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Western Australia - Organisation

Disability Services Commission (1993 - )

From
1993
Categories
Care Provider and Government Department
Website
https://www.communities.wa.gov.au/services/disability-services/

The Disability Services Commission (DSC) was formed by the 'Disability Services Act 1993 Western Australia'. The DSC merged and replaced the Authority for the Intellectually Handicapped (AIH, or 'Irrabeena') and the Bureau for Disability Services. The Act made the DSC responsible to the Minister for Disability Services, with its key functions being to 'unify and streamline formal service provision for all Western Australians with disability'.

Details

In their submission to the Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care in 2003, the Disability Services Commission stated that it had no 'statutory responsibility for the care and protection of children' (p.2) but that it relied on a range of 'systemic safeguarding mechanisms' in place to protect the rights of people with disabilities to 'live and receive services in an environment free from any type of abuse, neglect and exploitation' (p.4).

From July 2017 The Disability Services Commission became part of the Department of Communities. The services the Commission provides remained the same following this change.

Timeline

 1978 - 1986 Division for the Intellectually Handicapped
       1986 - 1993 Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons
       1991 - c. 1993 Bureau for Disability Services
             1993 - Disability Services Commission

Provided 'Care' At

Related Organisations

Publications

Book Sections

  • Stella, Leonie, 'Normalisation and Beyond: Public Sector Residential Care 1965-1990', in Errol Cocks (ed.), Under blue skies : the social construction of intellectual disability in Western Australia, Centre for Disability Research and Development, Faculty of Health and Human Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, 1996, pp. 92-136. p.130. Details

Online Resources

Sources used to compile this entry: Disability Services Commission, State of Western Australia, 'Submission No. 84 Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care: Submissions', in Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care - Submissions received by the committee as at 17/3/05, Senate Community Affairs Committee, Commonwealth of Australia, 30 July 2003, http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Completed_inquiries/2004-07/inst_care/submissions/sublist; Disability Services Commission, History of disability services, Government of Western Australia, https://web.archive.org/web/20220311064024/http://www.disability.wa.gov.au/understanding-disability1/understanding-disability/history-of-disability-services/; Stella, Leonie, 'Normalisation and Beyond: Public Sector Residential Care 1965-1990', in Errol Cocks (ed.), Under blue skies : the social construction of intellectual disability in Western Australia, Centre for Disability Research and Development, Faculty of Health and Human Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, 1996, pp. 92-136. p.130..

Prepared by: Debra Rosser