NDIS ready for rollout, says disability advocate, despite suggested delay President of People With Disability Australia disputes KPMG review finding that design of full scheme lacks clarity Gabrielle Chan theguardian, Sunday 20 July 2014 16.03 AEST A leading disability advocate says there is nothing in a KPMG review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme that would justify a delay in its rollout. The report, released late last week, found there was a “lack of clarity” around the design of the full scheme which could impede the transition to full rollout, particularly around issues such as eligibility tiers and pricing. “It is acknowledged that a significant amount of work has been undertaken to inform and develop the capacity and capability of all parties to transition to the full scheme,” the KPMG review found. “The overarching finding of the review is that this analysis has been informative, however there are opportunities to improve market capability, in particular through planning and delivery.” Craig Wallace, president of People With Disability Australia, said the issues raised in the report were not new and were not a reason for the government to delay the rollout of the NDIS. “I don’t believe this report provides rationale in delaying the scheme and I would be disappointed and surprised if it were used to justify a delay,” Wallace said. “It does point out a number of issues that are known from within the trial sites and they should be manageable.” The KPMG review was commissioned by the NDIS board to advise on the best way to develop the full scheme. Earlier this year, the assistant social services minister, Mitch Fifield, who is in charge of the scheme, had signalled that the national start date of 2018-19 could be pushed back. The chairman of National Disability Insurance Australia, Bruce Bonyhady, told the National Press Club a fortnight ago that there would be no delay and the scheme would be available within the next three years to the more than 400,000 Australians affected by disabilities. Bonyhady said the trial sites had already delivered a “wealth of data” which would help build the full scheme. “What this KPMG paper does is identify some of the complexity surrounding rollout to full scheme. It is one of the many inputs, which will be considered as we start to talk to our stakeholders about the best way forward,” he said. From 1 July, the NDIS expanded trial sites to service the ACT, Barkley in the Northern Territory and the Perth Hills in Western Australia. These supplemented sites in the Hunter in NSW, Barwon in Victoria and South Australia for children under six and Tasmania for 15- to 24-year-olds. There were 5,414 participants across trial sites, with approved plans covering disabilities such as intellectual disability, autism, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, development delays, schizophrenia, hearing and vision loss. Wallace said he would seek a meeting with the NDIA this week, the agency in charge of the NDIS, to discuss the implications of the report. He warned any delay to the NDIS would leave the states exposed as the scheme was a “binding agreement” between the federal and state governments. “There is no appetite in the states [for a delay]; the states and territories are ploughing a lot of funding into this,” Wallace told Guardian Australia. “Any delay would leave the states exposed.” The NDIS is designed to provide three tiers of support for the disabled: > Tier 1 creates general awareness about the issues faced by people with disability and promotes inclusion and opportunities. > Tier 2 provides for the more than 800,000 people with disability, family and carers, with information about the most effective care and support options. > Tier 3 provides funding and support for 400,000 people with permanent disabilities in the form of aids, equipment and services from specialised and generic services, according to a personalised plan. Most NDIS funding, expected to cost $15bn when fully operational, will go towards tier 3 participants. The average annual cost of a package for each person as of March 2014 was $34,000. But the KPMG report identified tier 2 as the key “to achieving scheme sustainability as it is the gateway to effective diversion from specialist supports”. “Clarity on how tier 2 will be designed, including how it will link to the broader human services sector within each jurisdiction, is critical,” the report says. “The development of tier 2 is required as soon as possible to ensure that appropriate supports are in place for those not eligible for tier 3. This will be important for working with those individuals who are currently in receipt of community care services.” The report also identified key areas which required great detail, including pricing of services, access to housing, the interface of the NDIS with mainstream services, the role of government services, the implications for services to over-65s and the proper choice of agency infrastructure as the system rolls out. theguardian/society/2014/jul/20/ndis-ready-for-rollout-says-disability-advocate-despite-suggested-delay
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 05:33:08 +0000
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