ACT NDIS Awareness Package

Element 4: Changes for Workers and People with Disability

Agenda – Changes for workers and people with disability

 Introduction  What are the key issues?

 What is choice and control?

 How things might change for workers  What does this mean for me as a worker?

 What clients and consumers might want to know  What about families and carers?

 Preparing for meetings with the NDIA  What does this mean for our clients and consumers?

 Where can I get more information?

What are the issues I need to know about as a worker?

 In the NDIS, services will be paid for each support provided to a person with disability.  If people with disability go somewhere else for supports, their money goes with them.

 This means service providers might offer supports differently.  This might also affect how people in an organisation work with people with disability.

What are the issues I need to know about as a worker? (continued)

 The ACT Government is moving its specialist disability services to non-government service providers.  This means the government workforce will decrease but the non-government workforce will grow.  If you work for the ACT Government in the disability or specialist therapy service sectors, the ACT Government is providing information and support through your workplace.  You should speak to your manager or check the information on the Community Services Directorate website.

What is choice and control?

 Choice means people can choose what supports they need, how they are provided, and who provides them.  Control means people have more control over how, when and where they get supports. They can arrange these details directly with their chosen provider.  People can change things as they need to.

What is choice and control? (continued)

 People can have help if they need it. Some people want family, carers, friends or others to be part of planning or decision-making. People can get help with planning and organising supports if they wish.

 The safety of people with disability, including psychosocial disability, is important. Choice and control can help keep people safe.

How might things change as a worker?

 People with disability will make choices about their supports. They may want supports provided in a different way or choose a different support.  Choice and control is about the whole of a person’s life. The care and support you provide is part of that life but not all of it. You will fit in with an overall plan for a person with disability even if this is different to how you have worked with them before.

 The hours you work may need to be more flexible to meet client or consumer needs and lifestyle, for example their work hours or family.

How might things change as a worker? (continued)

 Sometimes, what a person with disability wants is different from what those who love and care for them want. This means you have to listen carefully to the person with disability.

 You may have to step back a bit and accept that the adult person with disability may want to do things that you may not agree with.

 You will find you are helping people with disability do things to achieve their long term goals as well as day to day things.

What might this mean for my employment?

 Some employers might choose to specialise in particular supports.

 Some employers might stop providing some kind of service.

 Some service providers might decide to expand or merge with other providers.

 You might have the option to work different hours to help the service fit in with client needs.

What might this mean for my employment? (continued)

Ways in which you might be employed include:  Working for one service provider, such as a disability services organisation.

 Working for more than one service provider because you have a specialised skill.

 Working directly for a client who is managing all or part of their plan.

 As a private contractor or in your own business.

 As a volunteer or peer support.

 More than one of the above.

What people might want to know from their workers

 How they develop a plan and who helps them to do this.

 The ways their plan can be managed.

 What choice and control means.  How you will work with people with disability, their families and carers before, during and after they transition to the NDIS.

 What your service will be able to provide.  Where to go to get extra information.

What does this mean for me as a worker? (Discussion Points)

 What do I think choice and control will mean for how my clients or consumers want to work with me?

 Are there things we need to be doing differently now to help get ready for the changes?

 Are there things I can do to attract new clients or keep our existing clients?

Key issues I need to know about for my clients and consumers

 People with disability will be at the centre of decisions about their lives and connected to supports that suit their circumstances.

 Everyone’s needs, preferences and goals are different. People with disability will have more flexibility to choose supports that suit them.

 Planning with the NDIA will take a lifetime view.

 The NDIA will work with families and carers to make sure the support they give can be sustained.

Key issues I need to know about for my clients and consumers (continued)

 A carer’s role is considered when support plans are developed, such as looking at the support they provide, their other responsibilities and their own life plans.

 Some people with disability will want the support of their families and carers as they decide what supports they require.

 Support plans for people with disability can include mainstream, community, information, and reasonable and necessary funded supports.

What about families and carers?

 Families and carers are partners in supporting people with disability.  The NDIA works with participants and families/carers in planning, decisions and support coordination.  NDIS funded supports may help carers as well.  There is a program for people up to 25 who are main providers of care and support for a parent, partner, child, relative or friend with a disability.

What about families and carers? (continued)

 Sometimes people with disability are not able to contact the NDIA directly. Guardians or nominees will be able to contact the NDIA on behalf of the person with disability.  Nominees can be appointed under the NDIS. This happens when the participant asks for it or where necessary. It will be assumed that legal guardians will be the nominee.  Nominees have to ascertain the wishes of the person with disability and make decisions that maximise their personal and social wellbeing.

 The NDIS rules are available via this link .

What people with disability might want to know about the first conversation with the NDIA

People who are getting ready for their first conversation with the NDIA may want to know about any of the following:  What the NDIA does.

 How to make an appointment.

 Where the NDIA is located and how to get there.

 Can they take a support person with them to the NDIA.

 What they need to take with them when they go to the NDIA.

 What will happen at the first meeting and afterwards.

 What they will get out of a meeting with the NDIA.

What the NDIA does

The NDIA can make the following decisions:  Access decisions: deciding if a person meets NDIS access criteria.

 Planning decisions: approving reasonable and necessary supports under the NDIS; reviewing and suspending plans.

 Information gathering decisions: deciding about information needed to help with participant plans and for the recovery of debts.

