NDIA Accountability Project

Difficulty obtaining Correspondence and Plan Nominee approval for brother

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Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)

General Issues: Taking

more than three months and still no sign off on a request to be a Correspondence and Plan Nominee for my brother,

(NDIS No.)…..is that acceptable?

My name is Don Weaven, I am 60 years old and retired from the workforce in October 2020. My last job was 22 years working as a Technical Officer. My first job was working in Quality Control and after that, 11 years as a “hands on technician”. Before working for , I was employed as a contractor for a couple of years.

The varied work experience listed above is to exemplify my familiarity with competence, accountability and transparency within workplaces - these three issues being the main subjects of my submission. They also align with 1a of your 18 Committee Resolutions as follows: “the implementation, performance and governance of the National Disability Insurance Scheme”.

Accountability was the first and most important principle instilled from my first job in Quality Control. My signature was required on every Batch Sheet to certify all products we made were tested to meet the required specifications within strict time frames. I was proud to sign my name because of how hard I worked to ensure our products conformed. If I were working for the NDIS, I too would be using a pseudonym for my correspondence with clients and the public because of embarrassment regarding examples of my team’s poor performance. Accountability is listed alongside transparency in governance principles and it is clearly apparent as a major shortcoming within the NDIS.

Your Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS drafted a report in 2021 on General Issues. Chapter 4 — Issues raised in evidence, listed “Greater transparency of AAT (Administrative Appeals Tribunal) outcomes for NDIS participants’.

ISSUES RAISED

  • “4.15 The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) submitted that data from AAT outcomes should be published to allow greater transparency and improvements in NDIA decision making. PIAC went on state that despite recommendations adopted by the committee to this effect in a previous inquiry, AAT eetiementoolanes”

  • “4.20 PIAC asserted that the publication of AAT settlement outcomes would demonstrate a greater degree of transparency and ensure more consistent and accountable decision-making by the NDIA.”

  • “4.21 The joint submission contended that transparency in relation to settlement outcomes would result in a higher degree of accountability and increased consistency in decision making.”

“4.22 The committee heard that many participants experienced difficulties understanding the processes associated with accessing the scheme, as well as difficulties in engaging with NDIS representatives at various stages of being involved with the scheme.”

The “Issues raised” section of your report went on to detail individual experiences from participants that follow a common theme of access to the NDIS being difficult to navigate, highly bureaucratic with slow response times.

It is astonishing why the NDIA is still getting away with this lack of transparency highlighted in your report. Why are accountability and transparency issues not raised more extensively in your report? Surely these issues are endemic throughout the management culture of the NDIA and this culture needs changing above all else.

My brother is a client of the NDIS and since my retirement from the workforce, I want to become more involved in his Plan Management. This should be a simple process. To date, it has taken over 3 months since I applied and the NDIS have still not signed off on my request to become a Correspondence and Plan Nominee for my brother. Because I am not approved, decisions have been made in this 3 month period already regarding my brother’s plan, that I have not been involved with and have had no input. This is obviously causing distress and there has been no indication when, and if, the sign off will be made.

The NDIS does not provide personal contacts for any member of the public who may need to communicate with them. This is an “in your face” and most fundamental example of not accepting accountability. By providing a generic email address such as enquiries@ndis.gov.au they are immediately making contact devoid of humanity and thus accountability. Return emails from this site also make it very clear that no person is prepared to take responsibility. A first name only or pseudonym is provided and chances are there will be a different name for each follow up or future contact. No full names, work position and specific work contact details are to be seen with any return correspondence. Part of my submission is that it should NEVER be acceptable for any organisation to bypass accountability in such a way.

The subject of competency is not listed in your earlier report. I performed a word search for it. Again, this is a fundamental issue that needs urgent addressing. A most obvious example is the oft repeated requirement from NDIS that “we are unable to act if all the related and required information and documents are not part of a single email”. When I recently received that highlighted statement, part of my response to them was: “Are you and your team aware of digital filing systems and applications of Database Management Systems? You apply Receipt Numbers and Interaction IDs with correspondence, so are you really trying to tell me that you are incapable of registering this information in your data base and cannot reference it for future use? Why bother to provide them? How can you run your organisation with this pretext? No company or organisation I have ever dealt with in my long working career has ever proposed a more preposterous statement than that!”

