EBL Newsletter EBL_Newsletter_Spring_2019_Digital | Page 12

2019 review of the NDIS Act and the new NDIS Participant Service Guarantee The Australian Government has promised to develop an NDIS Participant Service Guarantee to support positive participant experiences with the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The Guarantee will set new standards Mr Tune is expected to hand down October 2019. You can register for for the time it takes for key steps in recommendations to the Government a workshop through the Engage the NDIS process. This means there by the end of 2019, to support the website. will be shorter, agreed timeframes rollout of the Guarantee on 1 July for people to receive a decision on 2020. whether they will be covered by the Have your say Easy Read and Auslan supports, The Guarantee will be developed as well versions for culturally in close consultation with people and linguistically diverse peoples with disability and their families, with disability. Where possible, carers and supporters, as well as the Department is testing these the disability services sector, the resources with people with disability NDIA and Commonwealth, state and to ensure accessibility ahead of their territory governments. release on this DSS Engage website. The Government is inviting the public If you have any questions about the to have their say about what could consultation, please email: To develop the Guarantee, the be improved in the NDIS process [email protected] Government has commissioned a and what should be included in review of the NDIS laws and rules the Guarantee. This will ensure the that will focus on opportunities to Guarantee captures what matters make the NDIS process simpler and most to people with disability. Source: https://www.dss.gov.au/ You can have your say by: disability-and-carers-programs- NDIS, for them to get an NDIS plan and to have their plan reviewed. A particular focus will be on children and those participants needing specialist disability accommodation and assistive technology. The new Guarantee will be in place from 1 July 2020. Review of the NDIS Act more straight forward, and remove barriers to positive participant and provider experiences with the NDIS. The review will consider what changes may need to be made to the NDIS legislation to support the Guarantee and set new standards into law. This may involve amendments to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (the NDIS Act) and the NDIS Rules, but will not change the design or intent of the NDIS. The Government has appointed an independent expert, Mr David Tune AO PSM, to lead the review. Mr Tune has significant experience in public administration and reviewing important policy. He is the former Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Finance who retired from the Australian Public Service through September to include Consultations will close at the end of October 2019. services-for-people-with-disability- • Completing an online survey on national-disability-insurance- the Engage website, found here: scheme/2019-review-of-the-ndis- bit.ly/EngageWebsite. The survey act-and-the-new-ndis-participant- will ask about your experiences service-guarantee with the NDIS process and your thoughts on what could improve. Engage website: https://engage.dss. Your answers will be anonymous. gov.au/review-of-the-ndis-act-and- The online survey will be open the-new-ndis-participant-service- from 9 September. This will include guarantee/ a variety of accessible formats to support people with disabilities. • Writing in with a submission. We recommend you read the Contact details review’s discussion paper, which t (08) 8252 1000 includes with some key questions f (08) 8255 1066 and prompts, to help with your w ebldisabilityservices.org.au submission. For our email and e [email protected] postal address, see the Engage website. • Participating in a face-to-face in 2014, before leading reviews into workshop. These will be held in Parliamentary entitlements and every state and territory around changes to the aged care system Australia between September and 12 EBL QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER These resources will be updated EBL Disability Services Endeavour House, Module 5, 11 – 15 Fourth Avenue, Mawson Lakes SA 5095