NDIA Accountability Project

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Principles we follow to create your plan’

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FOI 20/21-0659 DOCUMENT 1

Background only – for verbal distribution only. Document strictly not for external distribution. Principles we follow to create your plan’

Background

‘Principles we follow to create your plan’ is a guide all frontline staff should use when creating a plan for a participant.

The principles clarify what planners and frontline staff should consider when creating a plan. The principles are part of an Agency wide program to make planning and funding decisions more consistent.

Key messages

Frontline staff

  • We have released a new document: ‘Principles we follow to create your plan’.
  • The document is a summary of seven principles that should be applied every time staff create a participant’s plan.
  • ‘Principles we follow to create your plan’ will be included in relevant NDIA Operational Guidelines.
  • Staff should refer to ‘Principles we follow to create your plan’ when they create or review a plan.
  • ‘Principles we follow to create your plan’ will help staff use the CEO Direction.
  • These principles help make sure participants get the reasonable and necessary supports they need.
  • These principles gives staff greater clarity around how to make a decision about funding supports for participants.
  • These principles help ensure the Scheme is financially sustainable.
  • At the moment the costs of the Scheme are increasing at a much higher rate than expected because we’ve been building budgets based on inconsistent information and decision-making.
  • We are responsible for making sure participants continue to receive the reasonable and necessary supports they need. We also need to make sure the Scheme grows sustainably so all Australians can have confidence it will be there for them if and when they need it over their lifetime.
  • These principles are part of our commitment in the Participant Service Charter to provide more clarity around how we make decisions, and to be transparent in our decision making.
  • ‘Principles we use to create your plan’ will be released externally on 12 April 2021.
  • Frontline staff will receive support to understand and implement these principles in their day-to-day work.

Q and As

What are the principles? There are seven principles:

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FOI 20/21-0659

 Fair for everyone, both today and for future generations  Fair funding to pursue your goals  Evidence-based best practice  Fair early investments  Fair support across service systems  Fair supports for your disability needs  Fair assistance from multiple programs

Are these new principles? No, the principles are founded on existing information in the NDIS Act, 2013.

Do we have to follow these principles? These principles support the CEO Direction. ‘Principles we follow to create your plan’ address two key elements from the CEO Direction:

 Strengthening the link between our decisions and the NDIS Act, 2013
 Improved guidance to support out decision making and work with participants

Are the principles available externally? Yes. The principles will be published on Our Guidelines website (external) on 12 April 2021.

Can I show these principles to participants, families and carers? After 12 April 2021, you can share this document with external audiences.

Is this part of the Sustainability Action Taskforce? Yes, this is the first action launched by the Sustainability Action Taskforce.

Is this different from Scheme Reform? Yes. The principles are part of the Agency’s response to managing Scheme sustainability through short term, immediate changes. The Scheme Reform program is intended to make changes in the medium term, including:

 Introduce Independent Assessments (IAs) to ensure more consistent and equitable access and plan budget decisions
 Change legislation to make reasonable and necessary (R&N) decision on a package of supports, rather than series of decisions on each individual support
 Introduce greater plan flexibility to enable participants to exercise more choice and control in how they spend their package of supports

What is the Sustainability Action Taskforce? A significant part of Scheme sustainability is staying within our allocated budget, consistent with the agreements between the Commonwealth and States and Territories that caps their funding increase at 4 per cent per annum.

The total budget allocated for Participant / Scheme expenditure is growing at 23 per cent per annum on average between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 financial years. This is almost 6 times the capped 4 per cent per annum rate. Despite this high growth rate in budget allocations, the Scheme is forecast to have a cost overrun in the 2021-22 financial year. This forecast overrun comes on top of the scheduled increase in annual budget allocations.

The Sustainability Action Taskforce (SAT) has been set up to identify and deliver the immediate actions we need to take to avoid this forecast overrun for the 2021-22 financial year. The work of

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the SAT is to do our statutory job to run the Scheme on a sustainable trajectory. We need to act now to ensure we can deliver a better NDIS: a better experience for participants and a Scheme available for all Australians now and in the future.

The actions of the SAT will make immediate changes to slow growth in participant numbers, slow growth in spend per participant and strengthen operational discipline, in accordance with the requirements of the NDIS Act and Rules.

Further information

For further information on sustainability and Scheme reform, please visit the Scheme Reform intranet hub.