Before reading the attached examples of email correspondence that demonstrate these three issues, please read the IMPORTANT attachment

NDIS began to provide on their correspondence when they started to sense my frustration with their time delays. We understand that some messages from them could contain sensitive confidential information, but this particular attachment below, threatening severe penalties seems intimidating and inappropriate for my subject matter. I do not have a legal background but trust the joint standing committee to have a better understanding of this message, and to act accordingly.

“IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, those information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately and delete all electronic and hard copies of this transmission together with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail”

SUMMARY OF ISSUES:

  • Competency: A review of competencies for staff employed by the NDIS from the CEO down is needed. Demonstrated, appropriate experience gained from ground level work, where the true understanding of systems and management practices is derived needs to be a requirement for high level staff.

Regarding the requirement for the CEO to sign off for Correspondence and Plan Nominees, as per Section 88 of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013, is this level of approval really appropriate when certified evidence is required in the process? Due to their known lack of transparency, one can only assume the delay of months regarding my application is due to an overworked CEO having too many other important issues to deal with.

Relying on a system that requires all information to be supplied in a single email simply smacks of incompetency.

  • Accountability: All staff need to demonstrate accountability by having clear expectations provided to them that they are able to meet. Having clearly defined processes in place is a necessity. The practice of giving pseudonyms or first name only and NOT providing full names, positions and specific contact details must cease.

  • Transparency: The simple concept of publishing data, both positive and negative about organisational performance needs to be understood as it clearly allows analysis to be made showing where the NDIS is doing well and where resources need to be directed to correct problems.

Sample Fictional Email Correspondence

Before reviewing the separate attachments of email correspondence, I thought to fabricate a fictional response below from the NDIS that would well demonstrate what could and should be in place:

“From Bill Dust, Client Response Officer, NDIS Client Response Team. Good morning Don Weaven, thankyou for finding all the information you needed on our wonderful website for your application to be Correspondence and Plan Nominee for your brother. I see you have attached all the information together in your first email, which is great because I have checked it over and everything has been completed as it should. However, in the unlikely event we need to request any further information, we have provided a secure electronic file to archive all information in a special folder alongside your brother’s files, where it will be easy to reference and find for any possible future requirements. You would only need to email myself, not the whole team, using my personal work email address provided.

According to our well established Procedure No. xxxxx in place for processing requests for Correspondence and Plan Nominees, I am required to accept accountability for having your request signed off within 24 hours. The National Disabilities Insurance Scheme Act 2013 requires that the CEO signs off on such requests, however, delegations are in place and our streamlined systems allow your checked request to be identified as a low risk, high priority, quick and easy sign off.

In the unlikely event of any hold-ups or problems, I will be the contact person for you and have the commitment of all public servants, to perform my role and report on problems as best I can.

Note: in the past, you may have known me by my pseudonym “Bull” and this was just a crude attempt for me to redirect accountability. Because of pesky client complaints and Joint Standing Committee submissions, we were forced to change our ways, but everyone is happier now that improvements are ongoing!

Regards, Bill (“Bull”) Dust. Client Response Officer, NDIS Client Response Team”

Regards DON WEAVEN 21 March 2022 ATTACHMENTS (12) Records of email correspondence with the NDIS from 18/11/2021 to current Page 4 of 18 21 March 2022

ATTACHMENT 1

From: < @yahoo.com.au> Sent: Thursday, 18 November 2021 3:25 PM To: enquiries enquiries@ndis.gov.au Subject: Request for Donald Weaven to become a Correspondence and Plan Nominee for his brother redacted (NDIS No.redacted)

e Hello Enquires,

I first attempted to become Correspondence and Plan Nominee for my brother, (redacted, NDIS No.redacted) around April of this year. The advise I received from xxxxxxxxxxx, the Local Area Coordinator from the Local Area Coordination Service, , was: “attend the NDIS office (closest is in ) with and provide your ID and have this completed”.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NDIS Office has not been open to the public and to the date of sending this message, is apparently still not staffed.

