NDIA Accountability Project

Lack of Independence and Bias in Independent Assessments

Independent Assessments

                                   Submission 80

26/03/2021

Joint Standing Committee on the NDS Australian Parliament

Submission regarding Inquiry into Independent Assesment under the NDIS

X is a company providing services to people with disabilities in NSW. We make this submission regarding the Inquiry into Independent Assesments under the NDIS.

Lack of Independence and Bias

Independent Assessments will not be independent of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), they will only be independent of participants. The NDIA will be a major client of each assessment provider, so each assessment provider will be biased to serve the preferences of the NDIA. It is commonly reported that the NDIA wishes to reduce the NDIS costs per participant. Accordingly it is reasonable to expect that assessors will be biased to minimise the assessment of participants’ need.

Submission 1 –

We submit that “Independent Assessments” should be renamed to remove the word “Independent” because use of the word “Independent” in this context is false and misleading.

Submission 2 –

Proposed NDIS legislation should be amended to build in safeguards to reduce the dependence of assessment providers on the NDIA and reduce the risk of bias by assessment providers eg appointment of assessment providers should be decided by an independent party such as the CEO of the relevant professional body for allied health professionals eg Australian Psychological Society.

Independent Assessments should be Reviewable Decisions

Independent Assessment decisions will have far-reaching ramifications for participants in the NDS. It is expected that assessments will take approximately 3 hours on average. It is obvious that mistakes will be made in some cases in the assessor’s perception, or the assessor’s professional opinion or in communication by the participants (many of whom will have severely limited communication abilities). It will be profoundly unjust if participants do not have the right to request review and appeal Independent Assesments.

Submission 3 –

All aspects of decisions in Independent Assessments must be reviewable decisions regarding which participants can appeal and present alternative assessments.

Yours sincerely