New data reports show impact NDIS is having on young Australians
New data released has revealed the significant impact the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is having on young Australians with disability and their families.
Resources
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Shining a light on Social Transformation
This report was commissioned by the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. It investigates the early rights movement of people with disability, which “exposed the power relations inherent to the medical model of disability. The report acknowledges that the disability rights movement in Australia has driven important policy and legislative reform for people with disability. However, ‘it has not led to the social transformation required’ by the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Disability care watchdog has issued just one fine despite 8000 complaints
The scandal-plagued disability sector will get $22 billion from the federal government this financial year, but an independent review found the system left vulnerable people open to harm and neglect. Mr Shorten said NDIS Minister Stuart Robert had presided over a “toothless and sleepy” watchdog that in reality is “more like a very expensive purse poodle”.
Government appoints independent assessors to make the NDIS ‘fair and consistent’
The government is appointing independent assessors to review everyone on the National Disability Insurance Scheme to ensure the funding is fairly distributed and not just given to “those who can pay the most for a report”.
Supporting people with cognitive disabilities to access supported decision making in contracts for goods and services
This was the second session of the Advocacy Sector Conversations forum held on Zoom webinar for the first time, on 29 July 2020 (due to COVID-19 event restrictions not allowing large gatherings). Yvette Maker, Senior Research Associate, Melbourne Social Equity Institute (University of Melbourne) is part of the research team who has been working with essential and basic service providers, people with cognitive disability, and their representative organisations to develop tools to promote the consumer rights of people with cognitive disability.
Concern in Australia’s disability community NDIS assessment reforms could lead to self-harm
There is concern in Australia’s disability community that an overhaul of the National Disability Insurance Scheme could make it harder for people to access the program and lead to instances of self harm, including suicide.
NDIS group supports – ‘challenging and unviable’ or ‘reasonable and necessary’?
The NDIS funding model provides a one size fits all approach, making it difficult for good quality group supports to survive and thrive, and for new ones to evolve. In recent months we have conducted cost analysis for a range of providers of group programs. The results painted a bleak picture.
Disability advocates welcome NDIS reforms to increase number of scheme participants
Advocates are welcoming substantial changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) which they believe will make the system quicker and easier to navigate.
“Left out and locked down” The experiences of people with disability and their families during COVID19
More than 700 people with disability and their families filled out the survey that asked about your experiences during the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. What impact did the pandemic have on your lives? How did you cope and what you thought of the changes made to the NDIS during this time?
The problems raised were the usual issues – confusing, changing and inconsistent information, lengthy delays, lack of flexibility, poor treatment at the hands of Local Area Coordinators or NDIA staff. These issues are bad enough at the best of times. But in the middle of a global pandemic they stood in the way of people with disability getting what they needed to stay safe and well.
Government coronavirus plan did not include people living with disability, royal commission told
The Federal Government’s emergency response plan to COVID-19 made no mention of people living with a disability, a royal commission has heard. Senior Counsel Assisting Kate Eastman SC said people with a disability and their advocates “watched and waited” for the Government to come up with a plan. But people living with disability were conspicuously absent.
The COVID-19 lockdown is ‘breaking families’ of people with disability
People with disability and their families felt forgotten amid the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic and many struggled to make ends meet, new research shows.
Commonwealth Ombudsman says National Disability Insurance Agency needs significant change if it is to stop delays
The report, released this week by Ombudsman Michael Manthorpe, focuses on the agency’s handling of requests for assistive technologies and is part of several reviews by the Ombudsman into the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Since the NDIS was rolled out in 2013, the number of complaints about the agency received by the Commonwealth Ombudsman has increased each year.
Work from home options open opportunities for disabled Australians
The take home message is that it was always possible, all the time that employers where saying it was not. It is a form of ableism in the sense that it’s concentrating on that proportion of society who fit within a particular norm.”
Disability not included in the16 new Closing the Gap targets
In an historic new partnership between government and indigenous organisations, the Closing the Gap program is undergoing a major reset. A key Indigenous group is disappointed that disability has not been included in the 16 new Closing the Gap targets. While disability is a significant issue in health, education, justice and employment, it hasn’t been included as a target.
Data needed to measure extent of violence against people with disability
Data is an important element for measuring the scale of abuse and violence faced by people with disability in Australia, but there isn’t enough available, researchers say.