Minutes of the Independent Advisory Council to the NDIS
Meeting 6 — 4 February 1.30pm to 4.45pm, hosted on MS Teams
Members
Ms Robyn Kruk AO (Principal Member) Ms Leah van Poppel (Deputy Chair) Ms Sylvana Mahmic Mr James Manders Mrs Judy Huett Ms Jennifer Cullen Ms Liz Reid AM Ms Sam Paior Mr Mark Tonga Ms Sharon Boyce Ms Tricia Malowney OAM Dr Leighton Jay
Expert Adviser
Dr Ben Gauntlett, Disability Discrimination Commissioner
NDIA Representatives
Mr Martin Hoffman, Chief Executive Officer Mr Oliver Bladek, Deputy CEO, Design, Digital and Strategy Ms Sarah Johnson, Scheme Actuary Dr Sam General Manager, Policy, Advice and Research Gerry = Mental Health and Psychosocial Disability Mr Trent™” ™ Branch Manager, Agency Policy Ms Alex ™‘’‘’‘’’ Director, Participant Experience Improvement Ms Fiona” ~~ Director, Independent Advisory Council Ms Marina” “~ Assistant Director, Independent Advisory Council Ms Lirije “‘’
1. Principal Member’s Welcome and Open
1.1. Principal Member’s welcome
The Principal Member opened the meeting at 1.34pm.
The Principal Member acknowledged the Traditional Owners of the lands on which Members, Expert Adviser and attendees were meeting.
The Principal Member noted apologies from Ms Allan-Zinner, who was unable to attend the meeting.
The Principal Member highlighted the ongoing work of Independent Assessment subgroup and noted the minutes from the last meeting are available in the Resource Centre on Diligent.
The Principal Member advised that the Agency will seek feedback from Council relating to the NDIA Corporate Plan 2021-2025 out of session.
1.2. Minutes, matters arising and declarations of interest
Council noted the updated register of conflicts of interest circulated in advance of the meeting.
s47F- personal privacy
Council approved the minutes from the meeting held on 11 December 2020 and noted the matters arising.
1.3. CEO Update
Mr Hoffman thanked members for their ongoing work, noting it has been a busy start to 2021. Mr Hoffman updated Council on the important Scheme reform work including consultations on Independent Assessments (decisions for access, planning and exits), upcoming legislative reform and budgetary reform.
Mr Hoffman highlighted Scheme sustainability remains a huge challenge for the Agency, noting the need to balance its responsibilities under the Act to administer the Scheme and the needs of the community.
2. Council Reports
2.1. Members and Expert Adviser: Reports ‘from the ground’
Council Members raised a number of issues related to the NDIS, including:
- Independent Assessments (IAs) — lack of understanding, participant anxiety relating to plan budget and lack of information for families of children in the ECEI Pathway.
- Need to develop a new NDIS Rural and Remote Strategy, which ceased in 2019.
- Lack of advocacy for people with disability having their children removed, regardless of any supports to help them with parenting goals. Need action at the interface.
National Disability Insurance Agency
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Independent Advisory Council
- Inconsistencies in plans for people who self-build SDA. Project management fee included in some plans but unclear about practice guidance on this.
- Disability workforce shortages, aggravated with visa restrictions due to COVID-19.
The Council queried the project management fee in plans of participants who undertake SDA self-builds and requested further information on where and how to use this item.
ACTION 1: Question on notice from Ms Paior “Some people when they are getting SDA approved and are self-building, they are getting a project management fee put into their plans, but we can’t find that anywhere in any operational guideline.
We don’t understand where it is coming from, or where or how it is supposed / allowed to be used. I would really appreciate some guidance from the Agency on what that is all about please.”
2.2. Formal Advice Update
The Principal Member confirmed the Council’s formal advice on Local Area Coordination (LAC) and the Agency response will be presented at the February Board meeting.
Ms [redacted] provided a brief overview of Council’s advice on participant safety, which aims to help participants, their families, and carers develop personal safeguards to enable them to live a full life safely, through active citizenship and belonging to community. Ms [redacted] thanked members for taking the time to provide valuable input.
Ms [redacted] will further refine Council’s advice and recirculate the paper for final endorsement, for submission to the Board in April 2021.
3. Independent Assessments
3.1. Independent Assessment Consultation and personalised budgets ‘deep dive’
Ms Johnson provided Council with information on the Personalised Budget Tool (PBT), which is a new budget model to assist the Agency with Scheme reforms.
The Council raised concerns around the potential for unconscious bias, and queried whether there will be an element of weighting in funding decisions that will consider all the variables. Ms Johnson advised there will be some weighting for example with age or with self-care needs to ensure a fair and equitable Scheme for all participants. Additionally, there will be significant training of staff and quality assurance protocols in place to reduce the risk of any bias.
The other concerns raised included:
- Importance of a ‘cooling-off period, and ability to review the results of the IA, since they are linked to the PBT.
- Future considerations should the IA and PBT not help contain Scheme costs.
- Need to promote innovation, while ensuring critical needs are covered.
- Need to develop a culturally sensitive approach to IA.
Dr. [redacted] provided an overview of the public consultation work of the Agency to date, including:
Psychosocial Disability
• Submissions on the IA consultation papers. • NDIS Act review with Department of Social Services, which is due March 2021. • Considerations for participants with complex support needs. • Enhancing the Agency’s approach to support for decision making, and home and living supports. • Quality assurance framework for IA. • Workforce challenges.
Dr noted that the aim of the consultations is to understand how IA can work for participants, but also increase sector confidence in the Scheme Reforms
ACTION 2: Ms Johnson to attend a future meeting to share information on the Outcomes framework with Council.
4.1. NDIS approach to psychosocial disability
Mr provided an update on the Agency’s progress on psychosocial disability.
Dr was pleased to announce that Council’s recommendations about the episodic nature of mental health, and focus on psychosocial disability, rather than the psychiatric condition, will be built into the legislation and rules.
Council was pleased with the progress achieved, and acknowledge that there is still work to be done.
Some of the issues highlighted by Members included:
• The ongoing increase in mental health issues linked to youth and adolescents, noting availability of child psychologists in certain local government areas. • Mental health workforce challenges and shortages. • Intersectionality issues, and how to ensure people with psychosocial disability as a secondary disability still have their needs met. • Need to develop recovery practice that is culturally sensitive. • Clarification between Support Coordinator and Recovery Coach roles. • Importance of building linkages between the Agency and justice liaison officers in the criminal justice system.
ACTION 3: Mr to provide further information on the Agency’s approach on ensuring a strong link between the NDIS and justice liaison officers in the criminal justice system.
5. Meeting close
5.1. Other Business
The Principal Member advised Members the Reference Groups are now finalised, with brief induction meetings occurring next week and the first official meetings planned for May. The Principal Member highlighted to Council the membership was diverse with strong representation of people with disabilities and thanked Ms Van Poppel, Dr Jay, Ms Cullen and Ms Mahmic for accepting their positions as co-chairs.
The Principal Member noted the Secretariat team is planning a Roadshow to raise awareness of Council and its function within the NDIA as part of Council’s Communications Strategy. The Principal Member said videos were developed as part of the roadshow and thanked those members who participated.
Ms Cullen and Ms Reid provided a brief update on their work on trauma-informed practice , led by The Blue Knot Foundation in collaboration with DSS. The work should be finalised by June 2021, and will be presented to Council.
5.2. Next Meeting
The next meeting is scheduled 19 March 2021 from 1.30pm-4.30pm. The Minister will be in attendance.