SUB.100.00295_0001
please see below concern from a provI er s vIewpoIn . I would like to raise a concern in relation to the Community Visitor Scheme (CVS) which no longer is able to continue providing visiting and advocacy on behalf of participants and families to Disability Service Provider organisations or any Disability Non-Government Organisation (NGO). We believe this has a huge impact for the many participants and their families that were able to speak independently to the CVS re their service delivery experiences. The Department of Human Services has confirmed that State Regulations under the Disability Services Act (DSA) no longer enable the CVS to visit
NGO Disability Accommodation, Day Option programs and Supported Residential Facilities (SRFs) as
individuals in these programs and facilities are funded via the NDIS. Individuals and NGO’s will now be subjected to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (NDIS QSC) who have a range of quality checks such as audits, registration, and complaints handling, and who will only visit these individuals and/or facilities if concerns are raised through a combination of these checks. The Disability Services Act was not only a funding Act, but provided the coercive powers of unannounced visits and right of entry that were in the Provider Panel funding agreements between the State and NGOs. These are no longer in place. In other States, Community Visitors are under different legislations and departments. In Victoria, under the Public Advocate, amendments have been made to the Residential Tenancies Act to ensure CVs can continue visiting NGOs. In NSW, the Disability Visitor Scheme will report under the new Disability and Ageing Commissioner. Finally, in Qld CVs will operate under the Guardian. These jurisdictions are all continuing their Visiting schemes and will be referring issues of concern to the NDIS QSC. Legislation and regulation amendments have not been undertaken in SA at this stage The difference between CVS visits and the NDIS QSC, in my view, is the ability to apply more community values and scrutiny eg how would you want this service to be for a loved one (a family member) and how would you want them communicated to or responded to by staff? CVS were proactive in visiting all programs and facilities rather than just those where concerns or information gathering suggests there could be a problem. Many NGOs welcomed the visits and reports as one measure of the quality of their services, and used the reports as a quality improvement tool. It is a challenge to realise that this strategy from the CVS will no longer be available to organisations. In my opinion one of two things should be implemented, 1) The state government reintroduce the CVS or better still a CVS to be incorporated into the Quality and Safeguarding Commission audit process. Again in my opinion this would be a more important informant to the quality audits than looking at how we run the business which is already part of the financial audit process we already do. Many thanks for taking the time to read this concern.