FOI 23/24-1232 DOCUMENT 1

SOP - Level 4 High Decision Delegate

The High Decision Delegate (HDD) Team are a specialised unit created to administer the majority of Level 4 higher delegate decisions and approvals as determined by the current Instrument of Delegation (IoD).

1. Recent updates

We have introduced a mandatory referral process to support HDD to focus on higher risk Del4 approvals. By recruiting the support of the network of Level 4 Delegates across various business areas we can target our actions to ensure each delegate group is focusing on their respective strengths.

Date	What’s changed
February 2023	Addition of mandatory referral criteria to support a risk based approach.
July 2022	Changes to accommodate separation of Del 4 and Del 5 Process. See SOP Level 5 delegate approval
November 2023	Removed the CSN exclusion to the mandatory referral criteria.

2. Checklist

• Prerequisites: The plan has progressed through pre-planning and plan build stages. The planner delegate has identified that the plan requires higher delegation (Delegation 4) to approve. All Technical Advisory Branch (TAB), Home and Living (HAL), Supported Independent Living (SIL) advice has been finalised and recorded.
• Actions: Preliminary endorsement is sought from the Planner Delegate’s Team Leader or Senior Delegate (APS6). Senior Delegates (APS6) can endorse their own plans and do not require a second level quality check. The Team Leader or Senior Planner endorses the plan by adding the relevant workflow identifier (WFI) and workflows the plan based on reference to the mandatory referral criteria.

The Planner Delegate then either:

• Submits the plan to the WLM cloud for prioritisation and allocation to a High Decision Delegate (HDD) for review for all mandatory referrals.

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Workflows to local Level 4 delegate for all other non-mandatory items as per local directions.

Topic Checklist

Topic	Checklist
Pre-requisites	✅ Pre-planning has been completed for the participant
	✅ The plan build has been completed for the participant
	✅ Any TAB, HAL, SIL advice has been sought and finalised
	✅ Planner delegate has conducted an initial quality check of draft plan
Actions	✅ Team Leader/Senior Planner reviews the plan for APS4/5 Planner Delegate and endorses the plan
	✅ The Team Leader/Senior Planner identifies if the work item meets the mandatory referral criteria.
	✅ Team Leader/Senior Planner (APS6) workflows the work item to one of the following parties based on the mandatory referral criteria.
	◦ HDD team for mandatory referrals
	◦ Local Level 4 Delegate for other work items

Either:

• 3.1 Obtain Endorsement for a plan requiring HDD to review
• 3.2 Submiting the application to the HDD Team
• 3.3 HDD Review the Plan
• 3.4 Plan Progressed

Or:

• 3.5 Remediation Required — Endorsing Delegate Actions Required
• 3.6 Escalation Request

3. Procedure

3.1 Obtain endorsement for a plan requiring HDD to review.

3.1.1 Complete the plan build and initial quality check

The planner delegate will ensure the plan has the required justifications and evidence as per SOP - Review and submit a plan for approval.

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3.1.2 Assign the interaction to Team Leader/Senior Planner for plan endorsement.

The planner delegate will utilise the ‘Plan Submitted for Approval’ interaction from Interaction Templates – Planning and assign it to the Senior Planner/Team Leader (according to your local process) for endorsement of the Del4 plan.

3.1.3 Review and endorse plan

The Team Leader or Senior Planner will review the plan as a preliminary quality check. If the plan is endorsed, the Team Leader or Senior Planner will;

• Complete part 16 of the ‘Plan Submitted for Approval’ interaction from the Interaction Templates – Planning.

Note: The interaction should not be assigned to SDS SDSA RFA (unless it is assigned as part of an escalation) as per 3.6 Escalation Request.

3.1.4 Determine workflow of the work item based on mandatory referral criteria

The Team Leader or Senior Planner will check if the work item meets the mandatory referral criteria prior to workflowing the plan.

All mandatory referral work items must be sent through to HDD. These include –

• All first plans;
• All unscheduled reviews;
• Scheduled reassessments where plans increase greater than 20% annualised plan value;

If the work item is a mandatory referral, the Endorsing Team Leader or Senior Planner will then inform the Planner Delegate that the plan is endorsed and ready for submission to HDD. Progress to 3.2 Submitting the application to the HDD Team.

All items outside of the defined mandatory referral criteria may be actioned by the local Level 4 Delegate to support a timely approval. Please follow the local process to escalate to the appropriate delegate.

Note - the mandatory referral process does not negate the escalation process under 3.6 Escalation Request when high risk scenarios arise.

Note – the variance calculator will assist with identifying scheduled reassessment plans with an annualised increase of more than 20%, and therefore requiring HDD approval.

3.2 Submitting the application to the HDD team

Submit the plan through WLM

For work items deemed to be mandatory referrals from 3.1.4, Prior to the plan being submitted via the ‘Planning’ tab in the participant pathway, ensure that you have -

• i. completed your interactions,

• ii. attached the ‘Plan Endorsed’ workflow identifier (WFI) in the participant’s details tab with an end date 1 month from the date of endorsement / valid from date and end date any unnecessary WFIs

• iii. remove any sub status’ from the plan application.

