industry & research
campusreview.com.au
Complying with the fast-evolving NDIS requirements is
challenging enough on its own. Combined with additional scrutiny
through the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and
Exploitation of People with Disability, and the pressure is well and
truly on service providers.
Feedback from the industry has been that the new NDIS
compliance landscape is jarring, confusing and expensive.
WHAT ROLE DOES THE EDUCATION SECTOR PLAY?
Joining forces
How educators can keep up with
the fast pace of industry change.
By Walter Tran
The education sector plays a critical role in supporting the
disability services industry to meet the challenges of fast-paced
change. To achieve the highest quality NDIS service delivery, we
need to start by upskilling the workforce.
Failing to educate staff and managers about their compliance
obligations under the NDIS is an organisational risk for the
providers, participants and community. If staff don’t comply,
service providers may fail their NDIS audit, fail to become
registered, have their registration revoked or even be prosecuted.
It makes sense to expose future and existing employees to these
requirements – even before they enter or work in the industry.
They need to be equipped to comply from day one.
As a result, higher education providers are reacting by offering
a range of courses to introduce or upskill students in the
requirements of the NDIS.
HOW CAN EDUCATORS KEEP PACE WITH CHANGES?
T
he National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is an
ambitious and much needed undertaking. By 2020,
460,000 people will participate in the scheme. That’s
roughly one in every 40 Australians.
The NDIS will give people with a disability choice and control
over the services they receive through a person-centric approach.
People will be able to pick and choose between NDIS service
providers to mix and match services, creating a personalised plan.
There are currently 19,000 disability service providers in
Australia, with hundreds more entering the market each month.
Most are planning on delivering services under the NDIS.
A COMPLEX REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
Such a big initiative requires a big investment in time, energy
and money from the disability services industry.
To deliver services under the NDIS, organisations will need to
register as an NDIS service provider – an onerous and expensive
process – and then meet tight ongoing compliance measures.
Service providers are required to uplift their understanding
of quality practices to ensure the community is treated fairly
and safely.
The new Quality and Safeguarding Framework, which is
overseen by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, covers
new practice standards, codes of conduct, worker screening,
complaints, incident management and behaviour guidelines that
NDIS service providers must comply with. Each comprises multiple
chapters of documentation. Providers must translate legislation
into policies and processes that apply to their business. On an
ongoing basis, they need to ensure their staff understand and
operate based on these.
The NDIS is a good example of where industry changes are in
danger of outpacing the education requirements for that industry.
The speed at which the industry is changing makes it challenging
for educators to adapt and develop a curriculum and coursework
that is up-to-date and relevant.
One way educators can keep up is by working closely with the
private sector to leverage innovation and learnings.
An example is the University of New England, which has
recently updated its NDIS postgraduate law certificate to better
enable students to gain a sound grasp of the complex legislative
frameworks underpinning the scheme.
They’ve partnered with my team at Centro ASSIST to allow
students to access our centralised online compliance system for
NDIS service providers. Students will have access to NDIS policies,
processes, forms, guides and registers via the platform.
The overarching goal is to give students real-world experience
with the audit and compliance documentation that they will see in
their workplaces.
By partnering with the private sector, the University of New
England has lessened the burden of updating the ever-changing
policy and compliance components of the coursework.
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
The partnership between Centro ASSIST and the University of
New England is a great example of where the private sector,
the education sector and the care services sector can join
forces to deliver better outcomes for industry, the community
and individuals. I’m hopeful that we will continue to see more
cross-sector collaboration to meet the challenges of sweeping
changes like the NDIS. ■
Walter Tran is executive director, health and social care,
at Centro ASSIST.
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