Joint Standing Committee Report on the NDIS Transitional Arrangements

The Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Transitional arrangements for the NDIS released their report February 2018. This report explored the challenges facing the transition scheme in the NDIS. Specifically the report’s Executive Summary under the heading: The rollout of the Information Linkages and Capacity Building Program (ILC) states: “The ILC is still in its infancy and has not yet started in all jurisdictions. However, the committee heard that insufficient funding has been allocated to the ILC program during the transition period. The committee is concerned that the current grant funding approach for ILC activities may result in service gaps for some essential services and has potential to disadvantage some cohorts because of their type of disability or geographical location.” Further under the Heading ‘Service Gaps’, the report states the following: “The committee heard that the transition to a market based system combined with the transition of Commonwealth, state and territory programs have resulted in emerging service gaps in important areas, including advocacy, assertive outreach and support co-ordination.” The NSW Government is de-funding their information and advocacy funding for organisations in NSW which have the function of giving citizens independent information services outside the participants’ packages. These services, which explain the scheme and how to access it will finish in June 2018, a full 18 months prior to the full transition into the scheme. This action will particularly affect people from rural and regional areas, people in areas with thin markets, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and people from CALD backgrounds. These services also have vital advocacy and problem solving roles to play for citizens as they navigate the interface with mainstream services in the state including health, education, transport, accommodation, and justice. IDEAS is one such service that is based in Tumut NSW. Established in 1984 it has been serving residents with free accurate independent information and advocacy for 34 years. The IDEAS service is one that offers a trusted source for people of any age and any disability type to make an enquiry and have it answered with accuracy and independence. IDEAS made a submission to the joint standing committee process reported above. There they pointed out as they had done repeatedly that the pillar of the ILC and its role in holding up the house of the NDIS is weak, due to its lateness, it’s underfunding, and its program based on competitive project based grants. IDEAS is a support in the community who have provided a continuous service to people in NSW at a standard of operation which enjoys the International Quality Assurance mark of ISO2001:9008. People with disability need information services to make their sovereign choices for a good ordinary life. They need independent information away from vendors in the marketplace to secure good contracts for themselves. They need information services to inform self-advocacy for themselves and those they love. In NSW in September 2017, 58,367 people had transitioned into the scheme compared to the bi-lateral estimate for the same period targeting 72,483. The estimated total number of NSW citizens who will transition to the scheme will be around 150,000 persons by 2020. The State’s decision to axe funding to IDEAS and other information and advocacy organisations leaves around 92,000 people identified as NDIS participants without their supports necessary to get into the scheme, understand it and exercise and enact their plans and support packages. Politicians should remember that only ten per cent of people with disability will receive a funded package from the NDIS. Therefore the other tens of thousands of people who live with disability and who have to navigate support systems outside the NDIS will have nowhere to go to get the information, advocacy and support they need to make their own good life wherever they live. Their navigation of intersecting with mainstream provision of health, education, transport, employment, community inclusion and justice are at risk without IDEAS and other advocacy organisations being part of community supports in an inclusive state.