The Australian Government Department of Social Services and JAS-ANZ jointly introduced the first Disability Employment Services (DES) Scheme in November 2001 as a means of ensuring providers of disability employment services developed management systems designed to improve the quality of services and achieve better outcomes for people with disabilities.
 
The fourth issue of the DES Scheme was published as the Disability Employment and Enterprise Services (DEES) Scheme. This scheme was developed in conjunction with human services schemes operating in other jurisdictions. This provided an opportunity to standardise the requirements to the greatest extent possible to gain audit efficiencies. The scheme is now titled the Disability Employment and Supported Employment Services (DES/SES) Scheme and was most recently updated and published in 2021. The 2021 amendments reflect changes to the Disability Services Act (National Standards for Disability Services) Determination 2014.  

The DES/SES scheme no longer applies to supported employment services that are registered under the National Disability Insurance Scheme. This means supported employment services that are registered providers under the NDIS, are now able to receive certification to the NSDS through an audit against the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018.
 
Applicant CABs will need to comply with DES/SES Scheme (HS Scheme Part 3), Additional requirements for bodies certifying Disability Employment Services and Supported Employment Services. Applicants also need to comply with Human Services Scheme Part 1, Common requirements for bodies certifying Human Services as the DES/SES Scheme calls up Part 1. See separate information page on the latter.

As this is a product scheme, applicants also need to comply with ISO/IEC 17065:2012 – Conformity assessment - Requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services.

Benefits

• Enables providers of disability employment services to improve the quality of services and achieve better outcomes for people with disability.
• Empowers people with disability by involving them in all aspects of scheme development, refinement and delivery.

Scheme owner

Department of Social Services.

Scheme criteria (downloadable PDFs)

Human Services Scheme Part 1 - Common requirements for bodies certifying human services

DES/SES scheme - Human Services Scheme Part 3

More information

An application pack, application form and other relevant material is not available on this site. These documents are available through our SharePoint portal. If you are a body that we currently accredit, you can access this information through the Shared CAB Portal. If you are a new applicant, please complete an application enquiry form. Once this form is submitted, the Secretariat will contact you to advise the next steps.  For other stakeholders, please submit your inquiry through the online feedback form.

The NSDS and other information is available from DSS at https://www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/disability-and-carers/standards-and-quality-assurance/national-standards-for-disability-services