One of the Latrobe Valley’s leading providers of employment services for around 100 people with a disability will close its doors in March.
The Department of Human Services has confirmed CRS Australia (formerly known as the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service) will close its Morwell office.
A DHS spokesperson said the decision was the result of a review conducted by the Department of Employment to ensure its disability service providers were giving participants “the best opportunity to find employment”.
The contract provided to the Morwell CRS office will be reallocated to other “high-performing providers” in the local area, according to DHS.
“CRS Australia has been consulting with affected staff and is supporting them through this transition,” the spokesperson said.
“The office’s seven staff will be redeployed with the Department of Human Services and there will be no job losses.”
The Morwell office will close on 3 March and CRS will continue to provide disability employment services from Warragul, Sale, Leongatha, Wonthaggi and East Gippsland.
Gippsland Carers Association president Jean Tops said she did not support cuts to disability services, but said programs like CRS had been unsuccessful because they failed to change employer perception about people with a disability.
“History has shown that attempting to introduce these programs with a view to getting more people into the workforce do not appear to have proved successful,” Ms Tops said.
“But any funding that can be saved by closing CRS Morwell should be channelled back to alternative disability support services that will assist people with a disability to access the employment system, whether it be mentoring or one-to-one training would probably be more beneficial than being involved in a rehabilitation scheme.”
A Department of Employment spokesperson said the reallocation process was “broadly supported by organisations representing job seekers with disability, as it is designed to achieve improved employment outcomes for them”.
