Quality Support Coordinators and Plan Managers are the glue holding the NDIS together. Disability Intermediaries Australia (DIA) is aware of the media release by the NDIS Minister and resultant story in the Australian titled “$2bn NDIS ‘top up’ payments in one year for just 25,000 participants” on 24 May 2024, as well as the subsequent joint letters the NDIA and the NDIS Commission dispatched to Plan Managers and Support Coordinators. These suggest that the current delays in NDIA processing and service standards, and growth in the cost of the NDIS are caused or facilitated by Support Coordinators and Plan Managers. This assertion is NOT correct.

Since 2019 DIA has been raising concerns to the NDIA and NDIS Commission about the stewardship of the scheme and advocating for higher levels of accreditation and standards for Support Coordinators and Plan Managers that put the participant at the heart of the services being delivered.

In 2021 DIA published Professional Standards of Practice for our members. These standards fill the gap left by the NDIA and NDIS Commission’s lack of clarity of our members responsibilities. DIA provided these to the NDIA and the NDIS Commission ahead of their release, and recommended their establishment into policy, which was ignored.

DIA has no tolerance for scammers or rogue operators. Quality Plan Managers and Support Coordinators that represent the best interests of participants should not need to compete with these allegedly criminals.  These alleged criminals must be investigated, prosecuted and, if found guilty, barred from the NDIS and working with vulnerable people in any capacity. The NDIA and NDIS Commission know who they are concerned about, they must shut them down quickly. The continued favouring of headline grabbing broadcast messaging over setting accurate market policy is distracting and counterproductive.

DIA Chief Executive Officer, Mr Jess Harper said:

“All of the reported 343 claimed criminals completed a registration process administered by the NDIS Commission, they approved them and the NDIA controls their ongoing access to scheme funds.  DIA questions how the NDIS regulator approved the registration of these alleged fraudsters and why it has taken so long to take action.

These alleged scammers and criminals have been allowed to operate seemingly uninterrupted until now; the NDIA and NDIS Commission must get on with it and shut these dodgy organisations down.”

Since its establishment, DIA has repeatedly called on the NDIA and the NDIS Commission to adequately regulate the sector and close the conflict-of-interest loopholes by implementing accreditation and independence of intermediaries from service provisions. The NDIA and NDIS Commission have ignored this advice repeatedly.  Instead, they create an opaque operational guidelines and vague communications.

There are amazing people providing Support Coordination and Plan Management services that are past the point of exhaustion and incurring financial losses to continue to support participants. Quality Support Coordinators and Plan Managers are the glue holding the NDIS together. The Australian article and subsequent letters from the NDIA and NDIS Commission are clumsy, contradictory and create unnecessary anxiety and concern for participants, quality Support Coordinators and Plan Managers.

NDIS Review Panel Member, DIA Member and Executive Director of Community Connections  & My Choice My Support Mr Dougie Herd said:

“No one wants cowboys out of the NDIS more than good providers. We do high quality work that’s audited, compliance checked and examined by both the NDIA and the NDIS Commission with whom we are registered. The problem with the NDIA CEO and NDIS Commissioner’s letter is that the cowboys don’t care. But the rest of us … who care deeply, have been tarred with the same brush. An entire sector has been devalued and demoralised by one ill-considered communication that will not even make a practical difference to eradicating fraud or bad practice.”

For well over a year Support Coordinators have been advised by frontline NDIA staff to support participants to use their funds flexibly and wait till funds are nearly exhausted before lodging a Change of Circumstances. This advice, combined with the exponential growth in NDIA instigated plan rollovers/extensions and the implementation of the bug riddled new PACE software, has created the excessive NDIA Access and Planning backlogs that NDIS participants currently experiencing.

Intra-plan inflation is complex and should not be boiled down to simple ‘miss-management’ and the fault of intermediaries, particularly given the review and approval roles the NDIA plays in all Change of Circumstance requests. Quality Support Coordinators are not telling participants to just overspend their plans, with the NDIA have providing little evidence to support these claims.

DIA calls on the Minister for the NDIS, the NDIS and government stakeholders to work in partnership with DIA to improve participant experience, choice and control and self-determination by strengthening the quality of Support Coordinators and Plan Managers.

We have prepared a report to help unpack the inconsistencies the NDIA communications have created for quality Support Coordinators and Plan Managers, click here to read our full response.

DIA is the peak body for Plan Managers and Support Coordinators providing advice, representation and standards to more than 1200 members, servicing more than half of all NDIS Supports. DIA was formed in 2018 in recognition of the need to establish consistency and quality in a fast growing and largely unregulated market.

Media Requests
To arrange an interview with or comment from DIA please contaxt:

Chief Executive Officer, Mr Jess Harper – 0421 244 824 or

media@intermediaries.org.au

 

 

DIA is a members-based organisation. We are only able to do the work that we do because of the ongoing support of our members. Thank you to all DIA members that continue to support the work we do. If you’re a provider delivering Support Coordination or Plan Management are not yet a member, you should consider joining. Click here to join from our homepage.