Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) reports 001-02320000

The ESAt process provides information to assist Services Australia to determine a customer's eligibility for payment and mutual obligation requirements. Customers can be referred for an assessment with Assessment Services who will record the outcome of an assessment in an ESAt report.

Assessors are required to complete an electronic ESAt report which is created and maintained in the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations' Employment Services System (ESS). The report is accessible on a customer's electronic Medical Information File Envelope (eMIFE) once it has been accepted by Services Australia.

The ESAt report may contain some or all of the following information depending on the customer's circumstances and referral reason:

• Information about the customer's medical condition(s)
• Information about a customer's work capacity, taking into account any permanent and temporary medical conditions
• Information about currently addressed barriers to work and how these are being addressed
• Information about other barriers to work and the impact of these on employment
• A 'risk of non-compliance' rating, assessing a customer's barriers and vulnerabilities in relation to meeting participation requirements
• Employment support requirements, including the level of support needed and the period for which support is required
• Appropriate interventions and recommended referrals to employment assistance services
• Details of referrals that have been completed by the Assessor and those that need to be followed up by the agency after the report is submitted
• The Assessor's and, if necessary, any Contributing Assessor's qualifications
• If consultation with the Health Professional Advisory Unit (HPAU) occurred
• If a Specialist Assessment IQ test is conducted by the Assessor, the name of the test applied should be included in the report
• Referenced medical information used to inform the assessment
• Details of any contact with treating health professionals

All ESAt reports will pass a validation check in the system after they are submitted by the Assessor.

A flag will be raised on the customer's record for manual assessment for reports which fail validation checking.

All submitted reports that are not flagged for manual acceptance will be automatically accepted.

Staff are able to track the progress of the ESAt report and any supporting medical documentation provided as part of the claim or review.

Relevant sections of the ESAt report will also be available electronically to the Employment Services Provider to whom a referral has been made.

When a customer is directly registered with a provider and the provider refers the customer for an ESAt, Services Australia will be notified of the referral and the outcomes of the assessment if the person has a Customer Reference Number (CRN). The agency will not receive reports for people who do not have a CRN.

Staff may access the entire contents of the completed ESAt report electronically and may view and print the report as required, for example for the purpose of appeals or other valid reasons.

After it is submitted by the Assessor, the ESAt report may require manual checking and actioning. Regardless of which organisation initially referred the customer for an assessment, Services Australia is responsible for accepting/returning (rejecting) the reports that have not been automatically accepted.

The completed report may be used to:

• determine work capacity and develop an individually tailored Job Plan for activity tested customers
• determine eligibility for and ongoing eligibility to income support payments including Youth Allowance independent rate

If an ESAt referral was made using a 'DSP Volunteer' referral reason, the ESAt report is auto accepted. Once accepted, the information in this type of ESAt has no effect on the customer's eligibility for income support.

Staff are the delegates for income support decisions. Where a Service Officer does not agree with recommended hours of work capacity bandwidth that the Assessor has recorded in the ESAt they must discuss this with the Assessor before using the system override facility to change these. This is done when checking the report.

Note: it is not necessary to contact the Assessor when implementing a decision made by the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) or other external review body. Staff are able to override auto-populated data from an ESAt report, including:

• medical condition
• type of condition
• work capacity including baseline (formerly current) with intervention (formerly future) and temporary reduced

Any changes or additions must include a reason and the overridden information is maintained on the customer's record for future reference. An automatic notification is also sent to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations system advising of any changes.