General issues around the implementation and performance of the NDIS

Submission 6 - Supplementary Submission 2

Hi, this is an update to submission 6 please.

It’s now been 17 weeks (4 months) since I was accepted onto the NDIS. I wish I had good news but my situation has barely changed. My 2nd support coordinator isn’t putting supports into place. I gave her a clear list of the kind of supports I need (social and employment) at the first meeting at the start of August, but she has just done her own thing and is now ignoring me. She has only contacted one of the people on my list, preferring to phone people that she was already using then leaving me to organize it myself. The one support she has put in place (after my LAC phoned on my behalf) is incorrect. I have one carer who comes out for 2 hours a week but barely speaks to me. My SC hasn’t attempted to put supports in place for almost 2 months now. My LAC is great but is too busy to help too much. I have level 2 support coordination.

I gave the SC the required 30 days notice at the end of 2 months with a 2 week grace period as she had said she would look into something. Her next contact was an email at 11pm at the end of the 2 weeks to say she was sorry for letting me down and would come out for weekly meetings. All my attempts to find out when are being ignored. My complaint to her manager has also been ignored. (I can’t use the phone so this is all done via email).

My first plan started at the end of July, its now mid November. I am still waiting on employment supports which are desperately needed, and the only supports I have in place are the ones I have guessed at (plan manager, support coordinator, & transport from a company I had previously).

The NDIS needs to change the way that support coordinators are paid. If a SC does badly and clients need to complain via email like me, the SC gets paid more for sorting things out. The longer they take to sort it out, the more they get paid.

Support coordinators also seem to be able to take on clients when other clients like me don’t have supports in place, which mean people like me are constantly pushed to the side or ignored. My suggestion would be that SC’s are more strictly regulated so that they can’t take a new client until all other clients have at least 75% supports in place. Otherwise, no matter what support coordinator I use it will be the same, with them dangling help but taking other clients on at the same time and leaving me with no support.