DOCUMENT 12
PURPLE SESSION – AGENDA ITEM 2.1
ATTACHMENT AMinutes of Intellectual Disability Reference Group (IDRG) Meeting 2 – 1 June 2023 9.30am to 4.00pm, ParkRoyal Melbourne Airport.
Members Ms Leah Van Poppel, Principal Member and IDRG Co-Chair Mrs Judy Huett Ms Sam Paior, Co-Chair Ms Leonie McLean Dr Leighton Jay Mr Jim Simpson Ms Paige Armstrong Ms Sarah Sutton Mr Gavin Burner Mr Justen Thomas Ms Marissa Carlyon Ms Catherine Viney Mr Nathan Despott Ms Angela Yee Mr Angus Graham OAM
NDIA Representatives
Ms Rebecca Falkingham, Chief Executive Officer
Ms Corri McKenzie, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Service Design and Improvement
Mr Sam Bennett, General Manager, Policy Advice and Research
Mr Daniel redacted: s47F - personal privacy Strategic Advisor, Policy, Advice and Research
Ms Kathy redacted: s47F - personal privacy Director Strategic Advice, Policy, Advice and Research
Ms Jaklin redacted: s47F - personal privacy Assistant Director (a/g), Independent Advisory Council Secretariat
Ms redacted: s47F - personal privacy, Assistant Director Communications, Independent Advisory Council
Secretariat
Ms Karyn redacted: s47F - personal privacy Project Officer, Independent Advisory Council Secretariat
Attending
Ms Alisa Chambers, Acting General Manager, NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
Dr Jeff redacted: s47F - personal pr Senior Practitioner, NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
Ms Belinda Epstein-Frisch, Independent Consultant
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Apologies Professor Sally Robinson, Member Mr Brodie McElroy, Member
1 Page 84 of 108Words we use • Reference Group: is a group of people who know a lot about something. This group knows a lot about intellectual disability. Reference Groups work together to make a plan or find ways to make something happen. • Co-design: is when the Agency will work together with people with disability and the broader disability sector to design policy. • Conflict of Interest: Conflict of Interest Declaration is a document where you need to say all the different ways you are connected to the NDIS. This could include if: o your work is around the NDIS o you are an NDIS participant. o you are part of other reference groups that talk about the NDIS. This is because we all need to make sure your job in this Reference Group doesn’t clash with other jobs you do. It is ok to have a conflict of interest, but you need to let the Secretariat know. • Participants: these are the people that the NDIS helps. • Co-Chair or Co-Chairs: the Chair of a meeting is the person who leads the meeting. In the IDRG, we have two people who lead the meeting, so we call them Co-Chairs. • Principal Member: is the Chair of the Independent Advisory Council (Council), and one of the Co-Chairs of the IDRG. • Work Plan: is a document that says what the Reference Group will do in the next year, or two years. • Secretariat: the team that organises the meetings, sends papers and pays members for attending. • Priorities: things that are important to us, and to people with disability, and that we want to make better. • Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) program: this is an important part of the NDIS. ILC gives support to all people with disability, including those in the NDIS and those who are not in the NDIS. ILC help make Australia more accessible and inclusive of all people with disability. It can help you do what you need to do to be part of the community. The Department of Social Services (DSS) is in charge of ILC. • Department of Social Services (DSS): DSS is a government department that is in charge of making Australia fair and improving the wellbeing of all Australians.
2 Page 85 of 108Session One – Pink
1.1 Co-Chairs’ Welcome and Open
The Principal Member Ms Leah Van Poppel (Leah) and Co-chair, Ms Sam Paior (Sam)
opened the meeting at 9.35am.
Leah acknowledged the Traditional Owners of the lands where Members and attendees
were meeting. Mr Justen Thomas (Justin) also personally delivered an
Acknowledgement to Country.
Leah said Professor Sally Robinson and Mr Brodie McElroy were unable to attend the
meeting.
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Leah welcomed everyone to the meeting and said it was good to have everyone face to
face again. She also said Sam and Belinda would attend online because they weren’t
able to come in person.
Leah welcomed Ms Rebecca Falkingham (Rebecca), Chief Executive Officer and Ms
Corri McKenzie (Corri), Deputy Chief Executive Officer who were joining the meeting
today.
Leah also said Ms Alisa Chambers (Alisa) and Dr Jeff redacted: s47F - personal p (Jeff) from the NDIS Quality
and Safeguards Commission will join the meeting. They will talk about what they’ve
heard from participants on Behaviour Supports.
Sam said it was going to be a big day and it was ok if people needed to take a break or
have a rest.
Sam said that Easy Read documents were available for this meeting and if people have
feedback to let the Secretariat know.
Session Two – Purple 2.1 Minutes, Actions and Conflict of Interest Declarations Leah explained the: • Conflict of Interest Declarations (this is where you tell us other jobs you do that relate to the NDIS). • Actions list (this is a list of actions from earlier meetings, and we update this every meeting) Leah noted new updates received from Mrs Judy Huett (Judy) and Justen. The Secretariat will update the register.
3 Page 86 of 108Members: • approved the minutes from the last meeting, with one small change. • noted the actions list. • had no new conflicts of interest to declare.
