital, Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation and, of course, the service provider, Tangentyere Council.
The review of the Day Patrol identified that the scope had to change and deal with alcohol-related issues in the public arena. As a result, we are very confident that the community patrol really has developed into quite a different service from what it was. Part of the agreement was recruitment of staff, and staff are being remunerated at a more senior level to reflect the more complex aspects of the work they are now undertaking.
I thank Tangentyere for the good faith in which the negotiations occurred. Often it is not easy for a service deliverer to be told the way you have been delivering a service needs to change, but we both, the government and Tangentyere, went into those negotiations in good faith and I believe we have come up with a good result.
The service covers public places and the central business district, as I said, in contrast to the old Day Patrol, which really did just focus on town camps. Tangentyere is now employing five full-time patrollers and the service operates five days a week from 5.30 am until 2 pm. The Commonwealth-funded Night Patrol service operates from 5 pm until 1 am. There is a coordinator and a full-time referral officer based at Tangentyere. The service works cooperatively with the Alice Springs Town Council Rangers and the Northern Territory Police.
Tangentyere Council reports that during January of this year, the service had 6728 client contacts. That equates to 299 contacts a day. The most common intervention was to transport people to a safe environment. The data collected does not include the age of the individuals assisted, but the service is predominantly focused on adults; however, this would not preclude contact with younger people. A more detailed review of the service is not possible until it has been operational for a longer period of time. This more detailed review will occur in the lead-up to the negotiations for the service agreement in the middle of this year.
I know you have talked about ACPOs taking over but, if we take them away from the jobs they are doing, that creates a hole that we cannot afford. Would you please tell me was it $300 000-odd you gave them? Is it still operational? If so, where? Can you give us an evaluation of it? Could we perhaps get a better service for the dollars?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Braitling for her very genuine interest in the Community Day Patrol in Alice Springs. Last year, I announced that my Department of Family and Community Services had done an intensive evaluation of the Day Patrol service. As a result of that evaluation, we entered into negotiations with Tangentyere to change the nature of the service that existed in Alice Springs. Essentially, the evaluation found that rather than the service being a transport service to town camps, it really needed to be a patrol service in the true sense of the word and be out in the public areas of Alice Springs. Some intensive negotiations did occur from about mid-last year to rework the service in its entirety.
I am very pleased to say that as a result of successful negotiations with Tangentyere, my department is funding the Day Patrol service. It is $373 000 annually. We will renegotiate that funding mid-year, and we are already commencing discussions about the recurrent nature of that funding.
The Community Day Patrol was developed in consultation through that evaluation with stakeholders in Alice Springs. They included Northern Territory Police, the Alice Springs Hospital, Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation and, of course, the service provider, Tangentyere Council.
The review of the Day Patrol identified that the scope had to change and deal with alcohol-related issues in the public arena. As a result, we are very confident that the community patrol really has developed into quite a different service from what it was. Part of the agreement was recruitment of staff, and staff are being remunerated at a more senior level to reflect the more complex aspects of the work they are now undertaking.
I thank Tangentyere for the good faith in which the negotiations occurred. Often it is not easy for a service deliverer to be told the way you have been delivering a service needs to change, but we both, the government and Tangentyere, went into those negotiations in good faith and I believe we have come up with a good result.
The service covers public places and the central business district, as I said, in contrast to the old Day Patrol, which really did just focus on town camps. Tangentyere is now employing five full-time patrollers and the service operates five days a week from 5.30 am until 2 pm. The Commonwealth-funded Night Patrol service operates from 5 pm until 1 am. There is a coordinator and a full-time referral officer based at Tangentyere. The service works cooperatively with the Alice Springs Town Council Rangers and the Northern Territory Police.
Tangentyere Council reports that during January of this year, the service had 6728 client contacts. That equates to 299 contacts a day. The most common intervention was to transport people to a safe environment. The data collected does not include the age of the individuals assisted, but the service is predominantly focused on adults; however, this would not preclude contact with younger people. A more detailed review of the service is not possible until it has been operational for a longer period of time. This more detailed review will occur in the lead-up to the negotiations for the service agreement in the middle of this year.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016