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Advice to Department-funded services on assistance available for extraordinary COVID related expenses

The following advice provided by the Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs (DCYJMA) relates to DCYJMA funded services providing direct child and family services.

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and to ensure appropriate compliance with preventative controls, Chief Health Officer Directions, and maintaining a safe environment for staff, visitors, and children and young people, organisations may be incurring extraordinary costs that are not covered within the scope of an Individual Flexibility Agreement (IFA) or their usual operating expenses and which would not be expected to be incurred during the usual course of delivering their services in a non-pandemic setting.

Examples of extraordinary COVID-related costs include, but may not be limited to, expenses such as:

  • Specialist COVID-19 cleaning
  • Specialised Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
  • Rapid Antigen Tests
  • Specialist dedicated resources engaged to provide COVID readiness and response activities
  • Health practitioner appointments to undertake testing
  • Design, delivery and/or sourcing of COVID-19 specific training
  • Additional staffing required to cover rosters and maintain the stability of a direct care service.

Where these costs can be directly and legitimately evidenced as a COVID-related expense and are not included within the scope of an IFA or an existing funding agreement, organisations can seek funding assistance from the DCYJMA to cover these extraordinary costs.

If your organisation wishes to seek funding assistance for extraordinary COVID-19 related expenses incurred to date, and you have not done so already, please contact your nominated departmental Contract Manager to discuss and arrange the approach most suited to your organisation’s individual contract arrangements.

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