The NDIA has new leadership. Here’s where I hope it takes us.

Yesterday our sector got some very big news. Bill Shorten, Minister of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), welcomed Paralympian Kurt Fearnley to the role of National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) Board Chair, and Rebecca Falkingham, a senior public servant, as the new CEO of the agency.

We were promised a reset of the scheme and with fresh faces at the helm, there’s fresh hope for change.?

Here at Hireup we’ve long been fans and friends of Fearnley. He hosts an award-winning podcast that we proudly commissioned and funded, A Nation Changed, which explores the makings of the NDIS and why it was so desperately needed. I was delighted to be interviewed on Fearnley’s own podcast, Tiny Island, where we spoke about Hireup’s origin story - how it all started with my brother, Shane, and the difference good support made to his life.??

Fearnley’s new position as Board Chair is cause for much celebration in the disability sector and beyond. And with her high-level experience as the Secretary of the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety, Falkingham’s skills seem a solid foundation on which to build a stronger, more successful NDIS.???

I congratulate both Fearnley and Falkingham on their new appointments. I also hope that, as they steer the NDIA into the future, certain principles will become standard - and critical issues will be remedied.??????

People with disability at the heart and head of the NDIS

The NDIS wouldn’t exist were it not for the tireless advocacy of countless Australians with disability and their supporters. This scheme should embody the “nothing about us without us” mantra of the disability community. And yet we are only now - a decade in - seeing disabled leaders at the helm of the scheme. May Fearnley’s appointment - and those of Graeme Innes and Maryanne Diamond to the NDIA board - be just the beginning of our sector (and others) hiring people with disability in leader and governance roles.?

Co-design of scheme reforms

It’s no secret that ‘independent assessments’ were not what the majority of NDIS participants actually wanted - despite being relentlessly pushed by former government. With disabled leaders at the helm of the NDIA, from here on in, my hope is that we’ll see every and any scheme reform seeded, designed and rolled out in close consultation and collaboration with the disability community. That community knows the scheme needs to be sustainable and fair. They want to help make it both, not have (bad) solutions imposed upon them.

Stronger regulation and oversight

In the development of the NDIS, the government consulted widely on the need for regulation and oversight. Multiple reports and consultation papers demonstrate the consensus for a nationally consistent, connected approach to quality and safeguarding. But right now, people are shocked to learn that while parts of the sector are highly regulated, other parts operate with little to no oversight at all.?

As ongoing, horrifying cases of abuse in our sector attest, there needs to be better safeguards and oversight across the board. Minister Shorten has recently spoken about the need for more oversight, and I’m confident the new leadership of the NDIA will understand and act on this imperative.??

A level playing field for NDIS pricing

Minister Shorten has previously hinted at a change to the NDIS pricing system - and it certainly needs a rejig. The NDIS pricing arrangements currently apply to everyone, no matter their size, cost and operational complexity. This was never the scheme's intention, as articulated in the Disability Support Worker Cost Model, and for good reason. It makes no sense that providers working independently with few to no overheads have the same price cap as providers spending tens of millions of dollars on payroll tax, insurance and training for their workers and the safeguards associated with NDIS registration.?

This system leaves the scheme - and its participants - wide open for rorting. Differentiated pricing would go a long way toward solving this issue and should be high on the NDIA’s agenda.??????

Fair treatment for all disability workers

It’s widely understood that the disability sector needs to attract and retain many tens of thousands of disability support workers over the coming years. But without consistent rights, entitlements, conditions and protections offered to all disability support workers, we’re going to see lower quality support, rapidly increasing workforce churn, and negative outcomes for participants.

We’re pleased to see that the government is acting on the risks that have rocked our sector since the onset of the ‘gig economy’, where workers are increasingly engaged without adequate pay, insurances and support. I hope the NDIA’s new leaders will take heed of the growing awareness around this critical issue - and see that every worker in our sector is entitled to rights and protections.?

Rebuilding trust

During yesterday’s press conference, Fearnley said the appointment of people with a disability to leadership roles in the NDIA was crucial to rebuilding trust with the disability community. He’s absolutely right. That trust was compromised by mistepps like the attempted implementation of independent assessments. It’s been damaged by the enormous surge of NDIS participants disputing their plans - and the stories of neglect, abuse and fraud that have thwarted our sector.?

The NDIA’s new leaders have a lot of work to do. They’re currently facing a large-scale class action against the NDIS. There are still hundreds of NDIS participants waiting to be discharged from hospitals and thousands of NDIS plan disputes waiting to be handled by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.?

While it’s improved the lives of countless Australians and their families, the scheme, as we know, is far from perfect. But as Fearnley pointed out, people with disability are an eternally hopeful group. Hireup has been listening to the voices of people with disability right across the sector, and we’re more motivated than ever to ensure the NDIS becomes - and remains - a strong pillar of Australia’s economy and society.?

We hope to continue this work and support Fearnley and Falkingham in getting the NDIS right for its participants. I wish them both luck - and look forward to seeing what they can achieve.