The head of a major Illawarra provider of disability services has welcomed the outcome of a National Disability Scheme review, which recommends there be broader supports available outside the scheme while it returns to a focus on people with permanent and significant disability.
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The review's final report, released on Thursday, outlined 26 recommendations with 139 actions to reboot the scheme to ensure it keeps people with disability at its focus and remains sustainable into the future.
The review panel was tasked with putting people with disability back at the centre of the scheme, restoring trust and integrity, and ensuring its sustainability into the future.
Carol Berry, chief executive officer of the Illawarra-based service provider The Disability Trust, said the review achieved what it set out to do.
The Disability Trust supports over 4000 people, some 800 of them in the Illawarra.
"Fundamentally, they were given a brief to ensure that the NDIS remains being focused on people with disability and their families, and outcomes for people with disability and their families, and I think they have achieved that brief," Ms Berry said.
The report found that while the NDIS was "designed to be one part in an ecosystem of supports", the reform of mainstream services to make them more accessible and inclusive fell by the wayside.
"In trying to correct for the underfunded, inconsistent and unfair arrangements that existed prior to the NDIS, governments have come to rely on the NDIS as the dominant, and in some cases only, source of supports for people with disability - the oasis in the desert," the review panel said, adding that this contributed to inequality between participants and those not eligible for the scheme.
It found there were more children entering the scheme than anticipated not only because of higher rates of disability than forecast, but because of inadequate supports in mainstream settings.
"With so few supports outside the NDIS, it is not surprising that parents are fighting to get their children with developmental concerns or disability into the NDIS," the review found.
The report proposes that governments invest in foundational supports, available to all people with disability as well as more targeted supports, to ensure the NDIS is no longer a sole source of assistance.
The report said these supports would apply primarily to those aged under 65 and recommended particular investment in those for children.
Ms Berry welcomed the recognition of the need for broader supports in the community.
The review panel found there was a need to ensure that access to the NDIS was based mostly on significant functional impairment and need, rather than a medical diagnosis, and recommended the removal of automatic access on the basis of diagnosis.
Ms Berry said these recommendations around foundational supports might cause some anxiety because they would mean some people on the scheme might no longer be eligible, but expected reassurance would come with more detail.
The most common complaints about the NDIS the review uncovered related to the access and planning process, which the review panel said was at best described as "confusing and frustrating" and at worst, traumatic.
When plans were put in place, the panel found, they were inflexible and unresponsive to changes over time, which could result in a waste of money.
Ms Berry said the NDIS was "transformative" and as a service provider, The Disability Trust wanted to see its ongoing success.
"Fundamentally, people want high quality services that are tailored to their needs," she said.
"And the scheme I think needs to continue to evolve."
NDIS Minister Bill Shorten spoke of the need for people to see careers in disability services, which Ms Berry said she wanted to see too.
"We want to see a workforce that's qualified and really well trained in order to deliver great supports directly to people with disabilities," she said.
A coalition of organisations representing people with disability said work to reform the NDIS must be led by people with disability.
"We are calling for the immediate establishment of a Disability Reform Implementation Council to oversee how both the NDIS Review and the Disability Royal Commission recommendations are made real," they said in a statement.
"The Council must have people with disability, our families and organisations at the table to share in decision-making."
Natalie Croxon
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
