NDIA Accountability Project

Lack of transparency and focus on outcome for complainant

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Inquiry into the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission

A Victorian Statewide Service■

Villamanta advances the rights of people who have a disability related justice issue

Attention: Committee Secretary Department of the Senate PO Box 6100 Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600 AUSTRALIA

30 July, 2020

Dear Sir/Madam,

Inquiry into the NDIS Quality and Safegards Commission

Villamanta Disability Rights Legal Service Inc. (“Villamanta”) has been providing advocacy and legal services to people with disability since 1990. Villamanta’s mission is to protect and advance the rights of Victorians with a disability by advising, informing and representing them and acting as an advocate on disability-related legal and justice issues, with a focus on issues affecting people with intellectual disability.

Villamanta has experience of the Commission in the following contexts:

  • Calls to our Telephone Advice Service where individuals discuss their experience with the Commission
  • Casework clients where we are assisting with a separate matter, but they have made complaint/s to the Commission
  • Casework clients where we either assist them to make a complaint to the Commission, or advise them in the context of a complaint to the Commission
  • Providing advice and support to disability advocates who have clients making complaints to the Commission

There is more in common than different about the issues raised. We summarise them as follows.

Poor communication At the time of making a complaint the Commission appears to be trying to set expectations about what it can and cannot do. This message needs to be reviewed, because complainants consistently hear “all the things they can’t do, so I’m

Perception of bias

Complainants state that the Commission takes the word of a service provider more seriously than they do the person with disability. A person makes a complaint, the Commission asks the service provider for their response, and then the Commission closes the complaint. Complainants do not consider this a fair process at all. If a service provider provides a response, there is an expectation that the Commission will provide this response to the complainant so they can comment on it.

Comments by Commission staff to the effect that “they are a very big provider, I’m sure they did the right thing” do not uphold the functions of the Commission to independently consider complaints, and are reported to us regularly.

Expected Outcomes

could not. While an expected outcome will differ in every case, some examples from our experience include:

  • An apology. This does not appear to be something the Commission even contemplates, but is a baseline expectation of complainants.
  • An honest and transparent account of why the problem occurred, and a credible explanation as to how it will be prevented from happening again.
  • An explanation as to why the service provider did not take this issue seriously in the first place, and how future complaints will be handled more appropriately.
  • Repercussions for service providers who have caused harm. This could be as simple as the Commission explaining that the service provider has been asked to take certain actions, and should a further complaint occur which demonstrates that they didn’t, the Commission would do something more substantive. Too often complainants feel the Commission has “conciliated” a complaint, but actually all they have done is talk about the complaint, and nothing has changed at all.
  • A gesture of goodwill from the service provider. A support shift at no charge, an accessory to the equipment, something appropriate in the circumstances would help the complainant feel like this has all been worth it.

Please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned if you have queries about any of these matters.

Yours faithfully,

Deidre Griffiths Principal Solicitor & Executive Officer

Villamanta Disability Rights Legal Service Inc. Deakin University  Legal Advice: 1800 014 111 Waurn Ponds Campus  General Enquiries: 03 5227 3338 75 Pigdons Road  Email: legal@villamanta.org.au WAURN PONDS VIC 3216  Website: http://www.villamanta.org.au

ABN 32 690988 235