Dear Committee

Thank you for undertaking an inquiry into Independent Assessments under the NDIS; in doing so we hope you listen and value disabled people’s perspective on this proposal.

We are writing to you as an NDS participant, a blind man with a hearing impairment, and as a daughter who has supported him to access the NDIS.

We hold many concerns about the introduction of independent assessments which we have outlined below:

Undue stress of assessments:

We found the process of joining the NDIS as well as the yearly plan reviews very stressful. In fact, supporting my father to apply for and access the NDIS was one of the most stressful things I’ve done. We always feel that we need to “prove” disability and support needs. We feel this pressure would be exacerbated by the proposed independent assessments. It feels like you are challenging the long term and ongoing nature of disability to “check” we are still eligible, rather than supporting disabled people to access assessments and supports.

Unknown professionals conducting assessments:

We believe this process will remove choice and control from the NDIS participant. People should be allowed to choose who assesses their disability and support needs. Disability is complex, multi-layered and cannot be understood in a short, one-off meeting with an individual. I would like the committee to imagine having to bear very personal details about what you can and cannot do to a stranger, particularly while coming to terms with more vision loss and new support needs. It’s hard enough to do with a trusted person or professional you have built a relationship with, let alone a stranger who knows nothing about you.

For many of us, we work from a strengths based perspective, so it’s incredibly difficult to focus on what we cannot do and talk about this at length in an assessment. Our default is to talk about strengths and what I can do; it takes me time to build the rapport and trust with professionals to feel more comfortable to talk about my limitations and support needs. We believe it is absolutely vital to include reports from an experienced team of experts, who each specialise in the particular area of that disability, has worked with the person over a period of time and understand the full impact of their disability on all aspects of their life.

Training and experience of professionals conducting assessments:

We believe professionals need specific disability training and experience to undertake assessments. We have had this shown to us time and time again when working with professionals; just because you have an OT background, does not mean you have the necessary skills and experience to work with someone with vision loss. The same would apply for every other disability and health profession. This would be significantly amplified for those with complex needs.

The way the proposal outlines it will outsource the assessments, is concerning; the sector does not have the capacity and skill set to meet this demand. This will result in inexperienced professionals making assessments and decisions beyond their professional scope. We would like to refer the committee to the Disability Royal Commission who are currently outline the gaps in health professionals training and education – this is a serious problem that cannot be fixed quickly and within the timeframe that is proposed.

Although the proposal is confident that there will enough assessors in rural and remote areas, we do not believe this will be the case. We live an hour outside of a capital city and do not have access to local skilled professionals. We must wait for a professional to “coming out our way” from the city to get an appointment. We strongly believe that the shortage of skilled professionals in this area cannot be remedied overnight and there will be a negative impact of those outside of metro areas.

Thank you for the opportunity to make this submission and we sincerely hope that the committee seriously considers the issues we raised, as well as others raised by the disabled community.

Kind regards