While recognising that the current compliance system is still evolving, this report identifies among its strengths the greater flexibility it gives providers, the improved structure of sanctions and the value of the Contact Request option.

As a background to its conclusions and recommendations, the Review noted that the new compliance system remained in an evolutionary stage at the end of its first year. The same applied to the Job Services Australia (JSA) and Disability Employment Services (DES) systems which were introduced at the same time and have considerable impacts on the operation of the new compliance system.

SOME STRENGTHS
The Review concluded that at the end of its first year the new compliance system appeared to be operating in line with the Government’s stated objectives of improving engagement with job seekers and providing better protection of highly vulnerable job seekers. Key features which have been positively received, and appear to be working well, include:

• greater flexibility for providers (especially through the new Contact Request option and greater discretion to re-engage job seekers without initiating compliance action);
• the new structure of failures and sanctions (leading, as intended, to an increased number of early, lower-level sanctions and a major reduction in high-level sanctions);
•  improved ways of engaging with job seekers (especially the Contact Request option, Comprehensive Compliance Assessment process, and Compliance Activity option);
• better protection for highly vulnerable job seekers (especially through the use of Vulnerability Indicators and the new Comprehensive Compliance Assessment process).

SOME DIRECTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT
The new compliance system appears to be a significant improvement on the previous system. Nevertheless, the Review identified a number of directions in which there remains room for further improvement. They include:

• less complexity and more transparency in the rules, processes, IT systems and other official materials affecting the operation of the compliance system, JSA and DES;
• better communication and interaction between relevant government agencies, and by them with employment service providers and job seekers;
• higher attendance rates by job seekers at meetings with providers and at required participation activities;
• further intensification of reviews for some job seekers (especially those who may be persistent evaders of participation requirements or face major barriers to compliance).

 SOME RELATED ISSUES

The Review also considered some aspects of the changing context in which the new system is operating, especially the contemporaneous introduction of JSA and DES. In particular, it identified some strengths and concerns in relation to the impact on the compliance system of changes affecting

• assessments of the barriers faced by individual job seekers and of the assistance with which they should be provided;
• development and notification of participation requirements for individual job seekers through Employment Pathway Plans;
• exemptions of some job seekers from engagement with employment service providers;
• performance monitoring of employment service providers.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Among an extensive range of recommendations the report proposes that:

• the system's documentation should be simplified and clarified;
• the interoperability of the IT systems should be improved;
• stats on the system should be regular and reliable;
• an independent consultant should be engaged to undertake an Annual Report of the flow of Participation Reviews (PRs);
• a new Case Conference procedure should be introduced for job seekers incurring multiple PRs; and
• monitoring should be undertaken of job seeker attendance rates.

The Independent Review of the Job Seeker Compliance Review was conducted by a panel comprising the following members:
Prof Julian Disney (Chair);
Ms Anna Buduls;
Mr Peter Grant.