Submission to the Parliamentary Committee re proposed NDis
Summary: Our recent experience, as parents of an adult son with intellectual and onumberother disabilities, in the NDIA pilot of independent assessments is given below as it nrelates to four of the Committee’s Terms of Reference. We hope that our experience, as well as that of others who have been involved in the pilot, will help decision makers to provide fair access to the NDIS for those who need it, giving some relief for parents who support their sons and daughters with significant disabilities.
Terms of Reference re NDIS independent assessments:
a. the development, modelling, reasons and justifications for the introduction of independent assessments into the NDIS; b. the impact of similar policies in other jurisdictions and in the provision of other government services; c. the human and financial resources needed to effectively implement independent assessments; d. the independence, qualifications, training, expertise and quality assurance of assessors; e. the appropriateness of the assessment tools selected for use in independent assessments to determine plan funding; f. the implications of independent assessments for access to and eligibility for the NDIS; g. the implications of independent assessments for NDIS planning, including decisions related to timing reasonable and necessary supports; h. the circumstances in which a person may not be required to complete an independent assessment; i. opportunities to review or challenge the outcomes of independent assessments; j. the appropriateness of independent assessments for particular cohorts of people with disability, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people from regional, rural and remote areas, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds; k. the appropriateness of independent assessments for people with particular disability types, including psychosocial disability; and l. any other related matters
SUBMISSION We are the parents of a 40-year-old man who was recently asked to participate in the NDIS Pilot on independent assessments in Brisbane, where we live. We would live like to submit the following information about our experience of this process which ook place on 14th Jan 2021. Our comments relate to the terms of reference above that were relevant to our experience.
(d) the independence, qualifications, training, expertise and quality assurance of assessors.
our assessor was an experienced OT who shared with us that her son had a disability. Though nothing like the disability of our son, she had the understanding as a parent of communication difficulties and their effect, and we felt she could uunderstand our son. We were happy with her independence, qualifications, training and expertise.
Independent Assessments
Submission 25
We feel that it’s extremely important, though, that each independent assessor engaged to assess a person with disability have experience with the type of disability they are assessing.
Independent assessments have a much greater chance of being accepted as fair by people with disability / their families, if the assessor is experienced in the type of disability they are assessing.
(e) The appropriateness of the tools selected for use in independent assessments to determine plan funding.
The assessor took a lot of notes while speaking with us, but we weren’t sure how much of what was typed would have appeared in the final report. Complex issues, like those being discussed, need more than “box ticking”. Generic questions cannot produce a clear or complete picture of an individual person.
We felt that some of the tools used in the assessment were not relevant in our situation, especially the Craig Hospital Inventory of Environmental Factors (CRAIG). It is designed to gain information about other factors which can affect someone with a disability, like physical surroundings and accessibility, attitudes and support of others, resources that are available, rules and regulations of organisations and government policies and seemed to be aimed mostly at people with physical disabilities living independently. Questions that have to be rated on how severe a problem is now, and how often it occurs are extremely difficult to answer. They also cannot capture problems that will occur if the support given by a parent or support worker, for example, is no longer available.
We are older parents, still caring for our son. He is well supported by us, and also by the NDIS funding that he already receives, so quite a number of questions were not relevant. We did have the opportunity to talk about the amount of paperwork we were dealing with because of the NDIS, and how workplace health and safety concerns of one organisation had prevented our son, when he was younger, from doing mowing work which he enjoyed, but these things, especially the latter, didn’t fit within the scoring system of the tool. During the assessment, we kept thinking that the answers we gave on behalf of our son would probably have been different, if we were no longer able to provide the support we do.
The assessor spent very little time observing our son. He can perform some tasks quite adequately, but others of no interest to him, not at all. An assessor cannot possibly get a true picture of someone’s ability after observing for less than 20 minutes.
We wonder how the assessment tools used could determine the reasonable and necessary financial support to be provided by the NDIS in any sort of fair way.
(g) The Implications of Independent Assessments for NDIS Planning
Our son’s first NDIS Plan started in September 2018, so we have now had experience of the NDIS in its current form for more than two years. His disabilities are intellectual, epilepsy, autism and mild physical disability of scoliosis and kyphosis.
We have found it very beneficial to have had assessments by a Speech Therapist, a Physiotherapist, a Psychologist and an Occupational Therapist who all made recommendations for ways to help our son live his life well. Each of these therapists were engaged on recommendation from other people and have given independent advice. This advice has been incorporated into our planning for our son, and we now only contact these therapists when we need additional advice.
We feel that the assessment tools used in the NDIA pilot were very generic and would be unable to help contribute to NDIS planning. We have no idea how the NDIA plans to use the scores generated by the independent assessment to determine funding for reasonable and necessary supports. We have not yet received a copy of the assessment, so cannot comment on how accurate it might be. We feel that one 2.5 hour interview with an independent assessor is not sufficient to get a full understanding of a person or give the NDIA enough information to make fair decisions related to funding.
(i) Opportunities to Review or Challenge the Outcomes of Independent Assessments
It’s very important that people undergoing assessments be provided with the results of this assessment as soon as possible. Assessments are stressful, and people will become anxious if they don’t know when results of the assessment will be provided, even in the current pilot scheme which has no impact on a person’s current access to the NDI S.
We have also found in the past that people assessing our son’s disability can misinterpret what is said to them, so it’s important that people or their Nominees have the opportunity to review assessment results and challenge anything that is incorrect. We really appreciated receiving a draft of the report from our son’s Psychologist in June 2020, and having the opportunity to correct a couple of small points in the report.
In general, being provided with a date when a report should be received, and having that date adhered to, as well as allowing feedback, will really help people and their families feel satisfied with the assessment process, and reduce stress involved in the process.