Submission in response to the inquiry into the Capability and Culture of the

            National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)

Introduction

The Chinese Australian Services Society Limited, as an entity of the group commonly known in the community as “CASS”, welcomes the opportunity to lodge a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on the NationaL Disabili ty Insuran ce Scheme (N DIS) regarding the inquiry into the capability and culture of the ND IA. As a longstanding communit y gro up, C ASS has been dedicated t o assisting people with disability and their families from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds and advocating on their behalf. Our submission contains the views, experiences and feedback we received from NDIS participants, their carers and family members, disabilit y services workers and CAL D community representatives, through one-to-one discussions, face-t o-face gr oup consultations and focus g roup interviews. O ur dis ability ser vices repre sentatives also share their observations and ex periences while supporting NDI S participants and commun ity members to communicate and interact wit h ND I A.

About Ou r Group

We are commonl y kn own in th e com muni ty as “CA SS” , our brand name . We ar e a multidiscipline co mmun i ty serv ices prov ider, deli ver ing a comprehe nsive range of socia l an d welfare service s to the multicultural communities, aiming to promote diversity, inclusion an d harmony among multicultur al c om mu nities.

CAS S consists of a group of entities, all are registered charities and listed companies limited by guarantee, including pr incipally t he parent entity, the Chinese Australian Services Society Ltd (founded in 1981), and the subsidiary, CASS Care Ltd (established in 2002) which is als o an endorsed public benevolent institution (PBI ) by the Aus tralian Taxation Office.

  CHINESE AUSTRALIAN SERVICES SOCIETY LTD       ABN. 85 087 248 638
          Head Off ice: 44 - 50 Sixth Avenue, Campsie, NSW 2194 Australia
         Tel : (02) 9789 4587     Fax: (02) 9718 6357    Email: cass@cass.org.au
                      www.c ass .org.a u   | w ww.c as scare .o rg.au

Our Response to the Inquiry Into the Capability and Culture of the NDIA

Over the past 40 years, CASS has grown from a concept into a major social and welfare services provider with a comprehensive range of community services, catering the needs of cradle to seniors, including residential aged care, child care, home ageing and disability services, vocation and training, volunteering, settlement and health services, Chinese language classes, cultural and interests classes, etc. At present, more than 5,000 families access CASS services and activities every week. CASS employs over 560 staff members and has a team of over 350 active volunteers helping to deliver services and activities to people of CALD backgrounds and the wider community.

Specifically, CASS Disability Services has 19 years of extensive experience to provide culturally and linguistically sensitive and safe services to support people with disability of multicultural backgrounds and fulfil their multifaceted needs since 2003. With the full-blown roll-out of NDIS in 2017, CASS has expanded its disability services provision from Group Homes, Centre-based Day Programs, Flexible Respite to Individual Support, Centre-based Day Programs, Support Coordination, Plan Management, Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), Supported Independent Living (SIL), Medium Term Accommodation and Short-Term Accommodation services.

Due to the genuine needs of the CALD communities, CASS also renders carers group services, promotes the NDIS to the multicultural communities, and facilitates non-NDIS people with disability to access the Scheme with support from CASS funds. CASS is therefore uniquely placed to contribute to the work of this inquiry into the capability and culture of the NDIA.

Our response to the inquiry into the capability and culture of the NDIA

In contributing to the consultation, we would like to share the challenges and issues faced by CALD individuals when accessing and using the NDIA and offer some recommendations.

Challenges

- Insufficient bilingual staffing in NDIA

According to the feedback of our participants and their carers, one main challenge they encountered in accessing NDIA services is it does not have sufficient bilingual workers to support the cultural and language needs of the multicultural communities. When those non-English speaking participants or their carers contact NDIA, due to their language barriers, they are unable to freely express their needs and difficulties, which further affects their ability accessing the NDIS and relevant supports. Even though they can access free interpreting services, however, it does not comprehensively meet CALD participants’ cultural and language needs. Those participants and carers interviewed reflected that the quality of interpreters is not consistent. Also, some interpreters lack NDIS-related knowledge, resulting in some misinterpretation between planners/Local Area Coordinators (LAC) and participants as well as carers.

2. The capacity and cultural competency of the NDIA frontline workers, planners and/or LACs

One interviewee from the carer groups reflected that when conducting the plan review meeting, the planner did not include the participant with intellectual disability, and only invited the carer and the support coordinator to the meeting. As the planner did not read through the participant’s previous plan and related materials, he did not understand and grasp the participant’s situation and conditions. What made the carer the most disappointed was the planner did not understand what is Down Syndrome and he had to ask the carer to explain Down Syndrome and its conditions.

Many participants, carers and disability services workers reported that when they made a request to NDIA, they had to deal with and explained the same thing to different NDIA representatives for the same request, which was a waste of time and inefficient. They strongly suggest that it would be better to assign a designated staff member to follow up on one request.

Some carers and disability services representatives also shared that some NDIA frontline staff members do not fully understand CALD participants’ and carers’ cultural context and respond appropriately to their cultural needs.

3. The lack of accessible information and news update on the NDIS website

The NDIS website only provides basic information in a number of community languages, such as the Participant Booklets, Guide to self-management and Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Strategy 2018. However, in terms of the NDIS latest updates, the introduction of the role of NDIA or other essential information on the website, it only provides the English version, prohibiting non-English speakers or people with lower English literacy from better understanding the latest development of NDIS and its services provision.

