Communities and Justice

What we've achieved so far

Department of Communities and Justice's 2020-2024 DIAP's annual progress report card snapshot for 2021-2022

As our current DIAP projects continue to progress, we will share stories and updates on these here.

Positive attitudes and behaviours

  • In the 2015-2018 DIAP, the former Department of Justice (former Justice) developed and delivered disability training sessions and online learning across the agency. These focused on:
    • flexible service delivery
    • disability awareness
    • working with young people with intellectual disability and cognitive impairment
    • more effectively working with people who have challenging behaviours and
    • more effectively working with people with a mental illness.
  • In the 2015-2018 DIAP, former Justice developed the Decision Making and Capacity e-learning module. This is an online training course for NSW community members who interact with people with decision making disabilities. It highlights the importance of empowering people with disability to make decisions for themselves and is available online.

Liveable communities

  • Recently former Justice designed new courthouses and refurbished existing ones with accessibility in mind.
    • Innovative solutions were developed for the new Surry Hills Children’s court to overcome conflicting heritage and access issues.
  • Commencing in 2018, former Justice is ensuring all new remote witness rooms have infrared hearing amplification systems. This improves access for witnesses with hearing impairments.

Meaningful employment

  • In 2016, the former Department of Family and Community Services (former FACS) became the first government agency in Australia to achieve Disability Confident Recruiter accreditation from the Australian Network on Disability (AND).
    • Former FACS held that accreditation in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and we are now applying to extend this to DCJ.
  • From 2016 to 2019, former FACS provided 35 Stepping Into internship placements.
    • Stepping Into is a paid internship program through AND. It matches talented university students with disability with roles in leading Australian businesses and government agencies.
    • A number of interns went on to temporary or ongoing employment in former FACS and across the NSW public sector.

Better systems and processes

  • In 2018, former FACS developed a new site structure, design and content mapping for a new public website. This was to ensured that website content is accessible.
Last updated:

01 Sep 2023