What is the CoS for NABS Program?
The Continuity of Support for the National Auslan Interpreter Booking and Payment Service program (CoS for NABS Program) is a grant opportunity to support existing NABS clients who are ineligible for the NDIS and clients who are 65 and over.
Background
During the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), it was identified that some existing clients of 17 Commonwealth programs would be ineligible for the NDIS when it reaches full scheme. In December 2012, the Council of Australian Governments committed to
provide Continuity of Support (CoS) to help existing Commonwealth clients, who are ineligible for the NDIS, achieve similar outcomes to those they were aiming to achieve prior to the introduction of the NDIS.
CoS is delivered as part of the NDIS program, and provides ongoing funding to ensure people who are currently accessing Commonwealth services but are not eligible for the NDIS, continue to receive support. Details are set out in the Portfolio Budget Statements 2018-19, Budget Related Paper No. 1.15, Social Services Portfolio.
The CoS for NABS program grant opportunity is an open, competitive grant process and will involve comparative assessment of applications against the eligibility criteria and the assessment criteria.
Objective
The key objective of NABS is to ensure no deaf person is disadvantaged by not having an available interpreter when attending a private medical or specified health appointment provided in a private medical practice by a general practitioner, specialist or health professional.
As part of its core business, NABS has a vitally important role to play in increasing awareness in the community, developing relationships with other service providers and working cooperatively with key stakeholders.
Funding
The Australian Government has announced a total of up to $2 million (GST exclusive) ($1 million per year) is available over two years for this grant round (1 July 2020 to 30 June 2022).
The grant opportunity will run from Friday 28 February 2020 to 11.00PM AEDT on Friday 27 March 2020.
Eligible Projects
You can use the grant to pay for operating and administrative costs directly related to the following activities, to the extent that they relate to the provision of services to CoS for NABS clients:
- interpreter costs for travel and accommodation and related interpreting services
- upgrading or maintaining existing call centre infrastructure to meet the operational requirements of the CoS for NABS call centre(s)
- provision of training and professional development opportunities for call centre staff, administrative staff and Auslan interpreters
- development and implementation of a customer satisfaction survey and feedback mechanism
- development and implementation of a national communication strategy and communication products
- development of strategies to support Deaf Auslan users, including those living in rural and remote areas
- computer equipment and software
- salaries and on-costs.
You can only spend the grant to pay for the following, to the extent that it relates to the provision of services to CoS for NABS clients:
- Staff salaries and on-costs that can be directly attributed to the provision of the activities outlined in the grant agreement.
- The portion of operating and administration expenses directly related to the project as per the grant agreement, such as:
- communications (telephone/internet/captioning)
- facility hire/rental
- Information technology (computer/website/software)
- insurance
- utilities
- postage
- stationery and printing
- accounting and auditing
- domestic travel/accommodation costs
- assets as defined in the grant agreement terms and conditions that can be reasonably attributed to meeting agreement deliverables.
- Larger requests for funding should allocate a proportion of the grant funding to be used for evaluation of the funded project to demonstrate delivery of outcomes.
- Use of external consultants to support development of resources is eligible but should be short term. The applicant must clearly describe in the application how the use of the consultant will result in a transfer of skill development (e.g. use of a consultant to design and deliver a train the trainer model) with subsequent training facilitated by the organisation.
Eligible Applicants
To be eligible you must be one of the following entity types:
- Indigenous Corporation
- Corporate Commonwealth Entity
- Non-corporate Commonwealth Statutory Authority
- Commonwealth Company
- Corporate State or Territory Entity
- Non-corporate State or Territory Entity
- Non-corporate State or Territory Statutory Authority
- Cooperative
- Incorporated Association
- Statutory Entity
- Partnership
- Trustee on behalf of a Trust Local Government
- Company
Applications will only be accepted from applicants that:
- have an Australian Business Number (ABN) or be willing to obtain one prior to the execution of the grant agreement
- are registered, or willing to register for the purposes of GST if their income turnover, as a result of a successful grant, will exceed the thresholds defined by the Australian Tax Office
- have an account with an Australian financial institution
- have Public Liability Insurance coverage for the duration of this grant.
[Note: applicants may be asked for a copy of their Public Liability Insurance]
Timing
Applications close 27 March 2020.
