Community Care Council is the name we give to incorporated associations that are set up to support a person with a disability. An ‘incorporated association’ is essentially a group of people who come to together to form a corporation which runs for the sole purpose of supporting a particular person with a disability.
So if a person already has multiple people who are willing to support them in their lives, instead of providing fragmented and siloed assistance, those people may choose to all come together to form one incorporated body.
Benefits of forming a Community Care Council include how:
- They are a separate legal identity, meaning that it is able to do things in its own name, such as open a bank account, hire employees, own property and engage services;
- They can last indefinitely. It is possible for a Community Care Council to outlive any of its individual members by appointing new members to replace them;
- There is greater formality and transparency in relation to Community Care Councils. Incorporated associations are required to have a Rules of Associations, regular meetings, minutes of those meetings as well as a range of financial record keeping and reporting obligations. The purpose of all these are to ensure the association continues to fulfil its purpose- supporting a person with a disability;
- They can reduce the fragmentation of support. Instead of having different people proving different supports to the person in a manner which is siloed and fragmented, those people can choose to come together to form one incorporate body with a common objective.
Setting up a Community Care Council involves various steps, and once set up, there are various continuing legal and financial requirements which the Community Care Council must meet.
If you would like assistance with setting up a Community Care Council for someone you know with a disability, please do not hesitate to contact our office.