Managing Non-Attendance at an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) 008-26050659

Assessors must have made genuine attempts to contact the customer by phone on the date and time of their booked appointment in the Online Diary within ESSWeb. See Genuine attempts to contact by phone.

If there is a message facility (with or without the customer's name) or a third-party answers, leave a short message asking the customer to call back. Provide a direct contact number for the Assessment Services Customer Service Team (ASCST).

If the customer does not have a phone number on record or their phone is disconnected or is unwilling or unable to authenticate, Assessors must:

• email the Assessment Services Customer Support Team (ASCST) who will arrange a face to face appointment for the customer
• in ESSWeb, in the Online Diary, leave the appointment result blank
• in Process Direct, update the ESAt referral Fast Note to advise Assessor (logon) was unable to contact the customer by phone (insert reason) and a request has been made to book a face to face appointment

If a face to face assessment is not appropriate or if the customer fails to attend their face to face appointment, go to Step 3.

If this is the second attempt to contact the customer, go to Step 2.

Assessors must:

• in ESSWeb:
  • record the time and date of all contact attempts in the Comments section under the Jobseeker menu
  • in the Online Diary, enter the result of the appointment as DNAf
• in Process Direct:
  • update the ESAt referral Fast Note to advise Assessor (logon) will call the customer on their next working day (date)

Procedure ends here.

Assessors must make genuine attempts to call the customer on their next working day. Where possible, call attempts should be at a different time to the original ESAt booking.

If the second attempt to contact is unsuccessful, go to Step 3.

Contact is successful

In ESSWeb:

• in the Online Diary, reschedule the ESAt appointment to the date of contact and enter the result of the appointment as Attended
• complete the report in the ESAt/JCA Assessment Section under the Jobseeker menu
• select Submit

Procedure ends here.

Do not change the assessment mode to file if unable to contact the customer. The customer must also meet one of the following for this to occur:

• There is sufficient evidence to make a reasonable determination of the customer's work capacity, barriers and referral options and
• The ESAt outcomes are unlikely to be a surprise for the customer, for example, no change to provider or program
• The customer cannot reasonably participate in the assessment, this may include:
  • There is a history of aggressive behaviour and/or difficulty dealing with Services Australia (e.g. Managed Service Plan (MSP) indicating no phone/face-to-face servicing, current Customer Incident Management System (CIMS)
  • Geographic isolation prevents the Assessor from arranging an assessment in the customer's local area, and telephone or other media are unavailable
  • Exceptional circumstances exist such that the assessment may have negative impacts upon the customer if the file assessment were not conducted. The Assessor should clearly document these reasons within the ESAt report
  • The customer's medical condition(s) preventing them from attending a face to face assessment or participating in a telephone or other assessment

Where the customer does not meet one of the above, go to Step 4.

Conduct File Assessment

In ESSWeb:

• in the Online Diary, enter the result of the ESAt appointment as Attended
• in the ESAt report:
  • Assessment section, change the mode of Assessment to File Assessment
  • Assessment Summary section, record reason for change of mode (e.g. phone to file)
• complete ESAt assessment report and Submit

Procedure ends here.

Check if the customer:

• is a job seeker receiving an income support payment with mutual obligation requirements, (e.g. JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance (YA), Parenting Payment (PP) or Special Benefit (SpB)
• is an Under 35 DSP recipient assessed with a work capacity of at least 8 hours a week

If the customer meets one of the above, go to Step 5.

For all other voluntary customers, Assessors must:

• In ESSWeb:
  • select Unable to complete (UTC) and the relevant dropdown option
  • in the Assessor list section, add their logon details
  • in the Assessment Summary section, provide details relating to non attendance
  • cancel the appointment
  • add comments in the Comments section under the Jobseeker menu
• In Process Direct:
  • annotate the ESAt referral Fast Note with details of non attendance and contact attempts and
  • if the customer is claiming an income support payment (for example, JobSeeker Payment (JSP)), request that the service officer refer the customer for another ESAt when finalising the claim

Procedure ends here.

Check Electronic Messaging and Online Letters (EMOL) screen to see if the customer is subscribed to myGov. If the customer is:

• subscribed, booked appointments must be made at least 5 working days in advance
• not subscribed, booked appointments must be made at least 10 calendar days in advance

Check that the customer has been issued appropriate notification of the appointment that includes a warning that their payment may be stopped if they do not attend.

Note: appropriate notification may be verbal and/or written.

View the customer record in:

• Process Direct on the:
  • CORRO screen
  • History Summary (HS) screen
  • Document List (DL) screen
• Customer First on the:
  • History Summary (HS) screen
  • Communication History tab
  • Search Outbound Correspondence tool
  • Document List (DL) screen

Has the customer been issued an appropriate notification of the appointment and advised that their payment may stop if they do not attend?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, reschedule the appointment. Ensure appropriate notification is sent to the customer. Procedure ends here

In Process Direct, check for details/impacts of the customer's medical conditions including hospitalisation and evidence of vulnerability or crisis.

This may include:

• Review of Document List (DL)/ Notes
• Referral Summary (RRSUM) screen for previous Assessments
• Activities and Exemptions Summary (AEX) screen

Job seekers are required to attend an ESAt appointment even during a temporary incapacity exemption period unless there is evidence of hospitalisation or they are experiencing vulnerability or crisis.

If there were no exceptions that made it unreasonable for the customer to attend the ESAt, go to Step 7.

For all other customers, Assessor must:

• In ESSWeb:
  • in the Comments section under the Jobseeker menu, add relevant details about identified exception
  • submit the report as Unable to complete (UTC) with relevant dropdown selected
  • in the Assessment Summary section, include relevant details of exception
  • in the Online Diary, enter the Attendance result as Cancelled
• In Process Direct:
  • add an annotation on the ESAt referral activity advising that:
    - follow up is occurring in relation to the customers non attendance, or
    - that exceptional circumstances have been identified. ESAt appointment cancelled

Procedure ends here.

In ESSWeb, review the Provider Appointment Detail and check the Cycle the customer is in.

• Cycle 1 - SUS ES1 (suspension 1)
• Cycle 2 - SUS ES2 (suspension 2)
• Cycle 3 - SUS ES2 (suspension 3)

Assessor must complete all of the following.

In ESSWeb:

• in the Comments section, record contact attempts
• mark the appointment as DNA. This will suspend the customer's payment
• If the customer is in:
  • Cycle 1 or 2 - leave the ESAt report open
  • Cycle 3:
    - select Unable to complete (UTC) and select relevant dropdown item
    - in the Assessment Summary section, provide relevant details of the non attendance

In Process Direct, annotate the ESAt referral Fast Note with details of non attendance and contact attempts.