Australian Government response to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme interim report: NDIS Planning

The Australian Government welcomes the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s interim report (the Report) on the Inquiry into National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Planning.

The Report contains 14 recommendations to the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). The recommendations cover a number of areas, including:

• ways to engage and involve participants more in the planning process;
• adopting more standardised timeframes and approaches to planning, which may require legislative change;
• greater transparency of the outcomes of planning reviews and appeals;
• enhanced training of NDIA staff to support the planning processes;
• approaches to better support specific cohorts through the planning process such as those likely to benefit from early intervention, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and those with complex needs; and
• more uniform approaches to the terminology and explanation used across resources, processes and tools delivered by the NDIA.

The Government is committed to working closely with people with disability, their families and carers, in order to ensure the NDIS delivers a quality service. While the NDIA has undertaken a significant program of work to improve the support offered to participants through planning processes, the Government also commissioned the recent Review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (NDIS Act), undertaken by Mr David Tune AO PSM, to consider further legislative and operational amendments that would enhance the participant experience and introduce a new Participant Service Guarantee from 1 July 2020.

The Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Hon Stuart Robert MP, made announcements about the Australian Government’s future work program for the NDIA at a speech to the National Press Club on 14 November 2019.

Recognising that many of these improvements are still in progress, and are likely to address the concerns raised by the Joint Standing Committee, the Government supports seven recommendations, supports five recommendations in principle, and notes two. The Government recognises that the Joint Standing Committee intends to release a final report during 2020 and welcomes any further recommendations arising from that report.