DIA statement on the Governments response to the Disability Royal Commission
DIA urgently calls on Government to increase Support Coordination pricing after it Fully Accepts Disability Royal Commission Recommendation to fund Support Coordination Adequately.
Yesterday 31/07/2024, the Federal, State, and Territory governments released their overdue response to the Disability Royal Commission, which meticulously investigated systemic failures and abuses within the disability sector from 2019 to 2023. The Royal Commission’s findings included stark revelations of exploitation, abuse, neglect and worse faced by people with disabilities across all areas affecting their lives. The Royal Commission noted that Quality Support Coordinators and Plan Managers are the glue holding the NDIS together. The 222 recommendations were aimed at overhauling these systems to ensure safer, more equitable support and to ensure people with a disability are free from abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Disability Intermediaries Australia (DIA) welcomes the Government’s decision to accept or accept in principle all recommendations associated with Support Coordination. However, despite this significant acceptance, the Government has not provided the funding required to ensure that can delivery on their Support Coordination commitments in this year’s NDIA Annual Price Review.
Key Concerns:
10.3 Adequate Support Coordination – Fully Accepted
Although the recommendation to fund Support Coordination adequately has been fully accepted, just four weeks ago the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) made a decision to cut the price, in real terms, for Support Coordination through its continuing half decade long price freeze. Support coordinators can’t deliver quality and safe services for the hourly rates which haven’t kept pace with inflation over the last 5 years and providers are preparing to close their doors and cease services. Our recent survey shows that over the next 12 months over 93,000 vulnerable participants are likely to lose their support coordinator due to service closures. The NDIA’s unsustainable pricing is causing participants to lose one of the supports they trust to help them understand and work within an increasingly complex and adversarial NDIS.
DIA and Support Coordinators across Australia are deeply offended that Government’s disingenuous and perfidious response referring to the NDIA’s ‘Improving Support Coordination for NDIS Participants Report’ which was published almost three years ago, in 2021, pre-dating the Disability Royal Commission’s line of inquiry that resulted in these Recommendations. Further the report NDIA’s ‘Improving Support Coordination for NDIS Participants Report’ is riddled with errors and has proven to be extremely ineffective at best.
The disconnect between the Royal Commission response and the NDIA’s annual price review is staggering.
10.2: Independent Support Coordination – Accepted in Principle
This Disability Royal Commission follows 14 prior reviews, studies, inquiries, investigations and audits that have all recommended independence of service, with limited exclusions, for Intermediary Service including Support Coordination.
Poorly managed conflict of interest is the heart of many of the ills facing the NDIS currently, and the soft-handed approach of the last ten years has seen many vulnerable people suffer genuine and preventable abuse. For the Governments response to state “Governments will work together with people with disability, their families, carers, representative organisations, First Nations Community Controlled Organisations and peak bodies to consider the most appropriate approach to preventing conflicts of interest in support coordination” shows the continued disregard and lack of market stewardship from the NDIA and NDIS Commission on this matter.
10.4 Quality of Support Coordination – Accepted in Principle
The NDIS Commission completed stage one of its Own Motion Inquiry (OMI) into Support Coordination and Plan Management in August 2023. Stage one of the OMI was extremely rushed to be completed prior to the conclusion of the Royal Commission.
It included deeply flawed data, did not include meaningful engagement with the stakeholders or the sector and regurgitate many basic statistics from NDIA Quarterly Reports. DIA notes that much of this work and the data presented is now out of date and in parts irrelevant given NDIA systems and operational changes. 12 months on there has been no engagement with the sector around Stage 2 despite repeated requests for information and update.
On the Governments response to the Disability Royal Commission, DIA CEO Mr Jess Harper said:
“The Governments Response to the Disability Royal Commission doesn’t align with the current NDIS Participant experience. The Government claims to accept the importance of Support Coordination but won’t provide adequate funds to support it. Every day DIA sees examples of Support Coordination funding in vulnerable NDIS Participants being arbitrarily cut or just completely removed resulting in reduced access and support to live a good life free and being forced back to an NDIA chosen poorly trained, low skilled and expensive Local Area Coordinator (LAC).
Last month’s NDIA Annual Price Review was a real kick in the guts for our sector and People with a Disability. Support Coordinators prices have been frozen for half a decade no increases, no CPI, nothing. This is 5 long years of cuts in real terms and far from reasonable or adequate funding for Support Coordinators. The government response to the Royal Commission’s recommendations is at odds with current practice and policy of the NDIA with no clear plan or funding to ensure quality support coordination for the most vulnerable in our community.”
Mr Jess Harper
Chief Executive Officer
Disability Intermediaries Australia
DIA, like many in the disability community, are disheartened, frustrated and angry by the Government’s response, which has been over 10 months in the making. The language used and references made to work previously conducted and currently on hold smacks of minimum possible responses rather than uplifting watershed outcomes that are expected from Royal Commissions. The Governments response comes at a time when:
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- Participants are having their NDIS Plans slashed after a “check in” conducted by the NDIA,
- The most vulnerable and at-risk Participants are being left at hospital because there’s no funding left, and
- Carers and loved ones of people with disability feel genuine despair and hopelessness about the future for the people they love.
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DIA calls on the NDIS Minister, The Hon. Bill Shorten, and Government to immediately increase the price of Support Coordination Levels 2 and 3 to ensure further quality service provision and skilled practitioners are not driven out of the market. Adequate pricing is critical to enabling support coordinators to deliver high-quality services to navigate the complexities of the NDIS and community and mainstream services.
DIA has always maintained an approach of wanting to work with Government to achieve the best possible outcomes for People with a Disability. DIA has an open meeting request with the NDIS Minister.
Media Requests
To arrange an interview with or comment from DIA please contact:
DIA Chief Executive Officer
Mr Jess Harper – 0421 244 824, or
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