RoboDebt; Not My debt; CentreLink Enquiry

HI all,

Earlier this year the Federal Government commissioned the Senate to complete an enquiry into the Design, scope, cost-benefit analysis, contracts awarded and implementation associated with the Better Management of the Social Welfare System initiative . The less confusing version is: "CentreLink and the experiences of people during the so-called 'robo-debt' collection.” 

My submission is at http://www.aph.gov.au/…/Com…/SocialWelfareSystem/Submissions No. 116.

It was great to read so many organisations highlighted the needs of the many vulnerable people in the community who have lots of difficulty in accessing numerical and financial information, or even knowing what are their Rights. 

I was invited to present to the Senate enquiry in person (teleconference). On Thursday 27 April, 2017, I presented to the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs regarding my submission, access and information at CentreLink, both low adult literacy and also low computer literacy in our community.

The Hansard recording of my hearing presentation is here. Look under Launceston 27 April, 2017.

The Advocate" http://www.theadvocate.com.au/…/…/centrelink-english-learnt/ and "The Examiner" http://www.examiner.com.au/…/462…/centrelink-english-learnt/ also reported on my presentation, as well as other presentations from the Launceston hearing, including mentioning my evidence.

I included some information on numerical literacy in my submission. In my presentation I focused more specifically on the breadth and extent of low literacy skills in our community, and also the lack of computer literacy (and access to the hardware/internet) in the community, required to access CentreLink.

I could have also discussed the huge percent of adults with low Numerical Literacy in our community, but there is only so much you can emphasize in a 35 minute conversation. The import of my message was heard.

Another submission used the term "CentreLink English" to describe how difficult it is to read and understand information from CentreLink. I was asked about whether I had heard this term before! No, but just imagine you walk into a new job. Everyone uses acronyms, phrases and words that are familiar to them, but completely unfamiliar to you, the outsider. Yes, that is what CentreLink English is like.

The report from this enquiry is due out in early June 2017.
Next: is to hear what will happen for change. 
What will the recommendations be? I will keep you posted.

  

I am here to help you develop and build awareness of the need for government documents to be accessible for people with non functional literacy. I am advertising a 2 day training “Learn to write Easy English” for June 19 & 20 in Melbourne. Flyer and booking links or contact me using any of the methods below.

Cathy Basterfield

Access Easy English

www.accesseasyenglish.com.au

cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au

0466 579 855 

Facebook:    /accesseasyenglish

Twitter: @accesseasyengl@accessseasyengli

The Snow report

Dr Pamela Snow, La Trobe University Professor and researcher has a fantastic blog on all things reading, early literacy, understanding phonics and great links to current research and issues. 

Pam has also been involved in research and implementing change with the language and literacy needs and issues for Juvenile and Youth offenders, a critical group of vulnerable people.

From Pam's  Blog 

"I'm a Professor and Head of the La Trobe Rural Health School......Central Victoria. My research passion is language and literacy competence - primarily as this pertains to vulnerability in early life. "

http://pamelasnow.blogspot.com.au/

Stay up to date and check it out now.

Cathy Basterfield

Access Easy English

www.accesseasyenglish.com.au

cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au

0466 579 855 

Facebook .../accesseasyenglish

Twitter: @accesseasyengli

How literate is our society?

There has been some discussion in tweets and blogs and at various conferences about literacy recently.

A range of researchers have talked about literacy from different perspectives. Each of these is important to gain a fuller understanding of what you need to consider for inclusion and participation for the people with whom you engage.

There was a discussion on RadioNational this week about the PIAAC, 2013 data which tells us 44% of the Australian adult population has non functional literacy. Listen to the broadcast to hear about 2 individuals’ issues and needs when they had non functional literacy.

Easy English is needed as part of a broad plan to engage with adults of all backgrounds so they can be included, participate and make meaningful decisions about their own lives. This may be for medical information, housing or organising a new mobile phone contract and many other things. Some examples of Easy English are here. Think about what documents you need in Easy English, and ask me how to make this happen.

Today I read about The World’s Most Literate Nations data.

This is an interesting analysis and worthy of discussion. It does address the issues about what constitutes literacy and evidence of literacy in a community. The report does agree the aspects reviewed could impact on the results. However, for this review the researchers used 

 - access to a computer (Percentage of households with either desktop or laptop computer and excludes other devices such as cell phone, personal digital assistant, or T);

- input to education (compulsory yrs of schooling and amount spent per student related to GDP);

- output of education (Data from PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) literacy, data from PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and data from  YOA for 15-18yr olds);

- Libraries (Number of academic libraries, public libraries, school libraries, volumes in all (only) public libraries);

- Newspapers (including: paid-for dailies, circulation, online editions, export of newspapers) 

More details about each of these areas is in the research report. What other areas do you think need to be considered when you wonder whether Australia is a literate nation?

On the data analysed where does Australia fit in the overall schema of being a literate nation?

Where would you expect them to be?

Australia is not in the top 10 overall. Nor is it in the top 10 on any 1 of the parameters analysed. 

Australia is 16th overall according to this data. Have a look at the countries above and below Australia. Would you expect this is where our literacy is, as a country? If you agree, this is accurate, what do we need to do to develop into a more literate society?  What resources, what research, what support needs to be in place? What infrastructure, what training, what else needs to be done. I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Cathy

Cathy Basterfield

Access Easy English

Consultant – Speech Pathologist
Telephone: 0466 579 855
Email: cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au

Website: www.accesseasyenglish.com.au
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/accesseasyenglish (our recent projects)

Twitter: @accesseasyengli

Many students drop out of school

In the last 2 days there have been articles in The Age (editorial today) and discussion about the numbers of students who do not complete their year 12 or equivalent schooling.

The reasons are many and multi-layered.

It is all contained in the " Educational Opportunity in Australia 2015 report, which was released on Monday, which has found a staggering 26 per cent of Australian 19-year-olds, or 81,199 people, are not finishing school." The Age, Monday 27 October 2015

I don't propose to argue for or against any of these issues.  What I am most concerned about is the 1 in 4 or 26% of students who do not complete schooling, or meet academic benchmarks.

Eventhough the report does acknowledge that many students can and do catch up; until they do, these students still need to be able to participate in society, get a job, access CentreLink and other government and community services.

Consequently all services, government, and non government services need to think about how information is presented to people in this category. You can read from the report "Many of these people go on to suffer financial hardship, alcohol and substance abuse, homelessness and a higher probability of ending up in the justice system." 

The OECD completed an international study in 2013 (PIAAC) which the ABS participated in (ABS #4228). The ABS PIAAC data (2013) #4228 correlates with this Education Opportunity in Australia 2015 report. Both acknowledge people who have limited literacy skills are more like to end up with financial hardship, poorer health outcomes, higher probability to end up in the justice system, and be less connected with their community, and be socially isolated.

Make a list of the service you access, on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. If you had non functional literacy would you be able to readily access these services?

Start a list, and begin to advocate for the 44% of adult Australians who have non functional literacy. Think about the written information your department or service provides; does it meet the needs of your potential and current clientele?

Here's a starting point

- Rental lease

- Medication dosage

- Medication side effects

- Food labels

- Bills

- CentreLink request

- Local community opening hours and activities

- Accessing MyGov website 

- Product Labels

- Text messages

- Community centre brochure

Call me to talk about how you can modify your written information so the 44% of adult Australians can access written information in a more meaningful way.

Cathy

Cathy Basterfield

Access Easy English

cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au

0466 579 855

www.accesseasyenglish.com.au