In my naivety, I presumed it would be open after 6:00 pm on Friday 29 October as per the guideline offered by the Victorian Government https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/coronavirus-sector-guidance-office-workplaces: “Most indoor settings, including restaurants, pubs, gyms and hairdressers will open with no capacity limits subject to a DQ4 (one person per four square metres) limit, if all staff and patrons (excluding in general retail) are fully vaccinated”. My brother and I attended the NDIS office on Thursday 4 November, because there was NO SIGN posted at the entrance saying “NDIS CLOSED” and there was a queue of people outside the doors. My disabled brother and I wasted over half an hour waiting to be told that there were no staff at the NDIS in attendance.

Prior to this recent attempt to attend the NDIS office, months earlier, I had attempted to find its physical address using your website. I sent a feedback message using your website feature, explaining that the address provided was not helpful. Unfortunately, I have NOT received any reply and observe this website remains unchanged and unhelpful. I have attached two snapshots. One shows the USEFUL address information provided by the Centrelink Office that your NDIS office shares in Melton. The other snapshot shows your current website information. The important point is that the NDIS office is NOT part of the main Shopping Complex t, your site is a separate building off Road, and it should mention you share the building with Centrelink. Please note when I tried to use the number provided on your website, there is an automated message saying this number is not connected! Because I have failed to elicit a response from my earlier website feedback message, I request that you follow up please, for the sake of other members of the public who may want to visit your NDIS office in

ATTACHMENT 1 (Cont’d)

I eventually managed to talk to someone on 17/11/2021 using your contact and although her accent was difficult to understand and again I was left on another lengthy hold whilst advice was sought, she did finally return to the conversation. Her advice was that I could provide 100 points of identification on a certified copy and email it to enquiries@ndis.gov.au, with my request to become Correspondence and Plan Nominee for my brother.

I have read the relevant parts of the National Disabilities Insurance Scheme Act 2013, namely Administration Chapter 4, Nominees Part 5 Appointment and cancellation or suspension of appointment Division 2.

I can assure you that under Section 86 (2) and 87 (2), for myself, Donald Weaven, to become a Plan and Correspondence nominee is at the request of my brother, NDIS No. . He can be telephoned late afternoons on to confirm this proposition.

Please find attached the Certified Copy of my 100 points of Identification.

Please advise at your earliest convenience if there are any further actions needed in order to proceed.

Thanks in advance, Don Weaven

Page 6 of 18 21 March 2022

ATTACHMENT 2

From: enquiries enquiries@ndis.gov.au To: < @yahoo.com.au> Sent: Tuesday, 23 November 2021, 02:21:33 pm AEDT

Subject: RE: Request for Donald Weaven to become a Correspondence and Plan Nominee for his brother (NDIS No. ) [SEC=OFFICIAL]

Good afternoon Don. Firstly, apologies for the difficult time you have experienced with this matter. Thank you for contacting the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). We have received your enquiry regarding becoming a plan nominee on your brothers record. We require the following documents in order to proceed with this request. The documents can be emailed to the enquires inbox, but they need to be sent all at the same time, as attachments. -Plan Nominee form (signed by your brother and yourself) -Plan Nominee questionnaire (signed by your brother and yourself) -100 points of certified ID for yourself. You will need to obtain these forms from your local NDIS office. If you require further assistance with this matter, please call our National Contact Centre on the 1800 number below. Your receipt number is: If our offices are closed and you require crisis support, you should contact your local GP, hospital, or mental health crisis team. Alternatively you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. Kind Regards

National Contact Centre [Email Enquiry Team / Provider Support] National

ATTACHMENT 3

From: [ @yahoo.com.au] Sent: 12/12/2021, 10:08 am To: enquiries@ndis.gov.au Subject: [SEC=OFFICIAL]Re: Request for Donald Weaven to become a Correspondence and Plan Nominee for his brother (NDIS No. )

Hello ,

I finally managed to obtain a physical copy of the Plan Nominee Form and the Plan Nominee Questionnaire from the NDIS Office, that I was pleasantly surprised to find open for business when I visited on 10/12/2021.

