Grant funding needed to support early childhood services in remote communities

CENTRAL

AUSTRALIAN

ABORIGINAL

CONGRESS

ABORIGINAL CORPORATION

ICN 7823

Daniel Franklin

Director, NDIS Review Secretariat

Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet

By email: daniel.franklin@pmc.gov.au

September 22, 2023

RE: NDIS REVIEW FOLLOW-UP

Dear Mr Franklin,

I note your request for Congress to provide additional information following our participation in the NDIS Review consultation process and I am sorry for the delay in providing this response but we have been somewhat overwhelmed by the workforce crisis we are experiencing. In particular, this was in regard to the potential for the NDIS to fund early childhood centres in remote areas, through a mixed model of Child Care Subsidy (CCS) rebates and grant funding. This is described in more detail below.

 The need for grant funding – alternative commissioning approach An alternative commissioning approach using grant funding is needed in remote areas (MM6 and MM7) as these areas are thin markets and market failures exist. Grant funding is a way to ensure that services can be provided so that NDIS participants are able to access the services outlined in their plans. This is of particular importance in remote areas as less than 50 per cent of NDIS plans are being drawn on. Two years of start-up grant funding support in thin markets is required to enable services to be established and learn how to charge for NDIS services. After a two-year period the level of grant funding could be reassessed.

In a significant number of remote communities across Central Australia, early childhood centres have been built under a Commonwealth program almost a decade ago. These are state-of-the-art buildings but unfortunately, the funding to ensure they are fully operational has not been forthcoming. The future is to fund these services as fully integrated early childhood centres that combine access for all children 6 months to 5 years. They could be funded in multiple ways:

The new childcare rebate for low income Aboriginal families
Education funding for a preschool teacher for children in their last year so preschool is part of the centre
NDIS funding for children either on Early Childhood Early Intervention Plans due to developmental delay based on the ASQ-Trak or though NDIS plans for children who meet threshold with diagnosable disabilities
NDIS start-up funding for areas in a thin market
Health department funding if needed, based on the long term health impact of these centres.

We could trial this in communities that have such Early Childhood Centres in which Congress is the primary health care service provider. This includes Kaltukatjara (Docker River), Mutitjulu, Ntaria (Hermannsburg) and Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa).

Central Australian Aboriginal Congress ABN 76 210 591 710  ICN 7823

Aboriginal Corporation PO Box 1604, Alice Springs NT 0871

Phone (08) 8951 4400  caac.org.au

 States/territories should not compete with NDIS providers on service delivery A situation exists where NT-funded community health allied health teams provide services in direct competition with NDIS providers. Whilst there is no doubt these are services that are needed, they should be funded by the NDIS expect for children who do not meet the NDIS threshold. While we understand the demand for these services and the concern from clients that they will be left with nothing, it is Congress’ strong view that NT Health should reorient their service provision and stop using NT Government money to provide services in competition to services funded by the NDIS.

 Information sharing There needs to be much better information sharing between providers, including making NDIS plans available on the MyHealth Record. This will ensure that NDIS participants’ care provider team has a holistic overview of services included in their plan and can advocate on their behalf if services are these not being provided.

 Community Connectors Program

Congress recommends the Community Connectors Program should be funded on a recurrent basis as there is a permanent need for these positions in remote communities.

 Regional data reporting There is a pressing need for publicly available data that can be disaggregated in a number of ways, e.g. by age group (0-9, 9-18, over 18) and Aboriginal status. This also needs to include the average value of NDIS plans and the proportion of plans that have been spent, to be available by region.