A committee comprising senior representatives of government departments will oversee the implementation of this plan. The Department of Health and Human Services will take on the coordinating role. The committee will draw on the expertise of a stakeholder implementation advisory group to guide the plan's implementation and monitoring.
A process for reporting progress against actions
The Victorian Government's Office for Disability is a whole-of-government body that oversees and promotes disability inclusion policy. A key function of the office is to develop and manage state disability plans. Since 2018, state disability plan annual reports have been tabled in parliament, outlining progress against commitments and showcasing examples of innovation and good practice.
Reporting on the Victorian autism plan will form an appendix to each annual report for the next five years. The reporting will be used to show progress against commitments and showcase examples of good practice.
Annual reporting will also map progress against the 101 recommendations of the Parliamentary Inquiry into Services for People with Autism Spectrum Disorder. To promote efficiencies and partnerships across government, a number of recommendations have been bundled under the commitments of this plan. Mapping of commitments and recommendations will allow people to see how the actions we are taking align with those recommendations. This reporting will include public advice on early actions to support the plan that were funded and completed in 2018 and 2019.
The first round of annual reporting will introduce the initial set of outcomes indicators and measures that will be used for this plan. Subsequent annual reporting will highlight available data against these indicators and measures.
A process for refreshing actions
Many of the actions are already being implemented or will be implemented in the first few years of this five-year plan.
For this reason, it is important that this plan undergo a refreshment at its midway mark for the purposes of:
- identifying inquiry recommendations that need additional focus
- identifying outcome areas that need additional focus
The refresh process will begin at the end of the second year of the plan, using existing whole-of-government processes to engage all parts of the Victorian Government.
By the end of a six-month review and development process, a set of new or continuing commitments will be agreed, for publication in the third wave of annual reporting against the plan.
The refresh will also be used to make sure the Victorian autism plan can leverage the commitments and priorities detailed in the next state disability plan, which will operate from 2021 to 2024.
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