Additional to having my brother co-sign these documents, I drafted a separate document for him to sign showing his request for myself to become his NDIS Plan and Correspondence Nominee. I have also scanned this document and attached it. Also attached is an email from my sister, the current Plan and Correspondence Nominee for my brother, showing her agreement for my appointment.

Finally, the scanned document showing over 100 points of identification is attached.

Please advise at your earliest convenience if these attachments satisfy requirements. I would appreciate notification of how this process is progressing and would like to know as soon as possible when I might expect to be included as a Plan and Correspondence Nominee for my brother’s NDIS Plan No. .

Thanks for your assistance to date, Regards, Don Weaven

Page 8 of 18 21 March 2022

ATTACHMENT 4

From: NDIS Enquiries enquires@ndis.gov.au To: @yahoo.com.au << >@yahoo.com.au> Sent: Thursday, 23 December 2021, 12:35:23 pm AEDT Subject: RE: [SEC=OFFICIAL]Re: Request for Donald Weaven to become a Correspondence and Plan Nominee for his brother (NDIS No. )

Good morning Donald, Thank you for contacting the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). We have received your documents relating to a nominee forms, they have been allocated for the relevant department to review.

Your receipt number is: If our offices are closed and you require crisis support, you should contact your local GP, hospital, or mental health crisis team. Alternatively you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Kind Regards

National Contact Centre Email Enquiry Team

Page 9 of 18 21 March 2022

ATTACHMENT 5

From: [ @yahoo.com.au] Sent: 15/2/2022, 6:55 pm To: enquiries@ndis.gov.au Subject: [SEC=OFFICIAL]Regarding Receipt No. - How long does it take to sign off a simple Request for Correspondence and Plan Nominee?

Hi NDIS Email Enquiry Team, I first sent my Email to enquiries@ndis.gov.au on 18/11/2021. It was titled: “Request for Donald Weaven to become a Correspondence and Plan Nominee for his brother (NDIS No. )”. It had the required Certified Copies of my 100 points of I.D. I received a Receipt No. on 23/11/2021

That wasn’t enough, I had to physically obtain special forms from one of your offices, get them filled out then re-send everything via email, including my 100 points of I.D., which I did on 12/12/2021. I received an email from you on 23/12/2021 with a Receipt No. and this was the last time I have had contact with you.

Two months have passed.

In that time, my brother has needed me to assist him with changes to his plan and his review is fast approaching.

Please advise what your problems are that that cause you not to respond to the community that need simple, urgent actions completed by yourselves. Regards, Don Weaven. Mob

ATTACHMENT 6

From: NDIS Enquiries enquires@ndis.gov.au To: < @yahoo.com.au> Sent: Saturday, 19 February 2022, 11:24:17 am AEDT Subject: RE: [SEC=OFFICIAL]Regarding Receipt No. - How long does it take to sign off a simple Request for Correspondence and Plan Nominee?

good morning Don, tank you for contacting the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). we have received your enquiry about becoming a plan nominee. This has been assigned to the relevant business area who will be in contact with you to discuss. The interaction ID: was directed to the relevant region. I will forward your enquiry and hopefully it will be escalated. In the meantime you can forward your complaint or feedback to feedback@ndis.gov.au. your receipt number is: if our offices are closed and you require crisis support, you should contact your local gp, hospital, or mental health crisis team. alternatively you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. kind regards

National Contact Centre [Email Enquiry Team]??.

Page 11 of 18 21 March 2022

ATTACHMENT 7

From: [ @yahoo.com.au] Sent: 28/2/2022, 2:31 pm To: enquiries@ndis.gov.au Subject: [SEC=OFFICIAL]Interaction ID : Response to your cryptic request for additional information regarding my ordeal to become a Correspondence and Plan Nominee for my brother (NDIS No. )

Hello Enquiries, My sister, , who is the current Plan Nominee for my brother, contacted me today to advise she received a call from you. She told me that I needed to provide you with proof of my residence at . Please find attached two recent invoices that should provide this further evidence you seem to require. I cannot understand why it has taken over 2 months for you to process my simple request to this point.

