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Friday, 23 November 1979

Senator Grimes asked the Minister for Social Security upon notice, on 24 October 1 979:

(   1 ) When was the North- West One-Stop Welfare Centre (the NOW Centre) established in Coburg.

(2)   Was it originally intended to function as an experiment in welfare delivery and for how long was it intended to function.

(   3 ) Is it expected that it will continue to perform its present functions.

(4)   What evaluation has been done on the work of the NOW Centre, and what recommendations have been made about its future.

(5)   Are any such evaluations or recommendations publicly available; if not, why not.

(6)   What, if any, action is proposed to establish more centres, of this type.

Senator Guilfoyle - The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows:

(   1 ) The North- West One-Stop Welfare Centre (the NOW Centre) was established in Coburg in July 1 97 5.

(2)   lt was set up as an experiment in welfare delivery and the experimental stage «/as terminated by agreement between the Commonwealth Government and the Victorian Government on 30 June 1979.

(3)   It is expected that the Centre will continue to perform its present functions.

(4)   The operation of the Centre has been subject to four evaluation exercises undertaken by officials of Commonwealth and Victorian Government departments. The final evaluation concluded that: the co-location factor afforded clients more convenience; the ethnicity of clients at NOW was relatively high and the services provided met these requirements; and community support for the Centre was high.

The evaluators recommended that the Centre be continued.

(5)   The evaluation reports are internal documents of the departments concerned and as such are not publicly available.

(6)   The establishment of further such centres will be considered on the individual merits of any case which arises.

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