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Welcome to the Spring edition of Comcare's
e-newsletter, Safety Essentials.
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 Comcare's new CEO announced - Mr Paul O'Connor
The Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon Julia Gillard MP, recently announced Paul O’Connor’s appointment as Comcare’s new CEO.
Paul joins Comcare with an impressive record in safety promotion, risk management, insurance and accident compensation in Australia, the United States and Asia. Paul was most recently the CEO of Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission.
Paul said he is excited about his five-year appointment as Comcare's CEO and is looking forward to working with Comcare's people and partners to reshape and strengthen how the organisation works across Australia.
“It will be a privilege to help make workplaces safer and provide excellent care and support for injured workers and their families. I look forward to tackling the many challenges facing Comcare and making sure its regulation and service delivery earn the highest trust and confidence of the community and the scheme’s partners,” Paul said.
“A top priority will be the timely and smooth implementation of the model national OHS legislation to help employers keep a priority on workplace safety. We will also innovate to adopt best practice care and support for injured workers in their return to health, work and independence. We’ll do this while ensuring the continued long-term financial viability of the Comcare scheme.”
“I look forward to meeting all of the people involved in the Comcare community over the coming months to hear their stories and concerns and listen to their ideas and suggestions on how we can do more to meet their needs.”
Paul will be based in Canberra from 1 September. His keynote address at Comcare’s National Conference on 23 September will encourage the community to think differently about working together to make workplaces safer.
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 2009 Comcare National Conference - register now!
The Comcare National Conference will be held from 23 - 25 September 2009 at the National Convention Centre in Canberra. The program has been released and secure online registration is available.
Keynote speakers include:
If you are involved in the management of workplace safety and rehabilitation at all levels, you will find the event informative and useful.
Register online now and secure your place at this year’s event.
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 New General Manager, Assurance - Mr Neil Quarmby
Mr Neil Quarmby was recently appointed to head up Comcare's Assurance branch. Neil will manage the investigations, compliance and enforcement regulatory functions of Comcare and provide support to the SRCC's licensing of self-insurers. Neil has a long career across a range of intelligence and operations fields. He served in the Australian Defence Force for over 20 years, with appointments in signals intelligence, on a command appointment with the British forces, and in staff roles providing intelligence support to Defence’s Strategic Command.
On retirement from the Army, Neil served as a senior analyst in, and then manager of, a national strategic crime assessment agency in the Attorney General’s Department; and then developed and managed a strategic intelligence capability in the Australian Crime Commission.
Neil went on to be the head of a national operation into organised criminal penetration of the air transport sector and in 2005, he took up a position creating and managing an integrated compliance risk and intelligence system in a key regulator in Australia's health system. Before joining Comcare, Neil worked in the Human Services portfolio.
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 Prevent and manage customer aggression in your workplace
A new publication about customer aggression has been launched! Prevention and management of customer aggression: A guide for employers is available online.
This guide is complemented by the literature review into better practice of preventing and managing customer aggression, which is also available online. Together, these two resources provide information about customer aggression, the risk management approach, legislative duty of care and why investing in health and safety is important. They include resources to help employers identify the hazard, assess the risk and implement control measures.
For more information, email the Prevention & Injury Management Services team.
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 2009-10 Premium rates drop to a seven-year low
The overall workers’ compensation premiums for Commonwealth Government agencies has dropped to a seven-year low of 1.25 per cent for 2009–10. Standardised, the rate is now the lowest across Australia’s multiple schemes with some major scheme members enjoying savings this year in excess of $4m.
The premium has dropped eight per cent from last financial year. This is the third consecutive drop in the Commonwealth sector premium rate.
The drop represents an overall reduction in claims frequency through the prevention of workplace injuries and the results mean that three quarters of scheme members will now be paying less than one per cent in premium rates.
The premium reduction sees the overall premium rate drop from 1.77 per cent in 2006–07. The reduction in premiums over the past five years is illustrated by the following table:
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2005–06 |
2006–07 |
2007–08 |
2008–09 |
2009–10 |
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1.77% |
1.77% |
1.55% |
1.36% |
1.25% |
As premium rates respond to trends in both claim frequency and average claim cost improvement in health and safety outcomes, injury prevention and minimising the time taken off work by injured employees remain priority areas.
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 New national approval framework for rehabilitation providers
A new nationally consistent approval framework for occupational rehabilitation providers is currently being developed by a working group comprising representatives from each jurisdiction’s workers’ compensation authorities.
Commissioned by the Heads of Workers’ Compensation Authorities, the group has developed a national accreditation model for workplace rehabilitation with the aim of providing increased consistency in approval processes and expected standards of performance.
Comcare supports the national framework and will be inviting Approved Rehabilitation Providers (ARPs) to renew their approval under this model before 31 December 2009.
Find out more about the national approval framework and Comcare’s renewal of ARPs.
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 Certificate IV in Government - Injury Rehabilitation Management
In partnership with the Australian Public Service Commission, Comcare recently launched a new nationally accredited qualification in injury rehabilitation management.
The Certificate IV in Government (Injury Rehabilitation Management) provides a professional qualification that recognises the important skills and capabilities needed to achieve effective return to work outcomes. It is targeted at case managers, return to work coordinators and Approved Rehabilitation Program Providers working within the Comcare scheme.
The program has participants from Commonwealth Government agencies, licensees and Comcare Approved Rehabilitation Providers. While the majority of participants are from the case/injury management/HR areas, one candidate has undertaken the training as a learning pathway to enter the field of injury rehabilitation management.
For more information email the Learning and Development Solutions team.
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 2009 SRCC Safety Awards - finalists announced
With a record number of entries received, a total of 24 submissions have progressed to the next stage.
Winners will be announced at a gala dinner presentation event at the Great Hall, Parliament House, Canberra on Thursday 24 September 2009.
Tickets are on sale now.
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 New online guide to improving rehabilitation outcomes
A new Improving outcomes through rehabilitation management systems: a continuous improvement guide is now on our website. The guide is based on a systems approach and has case studies, practical tips, links to resources, checklists and explanatory information.
It enables employers to review their rehabilitation management systems and identify areas for continuous improvement.
Effective rehabilitation systems enable employers to manage the processes, resources, partnerships, training, communication, accountabilities, monitoring and reporting required to achieve early and sustainable return to work of injured employees.
As rehabilitation systems need to be integrated with the organisation’s health and safety and corporate systems such as those for incident reporting and health surveillance, this guide will assist managers to identify and respond early to provide support to injured employees.
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