Early Intervention Service Provider Newsletter
Early Intervention Service Provider Newsletter
Issue 6 – May 2017
The Service Provider Newsletter provides updates for Panel members registered for the Helping Children with Autism (HCWA) or the Better Start for Children with Disability (Better Start) programs.
As of May 2017, HCWA and Better Start service providers have delivered over 2.6 million services to over 69,000 eligible children to a value of over $538 million. Thank you for your contribution to this impressive achievement.
In this issue:
Early Childhood Early Intervention Approach
Transition of HCWA and Better Start programs
Becoming an NDIS Provider
Translating and Interpreting Services
Your organisations contact details
Early Intervention Service Provider Operational Guidelines
Policy reminders and updates
Duty of Care
Contacting DSS
The DSS Early Intervention Helpdesk is located in Perth, WA and its operating hours are:
· AWST (Perth) time –
9:00 am to 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
· AEST –
11:00 am to 2:30 pm 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm
Early Childhood Early Intervention (ECEI) Approach
The Early Childhood Early Intervention (ECEI) Approach is how the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is working with Early Childhood Partners to deliver early childhood intervention for children aged 0-6 years.
The Early Childhood Partners are suitably experienced and qualified organisations with strong local knowledge and understanding of the needs of children and their families to deliver the ECEI services.
The Early Childhood Partner will be the first point of contact for families. The type of supports offered will be different for every child and their family according to their individual needs and circumstances.
The Early Childhood Partner will identify children who require urgent assistance. For children who require more long-term early childhood intervention supports, they will provide assistance to access the NDIS and if eligible, support the development of an NDIS plan. Planning conversations will be managed in line with the agreed phasing schedule in each region. While a family is waiting for a planning conversation, the Early Childhood Partner can provide initial supports, including linkages to mainstream and community services.
Transition of HCWA and Better Start programs to the NDIS
Funding for HCWA and Better Start programs is gradually transitioning to the NDIS. Some areas have already been closed to new registrations for HCWA and Better Start, and others will close as the NDIS is rolled out. Registrations for HCWA and Better Start in NDIS sites close one month after an Early Childhood Partner becomes operational in the site. A list of Early Childhood Partners is available on the NDIS website at NDIS locations page.
HCWA and Better Start clients living in an area which has transitioned to the NDIS will receive contact from the Early Childhood Partners or the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) to commence information gathering and discuss the next steps.
Please note that Early Childhood Partners have not been established in remote and very remote locations. Families living in these areas will be supported by the NDIS Regional Hub and will need to contact the NDIA through the call centre on 1800 800 110.
Supporting clients with transition to the NDIS
The Department of Social Services (DSS) has become aware that some service providers are suggesting to parents they should spend all their funding available under HCWA and Better Start before requesting access to the NDIS. Please ensure you do not encourage families to do this. It can take up to a few months from the family’s initial contact with an Early Childhood Partner to receiving an approved NDIS support plan. If access to the NDIS is delayed until after expending the child’s available HCWA or Better Start funding, there may be a gap between services for the child.
Please encourage families to proceed with the NDIS as soon as the ECEI approach becomes available in their area.
HCWA and Better Start client details are being provided to the NDIA. It is very important that clients contact details in FOFMS are up to date so that an Early Childhood Partner can get in contact with families. Please remind your clients to contact Autism Advisors or Registration and Information Service to update their contact details if needed.
How will the transition to NDIS and WA NDIS affect FOFMS?
As clients transition to the NDIS and WA NDIS, their Eligibility End Date will be changed in FOFMS to the date their NDIS or WA NDIS plan was approved.
Please check if your client remains eligible or has transitioned to the NDIS or WA NDIS by reviewing the client’s Eligibility End Date. This date can be found under the ‘EI More Info’ tab. HCWA and
Better Start will not pay for services provided after the child’s eligibility end date. However, you will be able to submit claims for services provided prior to this date.
It is your responsibility to check the client’s eligibility and financial balance from their Client Record in FOFMS before delivering a service.
Becoming an NDIS Provider
Service providers wishing to deliver services to NDIS participants will need to become registered NDIS providers under the NDIS Early Intervention Support for Early Childhood Registration Group. This registration group require specific qualification and experiences as a prerequisite and must also comply with Quality and Safeguards requirements of the relevant state/territories.
The professions eligible to apply for this registration group are:
· Occupational Therapist
· Psychologist
· Physiotherapist
· Social Worker
· Speech Pathologist
· Teacher
· Developmental Educator
· Audiologist
· Music Therapist
· Counsellor
· Art Therapist
· Orthotists
· Podiatrist
DSS encourages members of the Early Intervention Service Provider Panel (EI Panel) to apply to the NDIS registration group. This will ensure that you are able to continue to provide services to HCWA and Better Start clients after they transition to the NDIS.
Providers not registering with the NDIS will not be able to deliver services to HCWA and Better Start clients who have transitioned to the NDIS and have their individual support plans managed by the NDIA. You can, however, continue to deliver services to HCWA and Better Start clients and to NDIS clients who self-manage their support plan, as these clients can choose to use unregistered providers.
The HCWA and Better Start EI Panel will continue to operate outside of, and in parallel to the NDIS, until the NDIS is fully rolled out. If you wish to deliver services to HCWA and/or Better Start clients, you will still need to be registered on the Panel.
Streamlined registration process
Existing Panel members applying for the NDIS Early Intervention Support for Early Childhood Registration Group will be treated as existing Commonwealth providers and can undertake a streamlined registration process under transition working arrangements with each state and territory. By uploading a copy of a current Panel grant agreement during the registration process, Panel members will not have to undertake any additional quality and safeguarding requirements. However, they will need to continue to adhere to the quality and safeguarding requirements of their grant agreement as a condition of registration, as well as meeting the NDIA Terms of Business for Registered providers.