What the NDIA does (continued)

 Registered provider decisions: deciding about the approval of a person or organisation as a registered provider of supports.

 Nominee decisions: making decisions about nominees.  Compensation decisions: deciding how compensation payments are taken into account.

 Debt recovery decisions: deciding about recovery of debts from people who were not entitled to receive payments under the NDIS.

How to make an appointment with the NDIA



Call the NDIA on 1800 800 110.

 TTY users phone 1800 555 677 then ask for 1800 800 110  For Speak and Listen (speech-to-speech relay) user — phone 1800 555 727 then ask for 1800 800 110  If you are an internet relay user — visit the National Relay Service website and ask for 1800 800 110  People can take a support person with them to the meeting. This could include carer(s), family or friends

What will happen at the first conversation with the NDIA

 Confirm eligibility: people will meet a planner to confirm eligibility.

 Develop an individual plan: once they know they are eligible, people will talk with a planner about the life they want to live, and the reasonable and necessary support they need to do this.

 Choose supports: a local area co-ordinator can help choose supports based on their plan or people can manage this themselves. This includes choosing support providers and choosing to change providers. The NDIA will talk with them about what they prefer and, if they wish, the NDIA will include family and carers in that conversation.

What will happen at the first conversation with the NDIA (continued)

 Implement the plan: there are choices about managing individual funding. People can decide to: • manage the plan themselves • nominate another person to manage their plan (called a plan nominee) • use a registered plan management provider • ask the NDIA to manage their plan for them • combine options  Review the plan: from time-to-time, the planner will contact participants to check their plans are still helping them work towards their goals.

What people need to have for the first talk Access Request Form

 People with disability (or someone who represents them) need to complete the Access Request Form.

 The information in the form helps the NDIA assess if the person can be a participant in the NDIS.

What people need to have for the first talk (continued)

 

Information participants need to provide

 Date of birth Current home address and home address on 1 July 2014 If needed, proof of citizenship, permanent residency or, for New Zealand citizens, evidence of a Protected Special Category Visa  Proof of disability  Centrelink CRN if they are receiving a payment from Centrelink  The NDIA might also want to know if the person has sought compensation for their injury/disability

Participant statement

 Sometimes people have already started to think about their Participant Statement or may have already done one.  The NDIA likes to talk about the participant statement if the person has done one. It helps the NDIA understand about their: • Daily life • • Current living arrangements Current relationships and supports from other people • Goals for their plan and how they want to achieve them • Current supports

Participant statement (continued)

 If people have not already completed their participant statement, the NDIA will ask them these things in the planning and assessment talk.

 The NDIA will help people with disability, including psychosocial disability, to develop their participant statement.

Developing a plan – support needs assessment

 A plan is based on a person’s goals and support needs assessment. Planning can include important people in the person’s life.  The NDIA will talk about self-managing or whether someone is needed to help.

 Assessment covers important areas for living as independently as possible: • Current life – every day activities • What they want to change • Relationships and supports • Goals and aspirations

Developing a plan – support needs assessment (continued)

NDIS Statement of Supports is prepared and includes:  Informal, community and mainstream supports to achieve goals  Reasonable and necessary supports to be provided from the NDIS The Assessment looks at a person’s:  Mobility  Self-care  Specialist care needs  Domestic life  Communication  Activities involving cognition

Continued next slide...

Developing a plan – support needs assessment (continued)

The Assessment looks at a person’s (continued):  Interpersonal interactions and relationships  Community and economic participation  Support to sustain informal supports  Assistive technology, equipment and home modifications  Risk assessment  How the support needs assessment influences the person’s plan

What does this mean for our clients and consumers? (Discussion Points)

 What do our clients and consumers know about choice and control?

 How does the NDIS change how we work with and support our clients and consumers?

 How might this change how we work with families and carers?

 What do we need to do to get ready to provide supports that are chosen and controlled by our clients and consumers?

 How can we support our clients and consumers as they get ready for their first meeting with the NDIA?

Where can I get more information ?

 A Webinar on Choice and Control held by the NDIS in late 2013 .

 A worker training package developed on the NDIS by Calvary Silver Circle and accessible from the NDIS website  Picture My Future website Using pictures to help people with disability talk about and plan their goals.

 A series of documents for informal carers helping clients develop care plans  Participants or just policed?

A guide to how the NDIS can work for people with intellectual disability who are in contact with the criminal justice system.

 A link to a comprehensive training manual for disability workers that includes the NDIS

More information 2

 Booklet: My pathway, my choices, my goals — Information for participants  Mental Health Respite: Carer Support and the NDIS  Personal Helpers and Mentors Services and the NDIS  Young Carers Respite and Information Services Programme and the NDIS  Carers Australia website or through Carers ACT or by phoning the Care Advisory Service on 1800 242 636 (free call from local phone, mobile calls at mobile rates)

More information 3

 The NDIS website in the Participants tab  Factsheet – My Access Checker – Access Requirements  Information on completing the Access Request Form  Factsheet – Completing the Access Request Form  Factsheet – Completing the Access Request Form (existing clients of defined state disability services)  Operational Guidelines on the NDIS website www.ndis.gov.au/about-us-1

More information 4 Planning

 Planning Workbook  planning and assessment fact sheet  participant statement  Support Needs Assessment fact sheet

Training modules

 Mifellowship - this website contains plans for consumer education on the NDIS and what it means.