Please be advised that I continue to find this process for me to become a Correspondence and Plan Nominee for my brother (NDIS No. ) unnecessarily tedious, inefficient, time consuming and generally unacceptable.

I am still waiting for explanation for this.

Please contact me immediately if you need any further information.

I would appreciate an indication of when my request will be signed off.

Regards, Don Weaven

Page 12 of 18 21 March 2022

ATTACHMENT 8

From: NDIS Enquiries enquires@ndis.gov.au To: @yahoo.com.au << >@yahoo.com.au> Sent: Thursday, 3 March 2022, 11:02:52 am AEDT Subject: [SEC=OFFICIAL]RE: [SEC=OFFICIAL]Interaction ID: Response to your cryptic request for additional information regarding my ordeal to become a Correspondence and Plan Nominee for my brother (NDIS No. )

Good morning Don Thank you for contacting the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). We have received your documents relating to becoming a Plan nominee. Documents pertaining to becoming a “Plan nominee” must be certified. Please resubmit documents once certified. If our offices are closed and you require crisis support, you should contact your local GP, hospital, or mental health crisis team. Alternatively you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. Kind Regards

National Contact Centre [Email Enquiry Team / Provider Support]

Page 13 of 18 21 March 2022

ATTACHMENT 9

From: (EM @ yahoo.com.au] Sent: 4/3/2022, 1:25 pm To: enquiries@ndis.gov.au Co i Subject: [SEC=OFFICIAL]Re: Interaction ID: Re: Correspondence and Plan Nominee for my brother - (NDIS No. a)

Good afternoon NDIS Enquiries,

Thank you for rejecting the uncertified documents | sent. Please find attached the exact same documents that my local Postal Manager charged $2:50 each to stamp as certified.

It would have been useful had | Known in advance that this was an additional requirement. Why are all the forms and requirements for this process not available from your website?

Please advise when you expect my application to be signed off.

| am still waiting for an explanation why it has taken over two months so far to proceed to this point.

Regards, Don Weaven. | Page 14 of 18 21 March 2022

ATTACHMENT 10

On Wednesday, 9 March 2022, 10:43:10 am AEDT, NDIS Enquiries enquires@ndis.gov.au wrote: Good afternoon Don Thank you for contacting the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). The NDIA appreciates the time you have taken to contact us. We understand your frustration in sending the same information multiple times and apologise in advance. The documents sent do not meet the 100 points of id requirements. Please see attached document on the kind of documents required to establish 100 points of identification. In my experience, usually there are no charges for certification, you may try your local chemist / pharmacist. With regards to your query regarding unavailability of some documents on web site, you will appreciate that our participants are highly vulnerable and NDIA has legal requirement to protect their privacy and act in their best interest.

Lastly we are unable to act if all the related and required information and documents are not part of a single email. You will appreciate that NDIS receives very many emails daily and is unable to correlate emails of different dates. Therefore we kindly request that you resend all requested documents and information in a single email. For more information about the NDIA’s commitment to service please visit our website. If our offices are closed and you require crisis support, you should contact your local GP, hospital, or mental health crisis team. Alternatively you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Kind Regards,

National Contact Centre Email Enquiry Team National Disability Insurance Agency Email enquiries@ndis.gov.au

ATTACHMENT 11

From: < @yahoo.com.au> Sent: Wednesday, 9 March 2022 4:52 PM To: enquiries enquiries@ndis.gov.au Cc: feedback <feedback@ndis.gov.au Subject: [SEC=OFFICIAL]Re: Interaction ID: : Re: Correspondence and Plan Nominee for my brother - (NDIS No. )

Hello , regarding this saga, to date I have received Email responses from the following list of first names as provided:

