Ten Lessons for Establishing an NDIS
26 February 2013 at 10:04 am
As Australia undertakes the design and implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme a new paper explores ten lessons that Australian governments might learn about the English experience, to help ensure the scheme gets the best possible start.
The paper called The Road to NDIS: Lessons from England about Assessment and Planning is by JFA Purple Orange – the social policy arm of the Julia Farr Association Inc.- a non-government, social profit organisation that conducts research around people with lived experience of disability, to develop policy and practice.
“In England, there has been a growing public focus on individualised funding arrangements since the mid-1990s; progress has been fast, there have been many important achievements and there have also been mistakes," The Road to the NDIS authors Dr Simon Duffy and Robbi Williams said.
“In particular, the paper explores what might be learned from the English experience in relation to the design and implementation of approaches to assessment and planning; these represent the acid test of the relationship between the system and the person and the basis on which the person might access resource assistance.
“While the system can be expected to evolve over time and learn from its experiences – implying the initial mechanisms for assessment and planning will themselves evolve – it is important to start with the assessment and planning arrangements that best reflect the principles the NDIS seeks to live by,” they said. “These principles include personal control and choice.”
Based on a commentary on the experience in England, the authors have identified ten key lessons for Australia as it considers the design and implementation of the NDIS.
These Lessons are:
Lesson 1 – Make the entitlements real
Lesson 2 – Only define the essential parts of the system
Lesson 3 – Enable an ongoing process of social innovation
Lesson 4 – People need to know enough to be able to plan
Lesson 5 – Set clear and public rules that are easy to understand
Lesson 6 – Enable a pragmatic process for transition
Lesson 7 – Develop a system which is sensitive to time and outcomes
Lesson 8 – Do not put undue focus on the plan
Lesson 9 – Do not let any group dominate the process
Lesson 10 – If in doubt, focus on peer support
Dr Simon Duffy is Director of UK-based agency The Centre for Welfare Reform. He is a philosopher, social innovator and writer. He also provides policy advice to the Campaign for a Fair Society. Dr. Duffy is best known for his work on citizenship, individual budgets, self-directed support and personalisation. He played a key role in the development of approaches to self-directed funding and supports in the UK, and is the 2008 recipient of the RSA’s Prince Albert Medal, awarded for his contribution to social innovation.
Robbi Williams is CEO of the Julia Farr group, an Adelaide-based group of agencies working in social policy research, housing and grant-giving. A psychologist, Robbi has more than 25 years of international experience working across a wide range of social issues, including disability, mental health and ageing. He is national convenor of In Control Australia, a collective movement of Australians interested in how people living with increased vulnerability can access a good life, including via personalised funding and supports.
Why really must we follow a nation that is so disaregarded and ignored at other times in our nations history.
With talks of Republicanism and democratic nationalism. Why must we FOLLOW the example of a nation that is so far removed from our own politically, socially, religiously, and our population says it all really.
Our census statistics and ABS data prove once for all that we are not British. A part f the Commonwealth maybe but not British