Resources

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Shining a light on Social Transformation

Posted September 25, 2020

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).

Building choice, control and confidence

Posted September 18, 2020

This submission is in response to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) discussion paper on Support Coordination.

The quality of NDS plans, including the provision of Support Coordination funding, largely depends on people’s capacity to learn about and understand the system and to self-advocate. People experiencing multiple and intersecting forms of disadvantage and isolation face greater challenges at every stage of the NDIS journey, from finding out how it works to accessing the Scheme, developing a plan and connecting to services.

AAT casts doubts on independent assessments

Posted September 18, 2020

The government’s recently announced plans to roll out independent functional assessments went down about as well as a sneeze in a Melbourne supermarket does right now. In response, many community groups have launched campaigns urging the Agency to re-think this endeavour. But last week there was a new voice entering the debate that nobody saw coming: the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). 

NDIA releases new Functional Capacity Framework

Posted September 11, 2020

The NDIA has today released a new NDIS Functional Capacity Assessment Framework – the evidence base and principles to inform the introduction of best practice Independent Assessments.

Narrow leadership, poor decisions

Posted September 4, 2020

What happens when an entire population group is absent from decision making forums? It makes it possible to forget them. The people who are most affected and should be central considerations in emergency responses are left out.

Out of Tune: Government Responds to the Tune Review

Posted September 4, 2020

The response is so full of government doublespeak and responses with no discernible relationship to the recommendation that it’s taken us a full week to even understand as much as we do. And while many of the proposed changes sound good at first, there is some serious room for error in how they are implemented.

Not so independent assessments

Posted September 4, 2020

This raises a question – if the assessors are hired through an NDIA tender, are they really independent? Presumably they will want to win the tender again, maybe they will be not so independent after all.

Government response to the NDIS Act review

Posted September 3, 2020

The Australian Government welcomes the 2019 review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (the NDIS Act) report completed by Mr David Tune AO PSM. The Report contains 29 recommendations to improve the experience of participants with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and support the introduction of the Participant Service Guarantee.

Singing to the same tune: Government backs Tune Review recommendations

Posted September 3, 2020

The government’s decision to support all of the recommendations in the Tune Review has been labelled a “step in the right direction” for the National Disability Insurance Scheme by advocates, who hope the reforms will make the scheme quicker and easier to navigate.

Conflict of interest & Support Coordination: The devil in the detail

Posted September 3, 2020

The Support Coordination Discussion Paper is asking the sector to respond to a question that has long circulated the NDIS: should providers be allowed to deliver Support Coordination and direct supports to the same people? This is a question the NDIA is being forced to turn its attention to.