Transcript:

Hi everyone. It’s great to be back with you again. First of all, I just want to give you a quick update on the Individual Disability Advocacy Program, which we’ve talked about on many occasions on these videos.

The department is currently analysing submissions and preparing a consultation report on the IDAP. Communication on next steps for the reforms program will occur after ministers have been briefed and consider the public consultation findings.

The department advised that there will be a transition period when IDAP commences to support organisations through the new program. The department shared some of the emerging themes, that they’ve heard from submissions so far and they include broad confirmation and support for the concepts proposed and a clear preference from the sector to avoid significant changes.

And now I just want to talk about, needs assessments in the NDIS. Last week we began consulting on changes to these under the new NDIS planning framework. And there are several steps in the new proposed framework. But we’re going to focus on two important areas in our submission. And they are replacement assessments and review rights and impairment notices.

An impairment notice is a notice that tells a person which disability categories they meet in order to access the NDIS. The new framework introduces an assessment called a Support Needs Assessment, and this will be used to identify what disability-related supports a person actually needs. And if someone disagrees with the assessment, they can ask for a review and they can request a replacement assessment. But it’s not yet clear how the NDIA will decide if someone can have a replacement assessment.

So we’re focusing on replacement assessments and review rights because that’s where people are most likely to need advocacy. The impairment notices are already live and we’re keen to understand their impacts. They also set the scope for the support needs assessments. So far, we’ve held a workshop with our members about replacement assessments and review rights, and we’ve had short interviews with members about their experiences with impairment notices.

We’re going to continue our work advocating here to make sure that people’s rights are protected and that the system is fair and clear. And what’s most important to us, absolutely, is that people do not experience harm as a result of this new framework. So we are advocating both individually as an organisation and also as, a group that alongside other disability representative organisations.

And finally, I just want to mention that, last week, DANA and the Disability Dialogue team members attended, the Australian Disability Strategy Forum in Adelaide. The focus was on health and safeguards. It was a great chance to hear from advocates, government and community leaders and connect with others passionate about disability rights.

We also heard from, ARTD consultants who will evaluate the strategy, looking at how it’s working, how it’s being delivered, and what difference it is making for people with disability.

ARTD will work with people with disability, and we’ll open a public consultation soon and you can visit artd.com.au if you’d like to stay up to date. So that’s all for this week and I will speak to you again next week.