Summary

Intework was established in January 1991 to assist new school leavers with the transition from school to work. In early 1998, Intework also implemented a community access program, now referred to as the LifeSkills Program.

Intework’s employment programs offer supported employment services assisting people with disabilities to obtain and maintain employment in the regular workforce. There are two employment directed programs. The Business Services Program offers opportunities for clients to work under supervision within enclaves undertaking various work activities. The Open Employment Program offers supported entry into paid employment in the open labour market. The LifeSkills Program provides a range of skill development activities involving community integration and assisting people with disabilities to develop pre-vocational and general life skills.

Since its inception, Intework has grown from assisting 20 clients out of a single office in Osborne Park, to more than 627 clients operating out of 4 regional offices. Following the establishment of Intework in 1991, 1992 saw the creation of a second office in Fremantle, followed by the setting up of a Midland Branch in 1994, Kelmscott in 1997 and Joondalup in 1998. Intework’s Fremantle branch formed a separate agency in 1995.

Post School Options

Intework was a direct product of the Post-School Options movement in the late 1980’s. The Post-School Options concept emerged when it was realised that many school-leavers with disabilities had no meaningful day activities when they left school. This had three major consequences:

• The skills acquired while at school were soon lost if they were not put into practice. This was a great waste of the estimated $120k invested in each student, as well as a waste of the human potential;

• With no day activities, the school-leavers required constant care and support from their family, when the family had previously had a break from their caring role during school hours. This substantially increased the burden of care on the family, and resulted in earlier demand for full-time residential care;

• The cost of full-time residential care was around ten times that of day activities. Thus, for the cost of every one person deferred from residential care, ten people could have their needs met with day activities.

The provision of Post-School Options for all Western Australian school-leavers with disabilities, at least equivalent to normal school time, was an obvious positive, humane, and cost effective way to go. Both State and Commonwealth Governments adopted the program and worked cooperatively for its implementation.

Funding was a major obstacle, and the Lotteries Commission (now Lotterywest) came to the rescue with $250k of “pump priming” funding to establish and operate the program for the first two years.

Intework

After preliminary legal and establishment work, Intework came into existence in January 1991 with Lotteries Commission funding of $250k, 24 school-leaver clients and 7 staff, offering only an open employment service from Osborne Park. Here it is worth noting that 12 of the original clients are still with Intework.

About 25 new school-leavers were taken on each year and in 1992 it was decided to open another Office in Fremantle. The Fremantle Office was hived off as a separate agency in 1995 to become South Metropolitan Personnel.

After this initial contraction, Intework continued to grow at an increasing rate, and new Offices were established in Midland in 1994, Kelmscott in 1997 (later moved to Gosnells in 1999), Joondalup in 1998, Busselton in 2007 and Peel in 2008.

The range of services has also expanded over time. With a primary focus on people with high support needs, Open Supported Employment (now known as Open Employment), was found too restrictive, and Sheltered Employment (now known as Business Services) was added to the range in 1993. Alternatives to Employment (called LifeSkills at Intework) was added in 1996, Supported Employment was expanded to capped and uncapped in 2006, and planning to include centre-based day respite is currently underway.

Transport was a major issue in the early days. Intework would obtain jobs for people, but the clients were not able to retain the jobs as they couldn’t get there, and funding specifically excluded transport. To break this nexus, Intework, with assistance from our good friends at Lotteries Commission, provided staff with cars to provide transport as a last resort. This provision of transport has now become an integral feature of Intework’s operation, and we now run a fleet of in excess of 120 cars (travelling more than 3,000,000 kms per annum).