Syndromes Without A Name (SWAN) Australia
ABN: 60 997 297 388
PO Box 390, Fairfield, VIC 3078
0404 280 441 info@swanaus.org.au
swanaus.org.au facebook.com/SWANAustralia twitter.com/swanaus
Committee Secretariat
Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
13 September 2018
Dear Committee Secretariat,
Syndromes Without A Name (SWAN) Australia is a not for profit charity which provides information and support to families caring for a child with an undiagnosed or rare genetic condition. Many of our families have children with multiple disabilities and we have provided and will continue to provide guidance and support to our members around the NDIS.
We welcome the Joint Standing Committee Inquiry into, and report on, the ICT infrastructure employed by the NDIA. We have addressed our main areas of concern which comes from our members experiences of using the MyPlace Portal first hand.
Participant and provider experiences of the MyPlace Portal;
Inconsistent wording in categories SWAN is concerned that the MyPlace Portal is not easy to use, when participants are trying to claim from the Portal. The Support Categories on the Portal are not the same as the Outcomes Framework Domain Categories on the Pricing Guide. In a participant’s plan, the Support Category in the pricing guide is generally the same as the support area that is written on the printable participants plan but not always. This can be very confusing for participants. For example, a participant might have “CB Daily Activity” as drop down option when they are claiming from the Portal but on their plan and in the pricing guide it might be written as “Improved Daily Living Skills”. A core item such as “Social and Community and Civic Participation” is written without the word “Core” against it on the portal but is listed as “Assistance with Social and Community Participation” in the pricing guide. There is a number written afterwards, which makes little sense. This can be very confusing for any new MyPlace Portal user.
Recommendation: Use the same language that is written in the pricing guides on written plans and on the Support Category on the Portal and make the Portal clearer to use.
Providing information and support to families caring for a child with an undiagnosed or rare genetic condition
Inability to print from the Portal One SWAN member reported to us that they were unable to print their plan from the MyPlace Portal. They tried multiple times to print from the PDF button on the Portal. This caused considerable frustration for the person concerned, not to mention many hours on the telephone to try and sort out the issue.
Recommendation: Ensure the MyPlace Portal is free of bugs to eliminate this happening again. If there are bugs in the program, they need to be fixed as a priority
Inability to change a Plan cover letter Another SWAN member mentioned to the NDIS their cover letter on the first plan was wrong. It incorrectly stated that the request for the participants representatives to self manage their child’s plan had been refused, however throughout the written plan it stated “NDIS will pay me directly for these supports” and the participant could upload to the Portal. So, they could clearly self manage their child’s plan. They requested the NDIS change the cover letter on their plan to indicate that they could self manage but were told they couldn’t because it was a computer-generated letter. They then requested it be changed when they received their next plan, but nothing has been done. Having stated on your plan that you are an “unreasonable risk to your child” is quite offensive when you clearly are not and have the ability to self-manage a NDIS plan.
Recommendation: Flexibility for letters to be changed when they are incorrect
Correct address We have heard of Plans being delivered to the wrong address because they have been incorrectly addressed, leading to recipients waiting weeks for their plan to arrive
Recommendation: Confirm all contact details are correct at the planning meeting
Inability to sort payment requests under “Submitted Claims”
There is no ability to sort payment requests by date or print them. To view your latest payment request you have to go to the last page. You should be able to search by the different fields by clicking on the headings e.g. payment request number, submitted date, support category, support start and end dates, payment total and status
Recommendation: Add a “sort by column” option to viewing payment requests section of the Portal.
Slow response time of MyGov Portal
The portal at peak times is very slow to use which is very frustrating as many Carers are time poor and don’t want to spend unnecessary time waiting for the Portal to load
Recommendation: Increase band with or server space on the Portal to speed it up
My Document Upload section of MyGov Portal
It is unclear what documents participants need to upload “My Document Upload” section of the MyGov Portal. Some SWAN members have thought they need to upload their payment receipts, others thought they needed to upload their therapist reports.
Recommendation: Description of what documents should be uploaded to the “My Document Upload” section of the portal.
SWAN Australia – NDIS ICT Systems Submission – September 2018
More overlap of plans on the MyGov Portal
Providers can be slow at issuing invoices to clients and clients never know when their new plan will come through. This makes it difficult to back claim from an old plan.
Recommendation: Have the ability to back claim against the old plan for 30 days into the new plan to make it easier for providers to be paid.
We welcome the opportunity to provide further feedback on our submission and thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Kind regards