Commonwealth Ombudsman
Our Investigation Into The National Disability Insurance Agency (Ndia)
How Ready Is The Ndia To Meet The Participant Service Guarantee?
What We Learnt From Our Investigation
An Easy Read Report
Easy Read
How to Use This Report
The Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman wrote this report. When you see the word ‘we’, it means the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
We wrote this report in an easy to read way. We use pictures to explain some ideas.
We wrote some important words in bold.
This means the letters are thicker and darker.
We explain what these bold words mean.
There is a list of these words on page 18.
This Easy Read report is a summary of another document. This means it only includes the most important ideas.
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You can find the other document on our website.
You can ask for help to read this report. A friend, family member or support person may be able to help you.
What’s in this report?
What is this report about?
What is this report about?
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a way of supporting people with disability around Australia.
The NDIS helps people with disability:
- get the supports and services they need
- work towards their goals.
The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) runs the NDIS.
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The National Disability Insurance Scheme
About Participants and Guarantees
What Is A Guarantee?
A guarantee is like a promise.
Understanding The Participant Service Guarantee (PSG)
The NDIA must follow the Participant Service Guarantee (PSG).
Participants are people with disability who take part in the NDIS.
Overview Of The PSG
The PSG is a new set of rules the NDIA must follow.
It has 2 parts.
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Part 1
explains how long the NDIA can take to:
- make decisions
- do things to help participants.
Part 2
explains how the NDIA must treat participants.
The PSG helps participants know how long the NDIA will take to make decisions that affect:
- them
- people who support them.
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Following the PSG
The Australian Government made the PSG a law on 1 April 2022.
This means the laws the NDIA follows have changed.
It also means we must write reports about the:
- NDIA
- PSG.
The NDIA has shown they want to make things better for participants.
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For example, the NDIA included both parts of the
PSG in their Participant Service Charter.
The Participant Service Charter is a document that explains what participants can expect from the NDIA.
You can find an Easy Read version of the Participant Service Charter on the NDIA website.
www.ndis.gov.au/media/2621/download?attachment
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What did we learn from our investigation?
We wanted to know what the NDIA did to get ready before the PSG became part of the law.
We checked if the NDIA is ready to follow the new PSG law.
Our report focuses on 4 different areas.
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Performance and Service Delivery
Key Areas of Focus
Planning for the Participant Support Group (PSG)
Explaining Progress and Effectiveness
Communication Strategies
Delivering Quality Services to Participants
Each area explains what we learned from
our investigation.
Each area also explains what we recommend.
When we recommend something, we share an idea that will make things better.
These ideas will help the NDIA make their services better.
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1. How the NDIA plans for the PSG
We learnt that the NDIA wants to deliver the PSG.
They will do this by including the PSG in information they share.
But the NDIA doesn’t have one document that explains how they will set up the PSG.
We recommend the NDIA combines all their plans into one document.
This means the NDIA can check:
- what they need to do
- how these plans connect with each other.
This will help the NDIA know when they’re not doing things on time.
2. How the NDIA explains how well it’s going
The PSG explains how long the NDIA can take to make 20 types of:
- actions - things they must do
- decisions.
We learnt that the NDIA has goals for how long these actions and decisions should take.
We also learnt the NDIA didn’t share if they reached all 20 goals.
But they will write reports about these goals by the middle of 2022.
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This will help everyone know how well the
NDIA is going.
We learnt that the NDIA can do more to keep track of how well they treat participants.
We recommend the NDIA make a plan for how to share how well they are doing.
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3. How the NDIA communicates
We learnt the NDIA can do a better job of explaining the PSG to:
- their staff
- the community.
And we think the NDIA can do a better job explaining how well they are going.
For example, they can make sure information about how well they are going is up to date.
We recommend the NDIA make a policy for their website about:
- sharing how well they are going
- when they share that information.
A policy is a plan for how an organisation should do things.
Policies are where rules come from.
4. How the NDIA delivers good services to participants
We learnt the NDIA has ways of checking if they are following:
- laws
- policies.
This can help the NDIA make their services better.
We also learnt the NDIA are checking if they treat participants well.
We recommend the NDIA check the work they have done so far to make sure they’re treating participants well.
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Word List
This list explains what the bold words in this document mean.
Guarantee
A guarantee is like a promise.
National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)
The NDIA runs the NDIS.
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
The NDIS is a way of supporting people with disability around Australia.
Participant Service Charter
The Participant Service Charter is a document that explains what participants can expect from the NDIA.
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Participant Service Guarantee (PSG)
The PSG is a new set of rules the NDIA must follow.
Participants
Participants are people with disability who take part in the NDIS.
Policy
A policy is a plan for how an organisation should do things.
Policies are where rules come from.
Recommend
When we recommend something, we share an idea that will make things better.
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Contact Us
You can call us.
1300 362 072
You can send us an email.
You can write to us.
GPO Box 442 Canberra ACT 2601
You can visit our website.
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