Market Readiness – additional material
Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS
20 March 2018
Victoria Legal Aid
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Stephanie’s story
Stephanie is 19 years old and lives in a metropolitan area. She enjoys socialising with her friends, listening to music, practising her make up skills and hopes to be a carer for animals.
Stephanie has an intellectual disability and a history of serious abuse by her past carers and substance abuse. Her IQ has been assessed as being 41. In March 2017, Stephanie was remanded into custody. At that time, she lived alone in a house provided by the Director of Housing under a tenancy agreement which required her to have disability supports in place within her home. Her disability supports had previously been provided by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.
At the time Stephanie was remanded, she was unable to consider whether she wanted to contest the charge or plead guilty to the offence. So, Stephanie’s lawyer commenced a bail application in an attempt to let her to return to the community while the criminal process (which is very often prolonged where a person may not be ‘fit to plead’) took place.
Soon after she was remanded, Stephanie’s first NDIS Plan commenced and was quickly reviewed. Her plan included funding for a specialist support coordinator (SSC), however no SSC would contract with her. At about this time, the provider of her residential disability supports also withdrew services. When Stephanie was unable to contract a specialist support coordinator, the remainder of her NDIS plan was left inaccessible to her. As a result of her disabilities and incarceration, she was unable to navigate the NDIS marketplace herself. As a result, Stephanie’s tenancy, which was contingent on her having disability supports in place, was terminated. She was then homeless.
When Stephanie was left without access to her funded supports and to any housing, her lawyer had to withdraw her bail application. This was because, without any support or housing, the Court would be very likely to conclude that Stephanie was an unacceptable risk of further offending. In addition, Stephanie’s guardians did not want to support a bail application which, if successful, would leave her homeless and without services in the community.
When the market failed, Stephanie’s lawyer started to attend “care team meetings”, which included a range of representatives from Commonwealth and State bodies. At these meetings, Stephanie’s lawyer repeatedly asked “what is going to be put in place for Stephanie?” and “who is going to make it happen?”. However, the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services explained that they were attending in a voluntary capacity only and were unable to assist Stephanie because she was now an NDIS participant. The NDIA stated that their role was to “provide the money” and it was “for someone else to distribute it”. No-one at these meeting took responsibility for locating a specialist support coordinator, a provider of her individual supports or to resolve her housing issue.
Stephanie’s lawyer made three more attempts to try and obtain bail, and some services to support her if it was granted, in April, July and August 2017. In each case, these applications were withdrawn or adjourned without any ultimate resolution because no provider of her NDIS funded supports or housing could be located.
When Stephanie has been in custody for five months, her lawyer took a rare step and requested a revised clinical assessment of her capacity to plead to the charge. Her lawyer hoped that without the added complication of substance abuse, Stephanie may now be found fit to consider whether to plead. A reassessment of this kind is unusual, but ultimately Stephanie was found fit to plead to the charge.
Victoria Legal Aid – Market Readiness | Additional Material
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Stephanie pleaded guilty to the charge and received a three and a half month sentence. She was released immediately given that she had already served five months on remand. When she walked out of the prison she had no NDIS supports in place or permanent housing. Instead, one of her guardians (an individual with no family association to her) came forward and agreed that Stephanie could live with her on a temporary basis.