Panel members wanting to expand their services beyond the NDIS Early Childhood Supports Registration Group will be considered new providers under transition working arrangements for the additional Groups and will need to meet the quality and safeguarding requirements of the relevant state or territory arrangements in relation to these Groups during transition. These requirements may vary between states. See the NDIS Provider Toolkit page for the different state requirements.
NOTE: EI Service Provider Panel members who deliver services in Victoria are only considered an existing Commonwealth provider if they were a member of the Panel at 30 June 2016
(the date the working arrangements came into effect). Providers joining the Early Intervention Service Provider Panel from 1 July 2016 will be considered new providers for registration purposes.
This means they will need to meet both the NDIA Terms of Business for Registered providers and Victoria’s quality and safeguarding requirements including third party verification for delivering services under the NDIS Early Intervention Support for Early Childhood Registration Group.
More information
For more information about the NDIS please visit the NDIS website. To receive regular updates about the NDIS, sign up on the news page.
More information about transitioning from HCWA/Better Start is available from the DSS website. Please visit the Transition to NDIS page for more information about transitioning to the NDIS. More information on transitioning to WA NDIS is available by visiting the Transition to WA NDIS page.
Translating and Interpreting (TIS) services
A reminder that Early Intervention TIS codes are only to be used for existing HCWA and Better Start clients. This code should not be used to provide translating services for NDIS participants.
If translating support is required for an NDIS participant, please contact the NDIA on 1800 800 110 to discuss the matter.
Your organisation contact details
Please ensure that you keep all contact details up to date so DSS can contact you when required. Only persons listed on FOFMS as the organisations contact person is able to request changes and/or information.
Early Intervention Service Provider Panel Operational Guidelines
Please ensure all staff are familiar with the guidelines which can be downloaded at Early Intervention Service Provider Panel Operational Guidelines. The guidelines are regularly updated so please ensure that you are using the most up to date version dated September 2015.
Policy reminders and updates
Prepayment
A reminder that DSS will only make payments to service providers (on behalf of eligible children) for services delivered. Families have access to up to $12,000 funding, a maximum of $6,000 each financial year until children turn seven years of age. Service providers are not permitted to arrange for pre-payment of resources or services, for example, to enable a family to utilise funding beyond a child’s 7th birthday or for any other reasons.
We can withhold all or part of a payment of Grant funds if we consider that you have not carried out an Activity in accordance with your Agreement or have breached a requirement in this Agreement (including requirements in the Operational Guidelines).
Timeliness of claim lodgement
To ensure that the child’s Family Activity Statement (FAS) reflects payments as accurately as possible, providers should submit claims in FOFMS within 10 working days of the date of delivery of each intervention service as stated in your operational guidelines. More than one provider can receive payments from DSS for providing early intervention services to a particular child, so if there is a lag in lodging a claim, you run the risk of insufficient funds being available for you to claim for services. Additionally, long delays in making claims compromises parents’ ability to monitor and manage their child’s funding using the FAS, as it only includes details of claimed services.
Parents/carers are ultimately responsible for managing their children’s funding however many rely heavily on their FAS to do this.
Where a child is being charged for a term or block of funding, we suggest lodging claims for the components already delivered at regular intervals, such as each two weeks, to reduce the chances of problems occurring for both the family and the service providers. This however remains a provider’s business decision. Claims should certainly be submitted within 10 days from the end of term.
Fee Schedules
The early intervention services delivered by service providers must represent value for money for the families and carers of eligible children. Value for money is determined by the service provider’s ability to achieve the planned outcomes for eligible children. DSS will publish the eligible interventions and the associated fee schedule offered by each service provider.
When creating or updating a fees schedule, service providers are required to use the Fee Schedule Template which can be obtained by emailing the Early Intervention Helpdesk at .
Service providers must not change their fees without first notifying the Early Intervention Helpdesk of the intended changes through the use of the fee schedule template. The changes will be uploaded to the DSS website.
Only eligible interventions can be included in the service provider’s fee schedule. Service providers are not permitted to claim for services that are not listed on their fee schedule, as listed on the DSS website, or claim for amounts higher than those listed on the fee schedule.
Cancellation or holding fees are not claimable at any time. A client must not be charged a ‘gap’ payment above the fee listed on the website (for example, when a service provider has increased their fees but has not yet had the increases published on the DSS website.)
Accountability for all staff and sub-contractors by lead organisation
Lead agencies are responsible for ensuring that consortium members have the required qualifications to deliver the interventions and meet the requirements for working with children. Please be aware that it is the lead agency that will be held accountable where any breaches of the guidelines take place, including where this has been identified by regular departmental audits.
Service providers must contact the DSS Early Intervention Helpdesk regarding any changes to the staffing structure that may require changes to their fee schedule.
Audits
As part of the management of HCWA and Better Start, DSS undertakes random provider audits. This involves DSS selecting organisations and reviewing service/resource claims to ensure they are (a) in line with the fees stated in their fee schedule and (b) delivering services in accordance with the Service Provider Operational Guidelines.
If your organisation is selected, you will be contacted by DSS requesting documents such as the Client Consent to Claim Payment, Agreement to Purchase Resources and Service Delivery Record forms.
Specifically in relation to resources, when claiming reimbursement in FOFMS, service providers must provide sufficient detail in the “additional description” field to allow another person to identify the resource. Please note that while this “additional description” field is free text and FOFMS will not stop you from making the claim if the field is left blank, the completion of this field is mandatory under the guidelines.