Session Three – Orange 3.1-3.3 What members have heard in their community and discussions with the CEO. Members raised issues they have heard in their communities, including: • Reports people with intellectual disability need to repeatedly give evidence to prove their disability to access the NDIS. • Younger people with intellectual disability find it harder to access the NDIS. • A need for fairer and quicker access to the NDIS for people with intellectual disability. Especially for people in the justice system, First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) people. • NDIS information and plans need to be in accessible formats, like Easy Read. This will help participants: o make sure they understand the supports in their plans. o make decisions about things that affect them. o have flexibility in how they use supports. • Plan decisions are not consistent, especially for innovative supports like circles of support. These supports provide peer support and build people’s capacity to make decisions. This is important for people with intellectual disability. • Some support coordinators are charging for phone calls they make for participants. • Support workers need to have better training to help people with intellectual disability. • Lack of specialist support coordinators negatively impact participants. • Justice Liaison Officers have really helped people with disability in jail. But people accessing the court system should be able to use justice liaison services too. This may help people prove their eligibility for the NDIS. • Access to services is hard for people with disability living in regional and remote areas.
4 Page 87 of 108• Reports people with intellectual disability have restrictive practices without their consent. • Some people with intellectual disability face issues with housing. Some people get little support to help them find a home. • There is not enough available housing for people with disability. This includes supported independent living (SIL) and specialised disability accommodation (SDA) options. • Issues with conflicts of interests when a service provider is also the accommodation owner. • Mixed feedback about the PACE trial in Tasmania. Some people say it is working well and that they welcome improvements to the role of local area coordinators. Others say that it is causing sector disruption. • The NDIA needs to have better information, training and tools that help people with intellectual disability to report fraud. • Concerns NDIS behaviour support practitioners are making behaviour supports plans without meeting a participant. • Concerns about inconsistent service quality. And there is no oversight or accountability of workers. • Clinicians need more training around how to better support people with intellectual disability. For example, dentists could use an oral health pathway to inform people with intellectual disability about connected services and consent. • People with intellectual disability have rights and want to use them. This includes: the right to vote, and to review programs and services they get. • Recent budget announcement about the NDIS not well explained to the disability community. • Issues about how the NDIS works alongside other support services. This includes health, education, housing, and justice. • Confusion about what the NDIS does and what the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (the Commission) in putting a behaviour support plan in place. Leah thanked Members for their reports and handed over to Rebecca to speak. Rebecca thanked Members for the opportunity to attend the meeting. She said this group is very important to the NDIA and it was great to meet everyone. Rebecca noted the issues raised and gave comments back to the meeting.
5 Page 88 of 108• Having information and plans in accessible formats is very important. This is a high priority to the NDIA. • The NDIA is currently looking at ways to simplify the paperwork. • Work is underway on market development in regional and remote areas. This is to look at ways to improve access to support services for participants. • The budget announcement is about making sure participants get better outcomes. Rebecca said the NDIA wants better outcomes for participants. This is the main thing that motivates and guides the NDIA’s work. Lastly, Dr Sam Bennett (Sam B) thanked Members for their help and input into the Supported Decision Making Policy. He said it was released publicly in May.
Session Four – Dark Blue
4.1 News about Behaviour Supports from NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
Dr Jeff redacted: s47F - personal p said he was pleased to be at the meeting. He told Members what the
Commission has heard from participants about behaviour support. He also gave an
update on the Commissions’ work to make behaviour supports better. This included:
• increasing skills training for behaviour support practitioners
• reducing the use of restrictive practises
Members said:
• Behaviour support plans should be in Easy Read. This will make sure everyone
understands their plan.
• Behaviour support plans should use strong processes, checks, and authorisation.
This should be using a co-design approach that includes participants.
• Panel meetings for behaviour support plans need to include the participant, not
only family members and service providers.
• Better understanding of behaviour support plans and restrictive practices and how
to use them. More discussion between people with disability, family members and
community are needed.
• A need to understand why people have these behaviours. And understand the
trauma behind them.
Session Five – Green 5.1-5.3 News about Behaviour Support Advice
6 Page 89 of 108Ms Belinda Epstein-Frisch (Belinda) gave an update on the Behaviour Supports Advice since the meeting in June 2022. Belinda asked Members to break into groups, talk about each recommendation and answer the below questions: • Do you support this recommendation? • Are there any changes needed? Members said: • best-practice behaviour supports need to use a strong co-design process. • improved training is needed for practitioners. • making behaviour support plans and other information easier to understand is important. • including people with intellectual disability at every stage is necessary and very important. This makes sure the person with disability gives consent and has choice and control. Members were pleased with the Advice and thanked Belinda for all her hard work. They endorsed the Advice to progress to the IAC for final approval, noting the inclusion of their feedback.
Session Six – Brown 6.1 End of Meeting Leah asked members for feedback about the meeting. Members said: • The Easy Read documents are great, and everyone would like to receive the easy read version. • The dinner was a good chance to talk with everyone in a personal setting. • Everyone was respectful when talking about difficult and uncomfortable topics. It was really good to see everyone come together and find the right words to use. • A Member with intellectual disability needs to be in each small group. • The meetings are so much better and more inclusive than they were when the group first started in 2016, thank you. Leah thanked everyone for their time, wisdom and respect to all Members. She said the next meeting will be in August and looks forward to seeing everyone. Leah closed the meeting at 3.55pm.
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