It’s been another very busy period for the sector and, with spring just around the corner, it doesn’t appear that things will slow down before the end of the year.  

It’s fair to say that July was dominated by disappointment and disbelief after the release of the NDIA’s Annual Pricing Review. This year’s pricing announcement disregarded strong evidence that the sector has never been under more pressure. The 3.19 per cent rise for some DSW supports did nothing to address rising costs across many areas, including training, insurance, recruitment and compliance. 

Most confounding for many members was the decision to remove the ability to claim for complex behavioural supports under the high-intensity line item. Since this work requires experienced and qualified staff to provide safe, high-quality services, it is completely unacceptable to consider them standard.  

NDS has already raised your concerns with the NDIA, as well as the ACT Minister for Disability Rachel Stephen-Smith, Senator David Pocock, the ACT Senior Practitioner and the ACT Government. People power does work, so please support our campaign for A Better NDIS, by writing a letter to local MLAs and sharing social media posts within your networks. We need everyone in government to understand that the pricing crisis will ultimately mean fewer and lower-quality services for people with disability.   

The Australian Government response to the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability was released recently at the same time as the joint Australian, state and territory response.  As noted in our Royal Commission update, the Commonwealth accepted 13 recommendations in full, 117 in principle, and 36 for further consultation. Six were noted as not appropriate. The ACT Government is responsible for 129 recommendations from the final report and, of those, has accepted 19, accepted in principle 93, required further consideration of 15 and has noted two.    

While the response was greeted with disappointment by disability advocates, the Chair of the Royal Commission, Ronald Sackville, said that “transformative change doesn't happen overnight”, and “the response should be regarded as a real opportunity to achieve the Commission’s recommendations and, with persistent advocacy, collectively the responses mark a significant step towards comprehensive reform.”  

It is clear there is still so much more to be done to ensure the recommendations are implemented effectively and the voices of people with disability are heard and acted upon. It’s now a duty of our sector to keep pressure on governments. Only this will honour the courage of so many people with disability in speaking out about abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect and contributing their stories to the Royal Commission.   

The NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce also released its report in the past few weeks, making 11 recommendations. They include creating tiered registration categories, introducing a worker registration scheme for all workers, expanding the functions of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, and changing the complaints process.   

NDS agrees with most of the recommendations, particularly those around worker registration, platform providers and professional development requirements. We think the new tiered system might reconcile the different views on universal provider registration in the disability community.   

Our ACT NDS Quarterly Forum on Thursday 22 August will include a deep dive into the Taskforce report and what its recommendations mean for our members.  

It is NDS membership renewal time. I encourage all our members to renew without delay.  In our difficult reform environment, there’s never been more reason for the strong, effective advocacy from your peak body.   

And, finally, please take the time to complete our annual State of the Disability Sector survey. What you think matters. When we take your fight to government, we need the ammunition of good, reliable data, and, for the past decade, the State of Disability Sector survey has provided it.