Some NDIS service users found the translation of participant booklets in community languages too formal and unnatural, increasing their difficulty to understand the NDIS system and its procedures.

4. The complexity of the complaint mechanism

Some participants and carers are unaware of, uncertain of or afraid of providing feedback or lodging a complaint to NDIA. Owing to language barrier, cultural differences and unfamiliarity with the system of NDIS, a participant and his carer did not comprehend the NDIS plan and how to find suitable service providers in the first year. As a result, the budget of the participant’s plan was cut in half in the second year, which significantly reduced the participant’s therapeutic support services. However, the participant and his carer did not know how to lodge a plan review application as they could not find the relevant information on their own. They had to reduce the allied health services hours, which negatively affected the participant’s improvement process.

Another carer shared her experience to lodge a plan review application for her brother. Even though she is proficient in English, she still finds lodging a plan review application too complicated and overwhelmed. Subsequently, they had to wait for a few months before receiving the result. During the waiting period, her brother was not able to use the NDIS services and supports he needed.

5. The governance of non-registered NDIS service providers in an open market

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In order to maximise choices and controls for participants, the NDIS adopts a Market Approach Model to realise this objective.

Under this Market Approach Model, those individual operators and for-profit organisations follow a “for profit” cost model, which can be disadvantaging participants’ best interest and undercutting not-for-profit organisations who are trying to do the right thing and protect the best interest of participants and their families.

As a market steward, the NDIA plays a vital role in monitoring and governing all service providers in this fast-growing disability marketplace. However, the majority of participants and carers interviewed raised their concerns about the governance of NDIS service providers and the oversight of the use of NDIS plan funding.

Considerable feedback from NDIS participants and workers was received regarding the non-compliance of non-registered service providers and the waste of funding caused by fraud and scams. For example, some participants shared that some sole traders do not meet the required level of quality and safety stated in the NDIS Practice Standards, but they can still maintain unregistered and provide low level care and support services to NDIS participants.

In terms of those participants who self-managed their plans paying service providers directly, the lack of registration and effective oversights on who receives payments and the actual expenses open the door to loopholes, fraud and scams.

Until today, service providers can opt out to be registered, while registered service providers need to spend a high cost of compliance to meet NDIS practice standards and quality indicators. The cost can be up to 5 to 10% of the annual operating budget on all related compliance activities, including staff training, compliance, reporting and auditing.

To achieve the NDIS’s objectives and ensure the best interests of participants are met, many NDIS participants and carers are calling for more effective regulations and measures to monitor and govern all NDIS service providers to maintain its integrity and quality.

Furthermore, there is a lack of NDIS service providers specialising in culturally specific supports to CALD participants and their families as there are limited service providers that can provide quality disability-related and specialist CALD supports to meet their needs.

Recommendation

1. Increasing/enhancing the capacity and cultural competency of NDIA frontline workers, planners and LACs.

• Increasing bilingual and culturally responsive staff participation and workforce to demonstrate culturally and linguistically safe and appropriate services to CALD participants and their families.
• Culturally appropriate and responsive inclusive practice should be integrated within and across the NDIA and its partner organisations.
• Provide ongoing training and development of the NDIA and its partner organisations to understand and appropriately respond to cultural and linguistic contexts and needs.
• Consistently improve the NDIS frontline workers’ skills and capability.

2. Make communications more accessible and inclusive

• NDIA and NDIS-related communications should appropriately reflect cultural contexts to meet CALD participants’ communication and language needs.
• The communication resources and materials should be developed and improved to translate into multiple community languages with easy-read versions. The Agency can approach some reputable CALD service providers who have experienced bilingual workers with a wealth of knowledge and information about their communities and the NDIS to proofread the translated materials first.
• Continually working with different CALD community groups to improve The Cultural and Linguistic Diversity (CALD) Strategy and its implementation.
• Increase in-person communications, interactions and engagement to reach CALD people who are most marginalised and disadvantaged.

3. More navigation supports are needed for CALD participants

• The NDIA should provide more navigation assistance to CALD participants and their families to identify providers of disability-related supports that offer a culturally safe and appropriate service.

• The NDIA can provide more supports to encourage service providers to offer quality service that is culturally appropriate, responsive and safe for all CALD participants.

4. More effective oversights and enforcement actions should be implemented to ensure all NDIS service providers complying with the NDIS safety, quality and workforce regulations.

• Universal registrations and regular audits should be enforced on all NDIS service providers.
• More supports are needed for registered NDIS services providers and not-for-profit organisations who are operating in full compliance to be sustainable and thrive in this highly competitive marketplace.

5. More financial support available to service providers that provide quality disability-related and specialist CALD services

• Special grants or fundings can be available and accessible for service providers who provide quality disability-related and specialist CALD supports. In this way, it can mitigate the dimensional challenges faced by service providers in delivering care, support and services to CALD participants and their families. In an open market environment, CALD service providers need additional support and assistance in infrastructure, bilingual staffing, and tailor-made in-language communication materials to serve CALD communities’ cultural and language needs and be competitive in the NDIS sector.

Conclusion

We would appreciate the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS considers the viewpoints and concerns expressed in this submission. By adopting the strategies mentioned above, we believe it will certainly assist in improving the capacity and fostering a more inclusive and diverse culture of the NDIA and ensuring the choice, control and flexibility that all NDIS participants and their families deserve.

We would be delighted to further discuss and elaborate on these issues and concerns.