        National Contact Centre Email Enquiry Team                       9/3/2022

        National Contact Centre [Email Enquiry Team / Provider Support]     3/3/2022

        National Contact Centre [Email Enquiry Team]?                  19/2/2022

        National Contact Centre Email Enquiry Team                     23/12/2021

        National Contact Centre [Email Enquiry Team / Provider Support]   23/11/2021

Instead of apologising in advance, it is time to act. It is very clear that you are part of a problem, but you have choices like everyone else working with practical anonymity on your teams. Do you want to continue being part of a problem or do you want to work on a solution? This is a simple choice. You say you understand my frustration but have you ever communicated your understandings to higher management levels in your workplace? Based on my own experience from working 22 years in the public service, I am confident your management would have no idea of the problems and inefficiencies you and your team are dealing with at ground level. Until cultural changes occur that encourage/allow experienced ground level staff to attain managerial positions, as they should, the only way for them to be aware of issues is if you make an effort to provide feedback.

The first and most significant step to a solution is to install accountability. That list provided above does not represent accountability, it shows the opposite. No singular person will put their full name and contact details against my request to make everything happen.

ATTACHMENT 11 (Cont’d)

Regarding your response, I do not accept your explanations. Firstly, the documents I most recently sent that you reference, were not meant to satisfy 100 points of ID requirements. I was verbally asked by my sister, who had been in phone contact with “someone” from your team, to send extra proof of my residential address as per their advice. This extra requirement was never mentioned in any earlier correspondence or in the forms. As mentioned in my earlier Email that you missed, “I had to physically obtain special forms from one of your offices, get them filled out then re-send everything via Email, including my 100 points of I.D., which I did on 12/12/2021. I received an Email from you on 23/12/2021 with a Receipt No.”,

Secondly, your justification why documents are unavailable on your website makes no sense regarding my context. Having blank forms available on your website for the public to download in no way can intrude on NDIS participants’ privacy or impact their best interest. In fact, NOT having them available causes more concern for participants and their carers.

Thirdly, and most outrageous is your statement: “we are unable to act if all the related and required information and documents are not part of a single email”. Are you and your team aware of digital filing systems and applications of Database Management Systems? You apply Receipt Numbers and Interaction IDs with correspondence, so are you really trying to tell me that you are incapable of registering this information in your data base and cannot reference it for future use? Why bother to provide them? How can you run your organisation with this pretext? No company or organisation I have ever dealt with in my long working career has ever proposed a more preposterous statement than that!

considering the above, I respectfully request you forward this latest correspondence to the highest level manager that you have Email access to.

My strongest request is for someone holding a role with reasonable responsibility in your organisation to assume accountability and respond in person with an explanation. This is what should have happened in the first instance.

Regards, Don Weaven.

Page 17 of 18 21 March 2022

ATTACHMENT 12

From: feedback feedback@ndis.gov.au To: < @yahoo.com.au> Sent: Wednesday, 9 March 2022, 04:53:33 pm AEDT Subject: Automatic reply: [SEC=OFFICIAL]Re: Interaction ID: : Re: Correspondence and Plan Nominee for my brother - (NDIS No. )

Thank you for contacting the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) If your contact was regarding a complaint, one of our officers will make contact with you to discuss your concerns. When we make contact, our call will be from a private number. We aim to resolve your complaints within 21 calendar days, however it may take us longer where the complaint has multiple or complex issues. If you are contacting the NDIA on behalf of a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participant, we need to ensure we are only providing information to people who are authorised representatives or nominees. We may ask you some questions to confirm your identity and confirm the participant’s consent for you to contact the NDIA on their behalf. If you believe your NDIS plan no longer meets your needs or you are requesting a review of a NDIS decision, your request will be forwarded to the NDIA National Review Team for their consideration and response. If you contacted the NDIA with feedback, thank you for taking the time to do so. We will provide this feedback to the relevant business areas within the NDIA and contact you should we require any further information. For general enquiries please contact the NDIA Call Centre on . If you need crisis help, you should contact your local GP, hospital or mental health crisis team. Alternatively, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. Kind regards, National Disability Insurance Agency Phone 1800 800 110 Email feedback@ndis.gov.au

Page 18 of 18 21 March 2022