Importance of face-to-face planning and Local Coordination role | External submission

Minister for Environment; Disability Services

Deputy Leader of the Legislative Council

Our ref 62-04176

Hon Kevin Andrews MP

Chair

Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme

Dear Mr Andrews

I am pleased to provide the attached submission on behalf of the Western Australian Government to the Joint Standing Committee s inquiry into transitional arrangements for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

I note the Joint Standing Committee will release its report on the inquiry in February 2018. I look forward to considering the Committee’s findings in relation to this matter

Yours sincerely

Hon Stephen Dawson MIC

MINISTER FOR DISABILITY SERVICES

3 0 NOV 2017

Level 12, Dumas House, 2 Ha elock Street, West Perth, Western Australia, 6005. Telephone +61 8 6552 5800 Facsimile +61 8 6552 5801 Email Minister.Dawson@dpc.wa.gov.au

Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme:

Transitional Arrangements for the National Disability

Insurance Scheme

Western Australia (WA) has considered the focus areas for the Transitional Arrangements for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) inquiry and submits the following comments based on previous learnings and experience, in relation to: 1 Importance of face-to-face planning and the Local Coordination role;

Information, Linkages and Capacity Building
NDIS Governance; and
Boundaries of the NDIS and interfaces with mainstream services.
Importance of face-to-face plannin and the Local Coordination role

The Productivity Commission Study report into NDIS Costs (the PC Report)

recommends that the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) should review its protocols in relation to how phone planning is used, and to ensure that Local Area Coordinators are on the ground six months before the scheme is rolled out in an area and are engaging in pre-planning with participants (Recommendation 5.2).

The ’New Participant Pathway described by the Pathway Review undertaken by the NDIA (published in October 2017) provides that face-to-face engagement between participants and Local Area Coordinator will be the standard for plan development (unless the participant prefers otherwise).

WA has found that local coordination is an effective model of person-centred disability support that achieves positive outcomes for people with disability, their families and carers and contributes to the sustainability of a disability insurance scheme.

WA’s experience has shown that face-to-face engagement has significant benefits for people with disability, including:

Making assistance available to people when they are navigating the eligibility process;
Allowing for a series of discussions exploring and identifying the most appropriate strategies available to assist a person to achieve their goals;
Facilitating an accurate and efficient planning process through the shared understanding and relationship that is built;
Assisting people with disability to involve people of their choice when developing their plan as part of a supported decision making process; and
Facilitating constructive engagement in plan reviews by all parties.

The value of local coordination also extends beyond the planning process:

Many individuals, especially those with intellectual or cognitive disability, benefit from assistance to link with services and navigate multiple service systems. This results in the efficient implementation of plans and high utilisation of supports, contributing to better outcomes for people with disability.
Decisions about packages are well-informed because they are made at the local level by people who know the individual, their community, service providers, mainstream organisations and local infrastructure.
Local Coordinators (LCs) can increase a person s participation in their community and reduce their dependence on funded services by strengthening informal, community-based supports and maximising the impact of mainstream services at the local level.
LCs work to make local communities more inclusive and welcoming through education, advocacy and partnerships with local community members, businesses, government and non-government organisations.

WA has found that LCs play a pivotal role in the successful delivery of disability supports in regional and remote areas through the relationships they build with people, communities, support providers and other mainstream agencies in these areas.

Local knowledge and decision making is particularly important in regional and remote WA, where people with disability, their families and carers have come to expect local, responsive services and decision making that is culturally appropriate and responsive to their unique needs and circumstances.

WA is strongly supportive of face-to-face planning being the standard for plan development, and of the role currently carried out by Local Coordination roles.

Information. Linkages and Capacity Building The PC Report finds that it is critical to have structures in place to ensure people with disability (both inside and outside the NDIS) are adequately connected with appropriate services (Finding 6.1).

To support the provision of the resources for Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) (a Commonwealth government responsibility under the NDIS) the PC Report recommends that funding for ILC should be increased, to the full scheme amount of $131 million for each year during the transition (Recommendation 6.1).

WA is strongly supportive of the Commonwealth government appropriately resourcing ILC as an essential element of the NDIS.

NDIS Governance Governance of the NDIS currently rests on collaboration and collective decision making among participating governments through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and the Disability Reform Council. The ability to draw on the collective knowledge and experience of jurisdictions has been to the benefit of the NDIS. It also reflects that States and Territories have a significant interest in the NDIS, given:

The critical importance of the NDIS in meeting the needs of people with disability
The need to ensure continuity of support for individuals moving between State and Territory service systems and the NDIS.
The level of financial investment in the NDIS by States and Territories.
That disability support has traditionally been the responsibility of State and Territory governments.
The implications of Scheme policy for State and Territory mainstream services. WA considers that it is essential for States and Territories to play an ongoing role in the governance of the NDIS into the future.

Boundaries of the NDIS and interface with mainstream services The PC Report makes a number of findings and recommendations around boundaries and interfaces with the NDIS.

The Pathway Review also highlights that the NDIS fits within a broader supports and services system, which includes other government services, informal supports and community supports.

The ‘New Participant Pathway’ described by the Pathway Review recognises the place of the NDIS within a broader system and that broader supports are a key element to be included in the development of a participant plan.

WA is strongly supportive of a participant pathway which is cognisant of the many elements which make up the supports for people with disability.

Organised engagement with mainstream services

WA has previously recognised and managed interface issues between the WA NDIS and mainstream services through a dedicated team within the Department of Communities (Disability Services; previously the Disability Services Commission) which engages with the State Government agencies whose programs and services interface with the WA NDIS.

The mainstream engagement team works with mainstream agencies to explain the delineation of roles and responsibilities between the WA NDIS and mainstream agencies, to assist mainstream agencies to support people with disability as part of their universal service obligation and to manage in-kind programs and services.

Addressing the service viability and sector capacity issues in regional and remote areas to ensure continuity of care for people with disability, and ensuring appropriate information exchange between mainstream agencies and the NDIS will be key for the national NDIS going forward.

The PC Report found that one of the groups at risk of a less positive experience with the NDIS includes people with disability transitioning into the community from the criminal justice system (Finding 3.2).

WA has had success in this area through proactively establishing an interface with the criminal justice system, with the development and implementation of a referral pathway to the WA NDIS for those prisoners who may be eligible for the NDIS once released into the community. To-date, a number of individuals have benefited from this flexible and localised approach to planning and have successfully integrated back into the community.

WA considers that organised engagement with mainstream services will be essential to ensuring that all participants have a positive experience with the NDIS.

Applied Principles and Tables of Supports (APTOS)

The APTOS has been agreed by COAG and provides a division of responsibility between the NDIS and mainstream services. This division provides that neither side replaces or subsidies the other, and allocates support responsibilities to the area best placed to deliver them.

WA considers that the APTOS, in its current form, should remain a key element of the national NDIS policy environment moving forward.