NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Framework – Safeguards for participants who manage their own plans discussion
Some participants may decide to manage the supports in their plan for themselves, ask someone else do it for them (a plan nominee) or use a registered plan manager. Any of these plan management choices are regarded as self-management. This contrasts with the situation where the NDIA and the participant have agreed that the NDIA will be responsible for purchasing and managing their supports.
Read the fact sheet for more information.
A key question for those managing all or some of their own supports is what, if any, quality and safeguard protections should apply.
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7 comments on NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Framework – Safeguards for participants who manage their own plans discussion
Managing your own money with unregistered providers I think you are asking for problems.
If you are not able to manage your own budget, how do we think families/carers or guardians will be able to manage payments / tax, insurance/ equipment with an unregistered provider.
“At your own risk” needs to have a payback clause to the government/taxpayer and also to the client if the money is mismanaged. This is an issue for the person with an intellectual disability who may not understand the implications of the decisions being made for them.
This is taxpayers money we have to minimise waste.
Teresa, I find your comment offensive. Some of the people involved in this and their carers are more than capable of managing money and knowing what they want, be it with registered or unregistered providers. We have tertiary business qualifications, business experience are smart and more than capable of managing payments, tax, insurance and equipment any anything else that comes our way. We have been accountable for managing funds under the old system and nothing has changed in that respect. These skills can be taught to those who don’t know how, it is not rocket science, The whole point is to give people choice and assistance and support to get what they need to lead a normal life. I welcome anyone to audit our choice of expenditure and balance sheets because they are spot on! Some of our providers are not registered but they are the best people and services for us and are much better than some registered ones.
I’ve self managed since 2006. I have employed carers directly and through a non-registered provider. Through the non-registered provider I get far better service than I would get through any registered providers in my area. There is still the risk that a client receives bad service from a registered provider. Before I was self managed, I spent years receiving care from a registered provider, basically taking huge amounts from my care package for doing nothing. Being empowered to make these decisions is the best thing about being self managed. If we are not free to make our own choice who we receive our care from we might as well just go back to the bad old days.
I understand not everyone is capable of managing their own affairs, but for people who are, it should be just like managing any other financial aspects of their life. I believe we should go with Option 1: building the capacity of participants to manage their own risks.
I agree Craig.
Option 1: building the capacity of participants to manage their own risks
Totally agree KD, we need more people to become self managed, I understand that only a small percentage have decided to do so. We need to encourage more people to be self managed by making things simpler and easier for them to understand. Under the DFM there were 28pages of Guidelines now under the DPA there are 63pages of Guidelines. If continue to make the rules more ridged, less people will be willing to become self managed.
Alright. I’ve had enough of this. Just look at what comes up when you click on “Read the fact sheet for more information”. This is ludicrous and needs to be fixed. No wonder you aren’t being overrun with feedback on this site.
I think the NDIS should take a leaf out of the old ADHC Self Managed Community Participation guidelines. They were set up to make things easy for participants and to help them achieve their goals by allowing them to make the choices about how their funding would be spent. The more I hear about the NDIS the further it seems to be from offering true voice, choice and control to pwd and their loved ones. It seems to have been hijacked by a bunch of public servants who don’t seem to know the first thing about having a joyful life, people who go out of their way to refuse the sort of help that pwd really want and need. I have heard some awful stories. Staff need to be taught how to achieve the most benefit for pwd within the guidelines.
Thanks for your feedback Greenforestfairy. The fact sheets and discussion paper were put up in word and PDF format in order to allow them to be downloaded as easily as possible. But we agree they could be made easier to find and read online and are working on making them more accessible on the site.