Planner delegate will select ‘Review and Submit Draft Plan’ include the appropriate justifications and ‘Submit’ at the bottom. This will change the application status to ‘Submitted for Approval’. If the plan has previously been submitted to WLM, this option may not be available, and instead it can be unassigned to return to the work pool (see WLM Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ))

3.3 HDD review the plan

A High Decision Delegate (HDD) retrieves work

The HDD will retrieve work from the CRM home screen, selecting My Inbox

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The My NDIS Inbox Displays. Select ‘Ready for Work’ click this once to obtain a Delegation 4 plan application awaiting review and approval.

A plan application will appear at the top of the HDD’s inbox for the HDD to review the plan resulting in either outcome:

• Progression to approval, or
• Remediation required

3.4 Plan Progressed

The HDD will follow the SOP - Finalise and Approve Plan (3.12.1) to approve the plan once the quality check has passed. The HDD will include the following content to the existing ‘Plan submitted for approval’ interaction:

• Plan Approved by [Login Code] on the XXDateXX
• Status: Completed

The HDD will then create and assign a ‘Plan approved and ready for implementation ’ interaction from InteractionTemplates Planning.docx (ndia.gov.au) to the Planner Delegate for plan implementation. Once the Interaction has been completed, the Planner Delegate will be notified of the plan approval. The HDD may also then email the Planner Delegate to inform that the plan has been approved and is ready for implementation.

3.5 Remediation Required

The HDD will make contact with the Endorsing Delegate and Planner Delegate if further clarification or remediation to the plan is required prior to plan approval. This contact will

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occur to facilitate remediation by the Planner Delegate and allow for additional support to be provided in the decision making process.

The HDD will provide an email to the Endorsing Delegate and Planner Delegate with feedback, noting what changes are required and what considerations have been made.

The HDD will document the required remediation action in the original ‘Plan Submitted for Approval’ interaction and assign the interaction to the endorsing delegate.

• Level 4 plan approval in progress – by HDD [Login Code]. Request for more information.
• Email to Endorsing Delegate and Planner Delegate on XXDateXX to request clarification/further information:
• 1.XXXXX
• 2.XXXXX
• Awaiting response before finalising approval. Plan reassigned to Planner Delegate for follow up of required remediation.

In the rare instance whereby the plan submitted for approval requires extensive emediation and does not meet reasonable and necessary criteria, the HDD can advise the Endorsing Delegate and Planner Delegate that the plan application may suit rejection. The HDD will provide explanation why, and advice on resubmitting the plan application with further information, consideration and justifications.

Before the plan is rejected, the HDD will either provide sufficient time for the Planner Delegate to save a copy of the submitted justifications, or the HDD will save and email a copy of the justifications to the Planner Delegate, to ensure that these are not lost when the plan is rejected.

The HDD will then reject the plan in CRM, and assign the plan application back to the Endorsing Delegate for remediation.

Remediation required – endorsing delegate actions required

Once the Planner Delegate has actioned the required changes and remediation at their earliest convenience, they will reply to the email advising this has been completed and can manually assign the plan application back to the HDD’s CRM Inbox.

The HDD will review and discuss with the Endorsing Delegate if further action is required. This is to be documented in the Plan Submitted for Approval Interaction and manually reassigned to the HDD for action.

The HDD will then review amendments and approve the plan once satisfied quality checks have passed.

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Escalation Request

A Delegation 4 plan approval escalation can be made by the business area’s Assistant Director (EL1) where they believe the plan meets the ‘medium’, ‘high’ or ‘extreme’ criteria set out in the Escalation Prioritisation Matrix. Escalations are initiated by assigning an interaction detailing how the prioritisation criteria are met and are assigned to the SDS SDSA RFA inbox with the status ‘Open’. Note: The plan application does not need to be reassigned to SDS SDSA RFA only the open interaction. These escalations are triaged by the HDD team and actioned accordingly. Where escalation requests are denied, the decision will be communicated within the open interaction and returned to the requestor.

SDA and ATHM Approvals

For any quotes (including SDA or AT/HM/VM) that require Delegation Level 4, local delegates can assign the open interaction to the SDS SDSA RFA inbox so this can be allocated to a HDD for review and approval. Please refer to SOP_ConsiderActionQuotes.docx (ndia.gov.au) for support in progressing quotes. For Del 5 quotes refer to SOP_Level 5 delegate approval

Related procedures or resources

Related materials or procedures that may be used alongside this SOP include: • SOP - Review and submit a plan for approval • Interaction Templates – Planning • Interaction templates - Implementation • SOP - Finalise and Approve Plan • Escalation Prioritisation Matrix

Feedback

If you have any feedback about this Standard Operating Procedure, please email the Assistant Director listed under contacts on the HDD intranet page. In your email remember to include the title of the product you are referring to and describe your suggestion or issue concisely.

Version control

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Version History

Version	Amended by	Brief Description of Change	Status	Date
1.0	JIF358	Approved with minor wording change	Approved	2022-02-15
1.1	BWN579	Changes to wording, numbering and key workflow procedures	Approved	2022-03-07
1.2	BWN579	Added additional step to 3.2 to remove sub status from system, prior to submitting Review and Submit Draft Plan	Approved	2022-03-31
2.0	CBO0064	Separation of Del 4 and Del 5 SOP	Approved	2022-07-07
3.0	CB0064	Introduction of mandatory referral criteria	Approved	2023-03-17
3.1	JTL728	Removed the CSN exclusion to the mandatory referral criteria	Approved	2023-11-14

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