NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Framework – NDIS quality and safeguarding discussion
Part 1 of the consultation paper describes the quality and safeguarding framework being proposed for the NDIS. The framework aims to achieve a balance between ensuring NDIS supports are safe and giving people choice and control over their supports.
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19 comments on NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Framework – NDIS quality and safeguarding discussion
I would like to see that all people have access to the same quality advocates to make sure that each participant is treated equally.Equal advocacy, equal funding, equal access to services.
You do not know what you do not know and this is a big problem for people not able to read or who have inadequate literacy skills
I have great worries about the quality of providers, people’s access to funding and the ability for guardians/carers to exploit the young person and their access to service.
I look at the debacle re RTOs and government funding.
Who will spot chack, who will ensure quality?
I do not agree with equal funding – funding should always be based on needs and the variation in the needs of the person with a disability can be enormous. As I have found those with the highest funding generally get the poorer service. People with a disability who have the capacity to assist themselves and who are “verbal” can question and demand quality themselves – although they may suffer consequences later – to their detriment. DHS and the Service Providers always prevail. How will NDIS counteract this?
Hi Teresa,
There is already in place quality advocacy services funded by the Department of Social Services and the NSW Government. My question is why is the NDIA not looking at these well established quality advocacy organizations to provide the Quality and Safeguarding Framework…
Doug.
Yes I have asked the same question “who oversees that services use funding as they as supposed to?| I have not been given an answer yet but if you get one to this please share as I would love the funding to require accountability. My daughter’s previous service demanded that we access funds for a behaviour plan $5000 of government funding. The plan was never used to support her and then they threw her out onto the street homeless. How can services do this with public funds and against such vulnerable people. Accountability is a must I think.
Could we please also have general guidelines about the management fee charged by different Service Provided. There need to be for more transparency in this area as well.
Thank you
Currently the service providers are taking a big chunk of the funding as management fee. There should be some uniform general or standard set fee for the Service Providers.
There need to be of some sort of stipulation in NDIS scheme where SP have to more transparent in this area as well. Thanks.
So right. Generally speaking Service Providers are taking out 50% + for their so called Administration of their service (excluding wages for the real workers – those “on the floor” with the participants). Be careful too of Services also charging for “Corporate Admin fee of 10 – 15%.- How will NDIS tackle these blatant rip- offs?
We still waiting for guidelines and details for disable people residing in group homes.
This area need more work so each individual living in the same house is aware of their individual funding and eligibility for services and care they are getting while living in the group homes.
It’s equally important so the families and carers can have better management with their disability pension income and the expenses . It is still a grey area and needs more transparency. Consumers do not have much transparency about how the expenses are being managed. There seems to be endless ask for cash money from the families on the top of the major part of their pension going to the group homes.
Example from Scotland of a public awareness campaign called “See Something, Say Something”, part of a Safer Scotland campaign to make people aware of adult protection issues. Have a look at it on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0twtQEsRJw&feature=youtu.be
How will NDIA ensure people in need aren’t going to be left out? The link is to an ABC news article around concerns for people with intellectual disabilities who do not have someone in their life to advocate and support them in accessing the NDIS.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-25/ndis-participation-made-difficult-by-funding-cut-advocates-say/6262116
Interestingly, the article also demonstrates how a family involved in the NDIS trial have benefited from the additional choice and control.
The only way to ensure quality of Service is to continually call in to see what your son/daughter with a disability is doing. Generally, they will be sitting or walking around doing little. When you question this – workers say “they are on their break” or what we hear most “we are short staffed today”. The last point is interesting because you still are required to pay the same set fee.
Be very careful if you ask too many questions or attend the centres too frequently the retribution can be quite devistating – in 30 odd years DHS, Disabilities Commissioner have never found answers to this – hence retribution is rife in all areas. What will NDIS do?
