Changes are being made to the NDIS to bring down its annual growth rate, improve equity in the scheme and preserve its social license. According to this masthead’s Resolve poll, the same proportion of Australians – 27 per cent – think the scheme is too expensive and should be cut back, as those who think it needs more funding and should grow to serve more people.
Twenty-three per cent of people said the scheme was essential and should be maintained and its current level, while another 23 per cent were unsure.
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The new assessment framework Labor is pursuing has drawn parallels with the Morrison government’s attempt to introduce “independent assessments”.
The former Coalition government similarly argued that people with disabilities had been forced to spend money collecting reports, leading to inconsistent outcomes based on where someone lived or their access to professionals. Those independent assessments were also intended to be free, and take about three hours, to streamline the process.
But the plan was vehemently rejected by the disability community, Greens and the then-Labor opposition.
Former NDIA chief executive Rebecca Falkingham, who left her post this year, told Senate estimates in February that allied health professionals should be freed up to deliver services rather than write reports.
“To be really frank about it, my [agency] staff can’t read the 280-page reports that they get. They can’t do that in a dedicated kind of way. What we are moving towards is a streamlined support needs assessment tool. It negates the need for all of those reports,” she said.
Former Coalition NDIS Minister Linda Reynolds put to her that the government was now “embracing” independent assessments. “A lot of these problems that you are now encountering are because of there being a lot of resistance over many years,” she said.
But Falkingham said there were differences between the approaches. “The support needs assessment will be done with people with disability,” she said.
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“They’ll be actively involved in that assessment process, they’ll be actively involved in understanding the budget, and they’ll be actively involved in the implementation of that plan. Once that budget is produced, there will be opportunities for people to have a review right.”
The University of Melbourne and Centre for Disability Studies will work with the agency to modify the assessment tool over five years, so it is fit for purpose for the NDIS.
University of Melbourne professor of mental health system reform, Jason Thompson, said they wanted to “develop an assessment process that is grounded in evidence and lived experience and will uphold values of validity, fairness and transparency”.
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