The Chief Executives of Australia and New Zealand’s workers compensation regulators have issued a draft set of practice principles for public comment.
The move follows the publication from the officials last December after a review of their Nationally Consistent Approval Framework (NCAF) for workplace rehabilitation providers.
The Chief Executives – acting as a group known as the Heads of Workers’ Compensation Authorities (HWCA) – agreed the NCAF should be replaced with a principles-based framework for delivering the workplace rehabilitation services.
A working group of representatives from each jurisdiction was established to progress the new framework and prepare a consultation draft. The existing framework remains in place while the new one is considered.
In a statement HWCA announced that feedback on the new framework would now be accepted.
It said the new draft Principles for Practice for Workplace Rehabilitation Providers had been developed with the purpose of supporting Workplace Rehabilitation Providers (WRPs) in the delivery of services to individuals with a compensable injury.
“Workplace rehabilitation is a managed process – delivered in the workplace with the aim of using work as part of therapy and recovery,” the new framework says.
“Through timely intervention involving individualised assessment, suitable work is identified and used as part of the pathway to recovery,” it says.
“This process requires coordination between the worker, the treating practitioner(s), the employer, the insurer and in more complex cases, a WRP.”
It said the new framework recognised the importance of work in recovery and would therefore guid WRPs in delivering workplace rehabilitation services to a worker; assist employers and insurers when purchasing the services of a WRP; and complement the Clinical Framework for the delivery of treatment services
The new 14-page draft framework can be accessed at this PS News link and the closing date for feedback is 10 July.
Enquiries can be directed to the HWCA secretariat at [email protected].
