Public advocate wants reforms to NDIS

VICTORIA’S Public Advocate has called for significant reforms to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to ensure it delivers the intended transformational benefits for all Australians with a disability.

The call for action follows the release of a report, The Illusion of ‘choice and control’, published by the Office of the Public Advocate (OPA) last month.

The report, which draws on 12 case studies of OPA clients, demonstrates the significant human impact and harm caused when people receive inadequate supports under the NDIS, which (as of last month) has been rolled out to nearly 200,000 Australians – nearly a third of which had never received state or government support before.

“These clients have complex and challenging support needs and are not seeing the benefits the NDIS was intended to offer,” Dr Pearce said.

“Without strong advocacy, many are not getting the access to the scheme. When they do, the planning, services and accommodation provided are often inadequate or unsuitable.”

“These challenges can have detrimental, sometimes devastating, consequences for the person.

“In many instances, delayed or inadequate supports and poor quality services lead to avoidable detention and other infringements on their human rights and significantly compromise their ability to achieve their chosen goals.

For them, the ‘choice and control’ that the NDIS promised is an illusion.”

The report makes 15 recommendations to improve crisis response, accommodation and navigation of “thin markets” where there are no providers willing and able to provide services to people with complex and challenging support needs.

It calls on the NDIS to:

• Identify and adequately resource providers of last resort
• Ensure providers employ staff who have specialised experience, skill and expertise to meet the needs of participants, and
• Ensure participants’ plans have contingency funding to respond to crises.

“These issues will potentially escalate in scale and impact with the full NDIS rollout unless significant and effective actions are taken immediately,” Dr Pearce said.

To read the report, head to publicadvocate.vic.gov.au.