National Disability Insurance Scheme access based on a medical diagnosis should end and eligibility should be determined instead by how a person’s disability affects their everyday life, a landmark review says. Source: The Australian.
The NDIS review also demands states and territories step up and do more for people with less profound disabilities by spending billions of dollars more to provide mainstream services in areas such as public education, health and transport.
It also proposes governments provide “foundational supports” to those who fall short of requiring individual NDIS packages, with funding for support around the home, personal assistance and early interventions for children.
Ten years after the launch of the NDIS, a decade marked by rising costs, higher-than-expected participant numbers and an abandonment of support provided outside the scheme, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said it was time for “NDIS Mark II”.
The review’s 329-page final report – which draws from the nearly 4000 submissions received over the past 12 months – offers 26 recommendations and 139 actions it proposes be rolled out over the next five years.
It calls for NDIS eligibility to shift away from being based on a medical diagnosis to someone’s “functional impairment”, meaning a diagnosis of a condition such as autism would not guarantee access to the scheme.
More than 270,000 of the 630,000 current NDIS participants are children, the majority with a primary diagnosis of autism.
On Wednesday, in recognition of the review’s recommendations, National Cabinet agreed to spend more money on disability support outside the scheme, sharing the costs 50-50.
Mr Shorten said the Government would work through the review’s recommendations and report in the first half of next year. He said “changes are not going to happen overnight” and any reforms would be developed in consultation with the disability community.
FULL STORY
Dozens of major reforms recommended by NDIS Review (By Stephen Lunn and Sarah Ison, The Australian)
RELATED COVERAGE
Diagnosis list for NDIS to be scrapped under five-year reboot plan (The Age)
