National Cabinet commits to rebooting NDIS with $720 million investment and 10 key initiatives

By Kelly Wilton

The National Cabinet of Australia is committing to rebooting the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to provide sustainable and effective support for people with disabilities.

The more than $720 million investment in the NDIA’s capability, capacity and systems, developed with the NDIA Board, in consultation with the NDIS Review Co-chairs, includes 10 key initiatives:

1. Investing in better decision-making processes and planner capability for participants with specialised needs.
2. Moving to less frequent plan reviews where it makes sense and committing to participants that not spending budgets won’t affect future plans.
3. Improving lifetime planning approach to ensure plans are more transparent and flexible for life events. This includes the flexibility where participants do not need as much support at a stage of life but know that they can receive support as their circumstances change.
4. Better supporting participants to manage their plan within budget, including assistance from NDIA during the year and holding plan managers, support coordinators and providers to account.
5. Partnering with communities to pilot alternative commissioning to improve access to supports in remote and First Nations communities.
6. Working with participants and providers to trial blended payments to increase incentives for providers to innovate service delivery and achieve outcomes for participants and governments.
7. Establishing an expert advisory panel to list items to make it easier for participants to access proven evidence-based assistive technology and other supports.
8. Implementing preferred provider arrangements to leverage buying power of the NDIS.
9. Strengthening guidelines for planners on support volumes and intensity, and providing clear minimum standards of evidence for assistance with daily living.
10. Cracking down on fraud and non-compliance by funding, in addition to the Fraud Fusion Taskforce, 200 staff for two years and developing a business case for a new system to detect, prevent and reduce non-compliant payments.

To read full press release head to https://ministers.dss.gov.au/media-releases/11011