General issues around the implementation and performance of the NDIS Submission 75
Auditor-General for Australia OFFICIAL
Australian National Audit Office
19 July 2021
The Hon Kevin Andrews MP Chair Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Email: ndis.sen@aph.gov.au
Dear Mr Andrews
Inquiry into General issues around the implementation and performance of the NDIS
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) published the following performance audit report that you may find relevant to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme inquiry into the general issues around the implementation and performance of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
- Auditor-General Report No. 14 of 2020–21, Decision-making Controls for NDIS Participant Plans.
Information about what the audit assessed, concluded and recommended is attached. The audit report is available online at www.anao.gov.au.
Should the Committee require further information in relation to this matter, my office would be pleased to provide you with a briefing at a time convenient to you or appear as a witness at a hearing.
To arrange a briefing, please contact our External Relations area at redacted
Yours sincerely
Grant Hehir
GPO Box 707, Canberra ACT 2601
38 Sydney Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603
General issues around the implementation and performance of the NDIS Submission 75
OFFICIAL
Auditor-General Report No. 14 of 2020–21, Decision-making Controls for NDIS Participant Plans, assessed whether the NDIA has appropriate controls to ensure supports in participant plans are ‘reasonable and necessary’.
The audit concluded that:
The NDIA does not yet have appropriate controls to ensure supports in participant plans are ‘reasonable and necessary’. While an appropriate control framework had been established, the effective implementation of the controls will provide the NDIA with greater assurance that the supports approved in participant plans are reasonable and necessary. Effective implementation of controls will further assist the NDIA to manage risks relating to Scheme sustainability, while ensuring participants are receiving adequate supports.
While the NDIA had established largely appropriate policies and processes for participant planning, the implementation of the policies and processes did not provide the NDIA with appropriate assurance that supports in participant plans are reasonable and necessary.
The NDIA does not yet have appropriate oversight mechanisms in place to ensure the supports in participant plans are reasonable and necessary. The NDIA has established some frameworks for oversight and control of decision-making for participant plans; however, to date, this is not systematically leading to enterprise wide actions for improvement and compliance in decision-making.
The report included three recommendations.
Recommendation No. 1 The National Disability Insurance Agency review and update the ICT system controls relating to recording participant planning considerations and approvals, to align the system processes with internal policy requirements and to better support planning processes for reasonable and necessary decision-making.
National Disability Insurance Agency response: Agreed.
Recommendation No. 2 The National Disability Insurance Agency establishes mechanisms to track and analyse (at the enterprise level) issues arising from review mechanisms to inform continuous improvement in reasonable and necessary decision-making, including:
a. using outcomes data from internal reviews and AAT reviews, including early resolution outcomes, to inform continuous improvement in reasonable and necessary decision-making; and b. implementing metrics for measuring the success of continuous improvement initiatives to enable the Agency to determine whether the initiatives are having the intended impact.
National Disability Insurance Agency response: Agreed.
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General issues around the implementation and performance of the NDIS Submission 75
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Recommendation No. 3 The National Disability Insurance Agency align service delivery KPI and quality metric targets for reasonable and necessary decision-making; and review the target on a regular basis with a view to increasing the target to drive greater quality standards in reasonable and necessary decision-making.
National Disability Insurance Agency response: Agreed and Completed.
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