I agree totally. I have been labeled as too difficult to work with as I have advocated for quality care for my daughter. I have lodged formal complaints about my daughter being made homeless and thrown out onto the street, being asked to leave a service because she complained that workers left her unattended to have a smoke. The response I get, after I find new services to support her is – it seems that your issues have been resolved, I still can not get an answer to who overseas when services do not use the funds they claim appropriately. We have a great service providing care in home for my daughter now but this was through my hard work and not the planner or the LAC. I have asked to change but have been told I can not change as I have a complaint in against a service. I feel this is systems abuse towards my daughter but there is nowhere to go. Maybe a few of us who advocate for people with disabilities need to inform the public what this system is really like as the general public think it is great because all of these issues are hidden.
I have just been in an online discussion and the issue of safeguards after parents die came up. Someone made the really good point that having an independent advocate in the life of your child is an important way to build in a safeguard. i would like the framework to be clear that independent advocacy is a safeguard for people in the NDIS and make sure that it is available to anyone that needs it. As parents, that would make a difference when we think about the future. I’d like to know that there is someone who is going to have an interest in what is going on in his life, that is going to be keeping an eye on what is being done to and for him, and is ready to speak up and help to resolve issues when (not if) they arrive
I second that!
Independent advocacy sounds like a terrific idea
The problem is advocates can come and go. You may have a great advocate but when they leave they can be replaced by somebody who is not good. I have left the care co-ordination of my daughter to my son and sister-in-law within the conditions of my Will.
Could I ask please why there is no consultation meetings in the regional areas of NSW. We are located near Lismore which is approximately 2 hours from Brisbane and 8 hours from Newcastle. This is a burden for people with disability to attend these consultation meetings..
Thank you for your interest in attending the consultation meetings Douglas.
The priority for this consultation process is to allow as many people as possible to participate in different ways, and to obtain a cross-section of views through different means.
While public meetings provide one way of doing this, this website is intended to provide a way that people in all locations can find out more and contribute to the debate.
It offers a number of different ways in which you can provide input to the process. You can make a comment on the proposals on these discussion pages, fill out one of the questionnaires, or make a submission.
In terms of the public meetings, while we appreciate that people in many places will be interested in meetings, Newcastle was chosen for the regional meeting in NSW because it is an NDIS trial site.
My daughter is very frightened of anyone who has authority over her. She has had some terrible experiences of institutional abuse in the past. She currently has NSW ADHC funding and is being made to change from Young People Leaving Care program to what they call an IASP. As part of that process she was expected to have an ADHC worker come out to our house and discuss her goals etc with her so a new Individual Plan could be created. Apart from anything else my daughter has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and a severe expressive and receptive language delay which is triggered under stress so she has a great fear that she’ll say what she doesn’t mean when talking to strangers in authority positions. We were eventually able to negotiate with ADHC so that a psychologist my daughter trusts is doing the IASP Individual Plan creation work on their behalf which was a good outcome. But on the way my daughter’s intermediary service provider case manager made an outrageous threat to take my daughter to the Guardianship Tribunal, to try to have her rights to make her own decisions taken away from her. I found out that he has a history of, not just making threats of that, but of doing it to anyone who doesn’t immediately comply with requests. I have 2 questions. 1. What’s going to be done to prevent service providers and other NDIS funded workers engaging in bullying threatening behaviour of any sort (imagine if we weren’t around to protect my daughter from his crazy response), and 2. The organisation says that my daughter will have to be interviewed by a stranger re the NDIS when it arrives in our area. Will there be a way of negotiating for her to have her needs met by the interview being conducted by a third party that she trusts, such as her speech therapist or psychologist instead of by a NDIS Planner? It would be detrimental to her continuing recovery for her to have to discuss her hopes, dreams, goals with a stranger that she doesn’t trust, even in front of a stranger. I figure the NDIS is meant to be person centred so there’ll be a solution. But if there’s not can one please be found? My daughter wouldn’t be the only one that is terrified of strangers in authority.