Independent expert, David Tune provided a review of the NDIS and its management by the NDIA to Government on Monday (20th Jan). This review sought feedback from people with disability, family members, carers, advocates and providers from around Australia. His report provided 29 key recommendations which centre around delays in access, ease of access and level of services provided to people engaging with the scheme. Below are some of the highlights.
Recommendations:
- Reasonable and Necessary criteria: Tune suggests clarification surrounding what services the NDIS is responsible for. This will expose service gaps that exist between the NDIS and other interfaces and how they can work better together.
- Planning process: There is a demonstrated disconnect between the support coordinator and the person who makes the final decision. The recommendation has suggested that the NDIA trials writing and approving all plans in-house rather than splitting the workload.
- Participant Service Agreements: This point discusses the need for balance between quality and speed of planning. This involves setting timeframes for interactions that participants have with the NDIA. Eg. 21 days for the NDIA to begin the planning process once a person has been accepted into the Scheme and other benchmarking tools. This guarantee will be enacted by July 2020.
- Support Coordination: Looks at providing more funding to support people to navigate the NDIS. This may be due to Local Area Coordinator’s not having enough time to support individuals due to added roles and responsibilities in the space, during the planning process.
- Plan Flexibility and Management: a greater understanding of intended outcomes of funding to provide a mutual understanding of funding intentions. This is intended to reduce the need for plan reviews.
Other Issues on the Agenda:
- The treatment of chronic illnesses under the NDIS.
- The role of guardians, plan nominees and other supported decision-making mechanisms under the NDIS, and how these intersect with state and territory legislation.
- The role of the NDIA and Quality and Safeguards Commission to undertake fraud detection activities.
- How compensation works with the NDIS.
We expect that the Federal Government will respond formally by the end of the week.
For more detailed information, visit:
Department of Social Serviceshttps://www.dss.gov.au/disability-and-carers-programs-services-for-people-with-disability-national-disability-insurance-scheme/2019-review-of-the-ndis-act-and-the-new-ndis-participant-service-guarantee
Disability Services Consulting https://www.disabilityservicesconsulting.com.au/resources/tune-review-recommendations?mc_cid=fcccc9cd54&mc_eid=5aceaa08fa
