Centacare Australia welcomes CSP Tender announcement

Centacare Australia’s Executive Secretary, Mr Toby O’Connor welcomed the announcement of tender results for the Federal Government’s Community Support Programme (CSP).

"Centacare Australia is pleased to have been offered an increase in business as a result of this latest round of government tendering", Mr O’Connor said today.

"However, we remain concerned at the outcome of the tender in that a number of Centacare Australia sites in rural and regional areas have received very low offers for CSP placements. At this time, some of these offers look financially unviable", Mr O’Connor said.

"These low offers will increase the difficulty of providing an adequate level of service to disadvantaged job seekers in rural and regional areas", Mr O’Connor said.

"Centacare Australia is committed to the goals of the Community Support Programme, which aims to assist the most disadvantaged job seekers in the community", said Mr O’Connor.

"As a national network of community welfare agencies, Centacare Australia and the Australian Catholic Social Welfare Commission, were instrumental in establishing early pilot schemes for the CSP model", Mr O’Connor said.

"The CSP model establishes a sound basis for assisting disadvantaged job seekers to overcome personal barriers to employment, a goal very close to the mission of Centacare Australia", said Mr O’Connor.

The CSP contract will commence in July 2000 and runs for a period of 18 months.

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