INTRODUCTION
Hello, I am the mother of a young adult who is an NDIS participant. I am also step-mother to two young adults who also are both NDIS participants. I have tertiary qualifications in Disability Services, I have held a Board position for a Disability Service provider, and I am a registered NDIS provider. My husband and I started self-managing the NDIS plans for two or our three sons (the third son was plan managed by his mother) and as of May 2019, we commenced self-managing the third son’s plan as well.
I wish to address the NDIS Planning discussion points;
a. The experience, expertise and qualifications of planners This has been a mixed experience. The LAC who interviewed us for my son’s first plan had very little knowledge, we were her third client. She gathered information by asking questions as per the template on her laptop. She was struggling to answer my questions and interpret our answers. I queried her knowledge and training to which she admitted to only basic training. I emailed the LAC my preparation documents and reports and before she left, I asked her to read back her notes to ensure she had the correct information. It took many weeks (close to 2 months) before my son’s first plan arrived. The “About Me” section was so poorly written it couldn’t be understood. The LAC was a poor match culturally for my family. I struggled to understand her accent.
NDIS planners or LACs rely on the accuracy of previous plans. If the information is inaccurate or poorly written, the plan starts from a poor base. The NDIS template is “generic”. Each year I email my preparation documents, reports and quotes to the planner (during the meeting) and my son’s Support Coordinator email his summary of that year’s plan to the planner 48 hours prior to the meeting.
Regardless of the experience, expertise or qualifications of the planners, my son’s latest plan took 7 weeks from the interview to approval. The interviewing planner went on annual leave a week after the interview and didn’t return until 2 days before the plan expired. I was unable to speak to anyone at NDIS about this. My emails were unanswered. I went to the local office and the person I spoke to lied, telling me another planner who was working on my son’s plan was “at a meeting” when the planner explained a few days later that she had been on sick leave and was only now about to start working on my sons plan.
b. The ability of planners to understand and address complex needs; All planners have expressed some level of training, however it becomes very clear, very quickly most rely on the outgoing plan and a questions template to gather information rather than having the ability to understand what information needs to be gathered in order to construct a plan that will work for an individual.
h. the review process and means to streamline it; My son does not participate in the planning meeting (by choice) he prefers to discuss his goals and the elements and direction of his plan in meetings with myself and his coordinator of supports prior to the planning meeting, in a more relaxed environment.
We have experienced numerous inconsistencies, different planners, from different offices, inconsistent timing of the review plan (its been anything from 3 months to 1 month prior to plan expiry), difficulty in getting consistent information from NDIA in relation to the planning meetings. The most significant issue has been contact. A PWD and their family are kept in the dark, phone calls and emails aren’t answered.
j. the circumstances in which plans could be automatically rolled-over AND
k. the circumstances in which longer plans could be introduced; It has been the experience of all three son’s that most of, or all their 12 month long goals are still current and relevant beyond 12 months. For a person with a disability, often progress with goals is “baby-steps” or they can plateau. Goals can’t easily by subjected to a timeframe.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REFERENCE POINTS a. b. h. j. and k.
PWD’s Support Coordinator conduct the planning meeting using a “Plan Quoting Tool” as is currently in place for supported independent living, the SIL Quoting Tool.
For an NDIS participant’s plan to be accurate and relevant the plan should be put together by a qualified person who has a good knowledge (and hopefully a history of service) of the PWD. For my sons this person is their Support Coordinator. In the case of Supported Independent Living, the SIL Quoting tool is completed by the SIL Provider. The SIL Provider has either an in-depth knowledge of the participant or works with the people who have this knowledge to complete the SIL quoting tool.
I would feel confident if a Support Coordinator could use a “Plan Quoting Tool” a more accurate and comprehensive plan would be the result, for the following reasons;
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Less pressure on PWD and family/advocates as they are being interviewed by a person they know and have a relationship with.
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PWD/family can choose and change Support Coordinators. They can choose a coordinator who understands their culture or language. They could choose a support coordinator who has knowledge of a disability.
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The Support Coordinators have details of a person’s budget and plan expenditure, what has or hasn’t worked in the previous 12 months.
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The Support Coordinator has knowledge of the person’s ability and needs in relation to goals.
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Support Coordinators know the family dynamics and how to best communicate with the PWD and family/advocate.
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Support Coordinator could have a contact point within NDIS to check on progress or make enquiries. This would be better than PWD or family/advocate contacting NDIS direct. Less calls to NDIS and more accurate questions being asked.
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Like the SIL Quoting Tool, there could be checks and benchmarks built into the plan to streamline the process.
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Less occurrence of unscheduled plan reviews. I further wish to address the NDIS Planning discussion points;
c. The ongoing training and professional development of planners; The basic training provided by NDIS, in our case, hasn’t been of help. Lived experience as a PWD or a carer to a PWD will give a planner empathy but not helpful knowledge that can be applied in putting a plan together for a person if their disability is different to the participants.
d. Overall number of planners relative to the demand for plans; It was our experience this plan review (July 2019) that the planner who attended the interview on 2 July, went on leave a week later. The return date for his annual leave was two days before the expiry on my son’s plan. Regardless of the experience, expertise or qualifications of the planners, my son’s latest plan took 7 weeks from the interview to approval. The interviewing planner went on
annual leave a week after the interview and didn’t return until 2 days before the plan expired. I was unable to speak to anyone at NDIS about this. My emails were unanswered. I went to the local office and the person I spoke to lied, telling me the planner working on my son’s plan was “at a meeting” when the planner explained a few days later that she had been on sick leave and was about to start working on my sons plan. This caused major stress for my son and myself. My son’s plan expired without any communication initiated from NDIS. Assigning a plan review to a planner who is unable to fulfil his obligations in a reasonable timeframe indicates to me a lack of planners for the demand.
e. Participant involvement in planning processes and the efficacy of introducing draft plans; There is very little to no involvement in planning process for the PWD or family/advocate. It’s like waiting to see if you’ve won the lottery or been given a “dud” plan.
Having access to view a draft plan, would significantly slow the already slow approval process if the planner gathering and interpreting information, goals and needs has little to no knowledge of the participant or experience with that type of disability.
f. The incidence, severity and impact of plan gaps;
- If the gap relates to a plan ending before the new plan begins or not knowing what will be in the new plan (if the information is available only on the day the old plan expires). This has an impact on self-managed NDIS participants in that new service bookings shouldn’t be signed until the funding amount is known. You are unable to commit to a new service without knowing if the funding will be available. This causes significant stress, missed opportunities and having to sign service bookings at the 11th hour.
2. If the gap relates to items missing from a plan? It is almost impossible for a planner who
doesn’t know the individual to construct a comprehensive plan (unless its very basic) without in depth knowledge of the PWD as an individual. I use (and share) a template I have made to prepare for planning meetings. All my sons’ plans have been comprehensive due to the template not the planner.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REFERENCE POINTS c,d,e and f.
If planning meeting is conducted by the PWD Support Coordinator there is less chance of plans would expire or be inadequate. Having said that the Support Coordinators need to be qualified and registered to keep a good standard of work.
CONCLUSION
Qualified, trained, registered Support Coordinators (non NDIS) replace the role of NDIS planners using a “Plan Quoting Tool” (like the SIL Quoting Tool).
Support Coordinators have a contact point with NDIS to check on progress of plan, make any final adjustments and review a draft plan (review with PWD and family at their option).
Support Coordinators to liaise with NDIS to answer any questions from NDIS, supply further information, reports, quotes or like justify funding requests in line with goals.