Commission calls for new plan to fill gaps left by the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Fri 1 Feb 2019 05.38 GMT
Last modified on Fri 1 Feb 2019 05.44 GMT
The Productivity Commission has declared the National Disability Agreement to be “outdated and irrelevant”, calling for all levels of government to come together to create a new plan, better suited to filling the gaps left by the NDIS.
The Productivity Commission reviewed the agreement, a Coag initiative established in 2008, setting out the income and employment service responsibilities for various governments, and found it no longer served its purpose.
Instead, commissioner Robert Fitzgerald found the existing agreement had a “weak influence” on policy and left too many people with disability falling through the cracks, with much of disability policy focus settling on the national disability insurance scheme.
“There’s about 3.8 million people with disability in Australia who are not supported through the NDIS,” he said, handing down the report on Friday.
“Most people with disabilities are not and never will be covered by the NDIS, yet their rights, needs and aspirations matter.
“… There has been very little progress in meeting previously agreed goals such as raising labour force participation rates for people with disability or improving the wellbeing of carers.
“We have identified key gaps in the areas of advocacy services, support for carers, and supports for people with disabilities arising from mental health conditions, as well as access to community and inclusion programs.”
Fitzgerald recommends a complete overhaul of the strategy, which better outlines the role of governments and sets tangible goals, including addressing gaps in advocacy, and how carers are treated, as well as how the NDIS interacts with mainstream services.
“Governments should articulate and publish which programs they are rolling into the NDIS and how they will support people with disability who are not covered by the NDIS,” the commission recommends, pressing the need for a “comprehensive gap analysis” through the state and federal governments, to be repeated every five years.
The commission also recommends a single person-centred national performance reporting arrangement across both the NDIS and the National Disability Agreement and a national disability report, submitted to parliament biennially, which states what targets are being met and missed.
The commission has recommended a new NDA be put in place by 2020, which has been “warmly” welcomed by advocacy groups including People with Disability Australia.
“People with disability are sick of the gaps in services, programs and infrastructure delivered by different levels of government and a new NDA will work to end the blame game,” co-CEO Therese Sands said in a statement.
“We call on the federal government to lead the implementation of all the recommendations in this report.
“People with disability tell us every day about how this is impacting on their lives – they are missing out on essential services, facing barriers to employment, transport, housing, education and health and getting stuck between different levels of governments who are passing the buck.”
Of main concern were services that had been discontinued or rolled into the NDIS, which meant people not part of the insurance scheme were no longer eligible to access them, with mainstream services failing to meet the growing delivery gap.
That, Sands said, was exascerbating already identified gaps in housing and transport, which were yet to be properly addressed by the existing NDA.
“We argued strongly to the Productivity Commission that the new NDA needs to have clear responsibilities and performance reporting, and accountability for all levels of government and agencies to deliver for people with disability. We look forward to seeing how this evolves,” she said.
“Many of the emerging issues with the NDIS are because of the lack of clarity around the relationship and interface between mainstream services, state-based disability supports and the NDIS.”
The social services minister, Paul Fletcher, said the government had begun working on a new strategy.
“We recognise the disability policy landscape has changed significantly since the agreement was first signed in 2008,” he said.
“We understand the need for a renewed commitment between the commonwealth, states and territories.”
