Workers compensation regulation bulletin - Issue 76 (November 2019)
Helping care providers tackle return to work challenges
Community care workers provide vital services to some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Our employer supervision team identified 25 large employers with the slowest return to work rates. More than half of them provided community services to older people, younger people, and people with disabilities, and 80 per cent were not-for-profit organisations.
Slow return to work rates increase those providers' labour hire costs and workers compensation premiums.
We have teamed up with SafeWork NSW return to work inspectors to help these employers, who collectively employ 55,000 workers across NSW, to address their common return to work challenges.
A workshop in May explored the issues, developed focus areas and obtained the employers' commitment to a return to work project for 12-months.
The project has three key elements:
- quarterly community of practice events
- site visits and 12-month action plans for each employer
- a group action plan to address issues and harness shared opportunities.
The first community of practice event in August focused on improving engagement with nominated treating doctors. The second event in November will focus on psychological injury. A third event in March 2020 will develop a group action plan.
Feedback from employers in the group has been encouraging and the community of practice events have been well-attended.
To date, SIRA and SafeWork have visited 17 work sites and developed action plans for each. More visits will be made before the end of the year and the majority of follow-up visits will take place in 2020.
The only difficulty encountered so far has been scheduling site visits with several employers who have been busily conducting roadshows to consult workers on their new and improved return to work programs.
icare announces claims management services for Treasury Managed Fund
icare has announced that Allianz, EML, QBE and GIO will provide claims management services for the Treasury Managed Fund (TMF) workers compensation portfolio. These appointments are subject to contract execution.
The new contracts will commence on 1 January 2020 for Allianz, EML and QBE. GIO will commence following the implementation of the icare technology platform.
icare has advised that the appointments follow a robust and competitive process that commenced in May 2019.
Representatives of NSW Government agencies were involved in the evaluation process which was overseen by an external probity officer and independently facilitated.
More information is available on the icare website.
Open data platform
July and August workers compensation data is now available on our website.
The data includes information about reported claims, return to work rates, claim payments, insurance affordability and customer experience.
We provide the open data platform to improve stakeholder access to information, and enable innovation and services to improve outcomes for workers and employers.
The platform is accompanied by data tables and explanatory information.