NDIS Independent Assessments off the agenda. Rather than mess up, fix up.

NDIS Independent Assessments off the agenda. Rather than mess up, fix up.

The latest IGR (Intergenerational Report) forecasts the cost of the scheme will increase from the current level of 1.2 per cent of GDP to 1.5 per cent of GDP in the medium term, before levelling out at 1.4 per cent of GDP in the long term.

“This is nearly 30 per cent higher than the 2015 Intergenerational Report, which projected NDIS spending to be broadly stable at 1.1 per cent of GDP between 2019-20 and 2054-55,” the latest report says.

“Average real spending per NDIS participant is now projected to increase from $56,620 in 2020-21 to $80,830 in 2060-61. (Coorey, 2021)

The NDIA flagged it was willing to make some changes to its proposed revamp of the scheme in order to get legislation passed on 9.7.2021. The agency said its proposed changes include conducting more consultation with disability groups to improve assessor training, refining the assessment tools used, and allowing participants more scope to challenge the findings of an assessment.

Additionally, participants could be given more choice in who conducts their assessment - including their "professional specialty, gender and cultural characteristics" - and be allowed to use pre-existing information from treating professionals as part of the process.

They could also be allowed time to review the evidence provided in their assessment to ensure it is accurate

However, Giancarlo de Vera, senior policy manager at People with Disability Australia, said the proposed changes don’t go far enough “It doesn’t feel like they’re hearing the clear message that we don’t want this. We really need the minister to go back to the drawing board.”  

Mr de Vera said the changes still don’t address the fundamental concern for participants of an unknown person being able to properly grasp the nuance of someone's disability in a short period of time.

“The prevailing concern is that people with disability don’t want independent assessments in any form,” he said.(Stayner, 2021)

In a media release issued late Friday following the Disability reform Ministers' meeting, Minister .Minister Reynolds confirmed that independent assessments would not be proceeding

 The final line of the release mentions future attention may be upon 'measures to address fraud and unscrupulous provider practices in the Spring sitting.' NDS will follow up on this item with the Minister's office (NDS, 2021)

On Friday 9.7.2021 the Minister Linda Reynolds tried to gain bipartisan support from other ministerial colleagues to push through legislative changes to the NDIS Act regarding NDIS changes, including introduction of Independent Assessments. The NDIA’s own internal research unit found that only 49% of those participants found the processes satisfactory, while the assessors themselves provided evidence that they felt only 39% of them felt the training they received was effective.

 The NDIA has attempted to be more transparent with its evaluation and commissioned a University of Sydney team to provide independent validation of their findings.

On the surface, this looked like a step forward for transparency. But this “validation” largely involved checking the way the NDIA analysed the data – they were not asked to critique the design of the evaluation (Henriques-Gomez, 2021).

.Ms Reynolds was rolled by state and territory ministers on Friday following a campaign from the disability community, who feared the changes would leave them worse off. She has since promised to work with the disability community to design a new assessment process. Labor and the Greens are staunchly opposed to the introduction of a new version of assessments. Senator Reynolds is also planning to introduce legislation aimed at cracking down on unscrupulous providers.(Rae, 2021)

Last year’s report [Financial Sustainability Report] did not put a dollar figure on how much the NDIS would cost by the end of the decade, but it did suggest that it would be the equivalent of 1.7% of the nation’s GDP. In the latest sustainability report, however, that estimate has gone up to 1.96%. That’s a small difference in percentage points, but in the context of Australia’s GDP we’re talking many billions of dollars. 

It’s also worth acknowledging that the NDIS hasn’t really had a huge budget blowout to date. The sustainability report makes a big deal of the fact that 2019-20 was the first year that the NDIS cost more than was budgeted. At the start of that financial year, the government budgeted $16.3bn for the NDIS, but actual expenses were more than planned, at $17.6bn.  However, if you look at the table below, you will see all previous budgets predicted the NDIS would cost more than $17.6bn that year. 

So, you can’t really lower your projections substantially and then be surprised when you exceed them. The 2020-21 year did see the NDIS cost more than was budgeted, but the total amount spent was still within the range of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 estimates (Gingold, 2021)

Alister Henskens, NSW Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services has said Federal Minister Reynolds inherited a federal position to claim costs associated with the NDIS were ballooning beyond projections, based on a recently released financial sustainability report.

While the peer reviewer of the report identified “significant uncertainty” in the federal government’s projections, the report failed to provide any qualitative analysis of the drivers of the recent results or concrete detail on how proposed changes to the act would help rein in costs to aid in the analysis of what changes if any should be agreed to. The Federal Government has pushed the party sentiment that the drivers of the scheme relate to numbers being admitted to the scheme, and the costs related to plan packages. While others have cited high rates of fraudulent providers accessing the scheme and costs of legal representation of the NDIA at Australian Appeals Tribunals, while those participants of appellants have little to no legal representation. I believe (the writer of this article) that an independent (independent as in truly independent that reports to the community first rather than the government) needs to do a review on the real cost drivers, including costs attached to government contractors e.g. the providers of the Independent assessments that were paid $339 million. What has happened to that payment?

NSW wants further development of tier two of the NDIS, more commonly known as information, linkages and capacity building, to bolster community supports for all people with disability, not just those in the scheme (Henskens, 2021). 

References

Coorey, P. (2021) Labour dismisses warning about the rising costs of the NDIS. 

  In The Financial Review. https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-dismisses-warning-about-rising-cost-of-the-ndis-20210628-p584t6. Accessed 19.7.2021

Gingold, S. (2021). Independent Assessments are dead. Long Live the …?

In DSC. https://teamdsc.com.au/resources/independent-assessments-are-dead-long-live-the?_kx=IpijokQ04MfkqVQWHxGXkckDKHuCfPuyGfJEdIbVhNI5jBJ3KC7cYsp5lLbArpEq.X. Accessed 19.7.2021.

Henriques-Gomez, L. (2021). NDIS Assessments are off the table for now. That’s a good thing – the evidence wasn’t there. In Pro Bono Australia. https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2021/07/ndis-independent-assessments-are-off-the-table-for-now-thats-a-good-thing-the-evidence-wasnt-there/. Accessed 19.7.2021.

Henskens, A. (2021). First steps to a better NDIS start in Tune’s blueprint. In The Australian.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/first-steps-to-a-better-ndis-start-in-tunes-blueprint/news-story/f8ee992c80386b8ff99691147d509426. Accessed 20.7.2021

National Disability Services (2021). A Sector Win. Independent Assessments Dropped. https://www.nds.org.au/news/a-sector-win-independent-assessments-dropped?_cldee=Y2FybWVsQGNvbW11bml0eWxpbmtzLm9yZy5hdQ%3d%3d&recipientid=contact. Accessed 19.7.2021

Rae, M. (2021). Call for heads to roll on NDIS Assessments. In Bega District News. https://www.begadistrictnews.com.au/story/7336377/call-for-heads-to-roll-on-ndis-assessments/. Accessed 19.7.2021

Stayner, T. (2021). Disability Advocates still worried despite proposed changes

  To NDIS Independent Assessments .In SBS News. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/disability-advocates-still-worried-despite-proposed-changes-to-ndis-independent-assessments. Accessed 19.7.2021