10352 – Individual submission

Local Area Coordinators do not help NDIS participants with implementing their NDIS plan and linking them to services once they receive their approved NDIS plan. When you ask your Local Area Coordinator to help you find a service you get nowhere, if your plan is not working there is no help to apply for a review, people who are applying for the NDIS who are not currently on the NDIS do not get any help, local area coordinators do not know how to help people fill out an access request form, The time the Local Area Coordinators spent with NDIS participants is not good, they only read the information that the person provides about their goals, takes no notice of the person with a disability, does not ask them what you would like in your NDIS plan? It wastes the time of people with disabilities/NDIS participants at planning meetings when the Local Area Coordinator or the NDIA planner that each person sees does not show a draft of the plan for the NDIS participant to check that everything is correct, NDIS participants can’t use the funding to move around from one thing to another, all the goals that NDIS participants identify are not complied with and the NDIA will not support them to achieve all their goals and expect that mainstream services for example private training providers, TAFE’S and Universities are responsible for providing learner support for people with disabilities when enrolled in a course and the training provider has no money, the funding for education is cut back, the support people require is not enough for what the person requires. This stops the person from being able to have an education like everyone else. The aim of the NDIS is was not to work in isolation with other services, departments and mainstream services the aim of the NDIS is to work with mainstream services and department of education, department of industry, state training authority etc. There will continue to be gaps until an agreement is made between each of the departments, authorities etc. The longer it takes for mainstream services to be funded under the NDIS people with disabilities will continue to not have an education like everyone else. People do not get to choose who develops their NDIS plan, a planner or local area coordinator contacts the participant when their plan is coming up for review and does not ask the participant do you have anyone particular who you would like to have develop your new NDIS plan? The participant is left out, not being involved in any decision making processes, no choice on who they feel comfortable with to be involved in their upcoming NDIS planning meeting, No one takes notice of what participants are saying and what is important to them. People should be able to use their NDIS funding for what they want to do whether it be education, respite, conferences, communication devices, assistive technology, therapists, daily activities, gardening, daily activities, transport, support coordination, independent living skills etc. To provide limited options to participants on what they can and can’t use their NDIS funding for is not going to help them to gain the most benefits out of their NDIS package. The only way people can gain the most benefits out of their NDIS package is changing the system so it is designed the way people expect it to work, leaving people with the same flexibility they had under the state system, not making them worse off and disadvantaged in anyway and services are set up to deliver services under the NDIS the right way that people expect the service to operate. If services are not able to deliver the services that participants ask for there should be no NDIS registered service providers. If a service wants to be an NDIS registered provider that service provider needs to demonstrate how they will help people with their goals? Liaise and consult with the participant before using any of the funding? Seek approval from participants before using NDIS funding to pay for services, Listen and do what the participant says without saying to them I can’t pay for your conferences from your package, develop a service agreement that reflects what the participant wants the service to support them with not the participant fitting in with the service. If a service cannot do what the participant asks for the service needs to refer the person to another service that is more appropriate, convenient and suitable that is designed to support the participant with what they want to do.