Big Changes Revealed by the NDIS Review - But any Changes Must Be Codesigned
Dr George Taleporos (GAICD, PhD)
Disability Sector Leader and Non-Executive Director, Podcast Reasonable & Necessary, Independent Chair of Every Australian Counts, Member of NDIS Independent Advisory Council, Board Member of InLife
It is a really stressful time for people with disabilities and our families?as we await the recommendations of the NDIS Review. Many people in our community put a great deal of time and effort to contribute to the Review and we are keen to know what will be recommended.?
I met with co-chairs Bruce and Lisa, who kindly agreed to a final interview before handing in their report to the government. A lot was revealed during the interview and it is clear that the NDIS Review will be recommending major changes to the NDIS.
You can view the full interview by clicking on the Youtube link below or listen to the podcast on your preferred platform here:
Please watch the whole interview, but here are some key points:
The Review will be saying that the NDIS should not be as concerned about a person’s primary medical diagnosis. They want the focus to be on functional capacity instead. We have heard many reports that for people with rare or multiple diagnoses, the focus on a primary diagnosis can be a real problem, so this could be a welcome change. On the other hand, this change might slow down access to the scheme and force people to undergo lengthy functional assessments. So we will have to keep a close eye on that.
And this is the big news:..Assessments are back on the table
The Review will be recommending assessments and they won’t be “independent”. They will be performed by government staff or government contractors, so there will be some serious conflicts of interest that will need to be managed. The focus will be on support needs rather than functional impairment, which is important, especially for people with intellectual disability.
The assessment will result in a budget allocation that will be determined to be "reasonable and necessary as a whole". There will be no more line by line claims for additional supports. The budget will be more flexible.
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The Review will also be calling on mainstream services to meet the needs of people with disabilities and they have introduced a new jargon word, “foundational supports”. Foundational supports are mainstream services that everyone with a disability should be able to access, including people who are not on the NDIS. This is clearly an attempt to address the “only life boat in the ocean” and “oasis in the desert” scenario that Prof Bruce blames for the increased number of participants on the NDIS.
How these foundational supports will magically appear is worth asking (so I did in my podcast). We have been calling for accessible and inclusive mainstream services for years and very little has changed. What will be different this time? I'm worried that people with disabilities?will again fall through the cracks if NDIS supports are taken away before mainstream services become inclusive and accessible.
If you are feeling concerned, then you are not alone
Having experienced the 2021 independent assessment trial myself, I’m worried about what this version of assessments will look like. We shouldn’t have to repeatedly prove that we have a disability. We don’t want intrusive and ineffective tests imposed on us by so-called “experts” who don’t know us. However, I take some comfort knowing that Bruce was a strong advocate against independent assessments in 2021 and the government has repeatedly committed to codesign any changes to the NDIS. I'm actively involved in the co-design work.
The government needs to stand by its promise
The government needs to uphold this commitment when considering these recommendations and remember its promise to rebuild trust with the disability community. The NDIS will only work when it is codesigned by people with disabilities, so my message to the government is clear – nothing about us without us! The government needs to make the NDIS Review recommendations public as soon as possible and ask us what we think before making any decisions.
What do you think about what the NDIS Review are proposing? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for reading my article, these views are my own. I always appreciate your reactions, comments and shares. You can check out my?Reasonable & Necessary podcast series?and follow me on Twitter @drgeorgethecrip
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1 年I hope they learn from the UK & don’t go the independent assessment route. I was living in England when they rolled out that plan, it was for the actual Disability pension equivalent, so people with disabilities totally depended on the result of the assessment to survive. It was a complete disaster, people were left with nothing. It was actually ridiculous. A lot of people suffered badly. I won’t go in to the depressing details but it was awful.?
Customer Service Officer at NYOB
1 年I saw one of your posts when you claim that they were getting rid of self management. Not The case. Sole traders will need basic registration with the supports safety commission. Not such a bad thing. However please note many people are engaging sole traders but the characteristics of the relationship equate to an employer and employees relationship. My staff do not bringTheir own tools to work. therefore my staff are employees and they have their full entitlements under the SCHADS Award.
Change Maker | Consultant | Systemic Advocate | Policy Researcher | Public Speaker | Activist | Peer Mentor | Facilitator
1 年Dr George Taleporos (GAICD, PhD) thanks for a great, thought provoking post and an excellent podcast as always. My concern is as follows, even if we take the review and the government at face value that any mandatory assessments will be co-designed (I'm yet to see any real evidence that any government in Australia actually understands what real co-design even looks like). We must then consider the very real likelihood of harm that will be done when inflicting assessments (that will be interpreted as punitive in nature) that are undertaken by government employed people who do not know us from a bar of soap, and equally important, that we also do not know from a bar of soap. This may be somewhat challenging and stressful for someone who has no psycho-social disabilities and no history of medical trauma, abuse and PTSD. Add any one of those and often all 3 and you are very likely to have a situation where it is simply not an option for someone with such a history to submit themselves to such an assessment with a person who they do not know and thus have not yet established as safe and trustworthy.
Lecturer in Organisation Studies @ Western Sydney University since 1991. Specialist areas are Strategy and Leadership. Researcher in corporate governance. Rotarian
1 年Off to do something I never do and that is to listen to your podcasts while I drive. Thanks in advance??
Retired for Life | Carer | Advocacy | Veteran Support | Social Action
1 年Looking forward to seeing the detail in the #NDISReview. I do agree the current planning process is fatally flawed for scale & quality. There is a flawed workforce model that doesn't support scale either. It just isn't delivering consistent participant-focussed plans with the goodness of outcomes that were foreseen at the start. The cost discussion is very disappointing & recent uncovering of the 9 Oct 23 letter from the #NDIS Review Actuary to Kurt Fearnley goes to that. Amongst his other assumptions, the idea that co-design comes at a cost & time really needs more education inside the actuarial model. Delivery of the public reveal of the #NDISReview is unfortunate timing as it will land in the down time at the end of 2023. Hopefully there will be great energy starting 2024. I look forward to working with it!