NDIS: Provider Readiness Webinar Questions and Responses

‘NDIS: Provider readiness’ Webinar Questions and Responses

Thank you for participating in the NDIS webinar on Provider readiness. We received many questions and comments and thank you for providing your input and feedback.

With over 1800 people participating we were unable to answer every question. The questions and comments received during the live webinars have been grouped together into identified themes.

In most cases answers to the questions raised during the webinars can be found on our website. If you have further questions you can also contact us on 1800 800 110 or send us an email using the contact form on the website. If your question hasn’t been answered we encourage you to submit any questions to

Questions about individual circumstances

During the webinar we received a number of questions relating to individual or personal circumstances. The NDIS is based on an understanding that everyone’s needs, preferences and goals are different. Meeting the NDIS access requirements will depend on a number of factors including where you live, what services you currently receive, as well as the impacts of your disability on your everyday life.

Under the NDIS legislation, your eligibility to access to the NDIS is based on your individual circumstances and for this reason we are unable to provide a response to questions asking whether an individual would be eligible to access the NDIS.

To see if you may meet the access requirements visit the NDIS Access Checklist.

Quality and safeguards

The NDIA has a strong focus on ensuring all participants are able to access high-quality services that enable them to achieve their goals. Governments have agreed to the development of a national approach to quality and safeguards under the NDIS.

A nationally consistent quality and safeguards framework is being developed by the Department of Social Services (DSS) to ensure that people interacting with NDIS can expect consistent standards and safeguards wherever they live in Australia.

To find out more on the Quality and Safeguards visit the NDIS website or refer to your state or territory’s Quality Framework requirements for working with people with disability.

Choice and control

The NDIS is designed to be driven by empowered consumers making choices about the supports that best meet their individual needs, underpinned by a service system responding to this demand with high quality, innovation, value for money supports. However, the Agency recognises that many people with disability have not had the opportunity to exercise choice over the supports they require and many have not had experience in more competitive, open markets. The Agency is working with State and Commonwealth Government’s on a number of projects to help empower people with disability to make decisions in the NDIS. Thisincludes funding of Disability Support Organisations to develop peer networks so people with disability can share information and experiences about the NDIS and build capacity. The Agency is also focussed on improving the flow of information on a range of supports on offer in the NDIS market. This includes E-Market initiatives as well as the development of intermediaries that work with participants to help implement their plan–through specialist services and mainstream providers, which will help strengthen market dynamics, improving quality, value for money, innovation and choice.

What is an NDIS Registered Provider?

The NDIS is currently being trialled in seven locations across Australia. We are also preparing for national roll out of the Scheme, and have commenced operations already in the NBM early launch site in NSW. Many providers across Australia are keen to prepare for their role in supporting Scheme participants to achieve their goals and aspirations.

Provider is a term used to describe an individual or organisation that delivers a support or a product to a participant of the NDIS. Each participant in the NDIS will have an individualised plan that identifies the outcomes they wish to achieve, the disability supports that will be funded by the NDIS and other supports the person requires. Participants have choice and control over the providers they engage to deliver supports in their plan.

Registering as a provider

Whether you can currently register as a provider will depend on whether you are located within a trial or roll out location.

We ask that Providers commence their registration process about 6 months prior to roll-out in their area.

Providers who have already registered with the NDIA to provide supports in Victoria and NSW do not need to register for additional districts as NDIS rolls out across the state.

The Agency is working with the States, Territories and Commonwealth Governments to transition providers in a way that is streamlined for Providers.

Any request by a Provider to deliver new services will be assessed against the conditions detailed in the operational plans negotiated with the relevant jurisdictions.

Providers already under contract to Australian and state and territory governments will have specific transitional arrangements agreed with their funding jurisdiction.

This may mean that the funding bodies provide you with a certificate of compliance against your current contracted services which will allow the Agency to register you for the appropriate activities that Providers are currently delivering in new sites.

For information on how to register as an NDIS provider visit:

If you provide services in a current trial site area: You can complete the Provider Registration Application Form. Find out more about the registration process on the NDIS website.

Areas rolling out from 1 July 2016

If you provide services in an area that has been announced as rolling out the NDIS from 1 July 2016, you are encouraged to complete the Provider Registration Application Form. Full registration will be completed before the NDIS commences in your area.

In the meantime, we will use your contact details to keep you updated about the Scheme.

Outside of trial and new roll out locations

If you are outside of both trial and new roll out locations (ie: you don’t plan to provide services on the ground in those areas): It is recommended that you do not apply for registration at this point in time.

The Agency needs to focus on getting providers in roll out areas up and running. We encourage you to check the NDIS website regularly for the latest information.
Developing provider market(s)

The NDIS offers new and expanded opportunities for providing innovative and personalised services in an open market. The market is going to expand dramatically in coming years, creating significant growth opportunities for both existing and new providers. Nationally, over 460,000 people with disability will be participating in the NDIS, more the doubling the size of the current market. Many of these participants will be receiving supports for the first time, or purchasing new types of supports.

The NDIS represents not only growth, but the opportunity for significant reform to meet emerging market demand. The Agency’s approach to the development of the market seeks to optimise the supply of key services while at the same time ensuring long term Scheme sustainability.

The Agency is working with both providers and participants to facilitate the establishment of the contestable market. While the Agency is setting prices, today, we would expect that over time as competition grows and exercise of choice is evident, prices will be deregulated and that is much as possible the Agency will be an observer of market behaviour.

The NDIS aims to harness the power of vibrant, innovative, competitive and efficient markets to createvalue for participants, the community and the overall economy. Effective marketsallow individuals to express their preferences, and act on them, and reward the service providers that can respond quickly and effectively to these preferences.

In this context, the Agency’s key market objectives include:

• fostering a diverse range of service models that best meet the needs of individuals and the broader community;
• co-designing markets with human services providers to build on the trust and relationships that already exist between service providers and users;
• addressing market failure where appropriate.

The NDIA’s market stewardship role will evolve as the NDIS expands and increasingly informed consumers, along with increased competition will enable price deregulation in the longer term. We recognise that the market will take time, likely 10+ years to develop and mature.

Agency staff have been on the ground in key roll out areas including Western Sydney, the ACT, North East Melbourne and in North Queensland talking to providers about early transition challenges to build mutual understanding and the evidence base.

The Agency is critically aware of the need to lay the foundations for the development of a strong market for disability supports in the longer term, including the need to consider the nature of the services and the complexities around quality, sustainability and local market characteristics.

Already, the market is diversifying in response to new demand being generated by the NDIS and the flexibility it affords participants to explore new innovative supports. In a vote of confidence in the Scheme, there are over 2500 registered providers in the NDIS with great diversification in the sort of suppliers already – above and beyond the existing sector.

For the existing sector, in trial sites there are already examples of providers restructuring, aligning practices with the NDIA model and beginning to thrive. A historically small not-for-profit provider in the Barwon area has doubled in size since the commencement of the NDIS, going from 22 to 65 staff, which is a great employment outcome for Geelong.

New providers have also emerged in Barwon to fill gaps in the market, delivering new community participation programs to young people in areas where services have not historically been located.

Provider pricing / payment

The NDIS funds reasonable and necessary supports that help a participant to achieve their outcomes and to undertake activities to enable their social and economic participation. A participant’s reasonable and necessary supports take into account:

•any informal supports already available to the individual

•other formal supports, such as health and education.

Supports funded by the NDIS need to:

•be related to the participant’s disability

•not include day-to-day living costs that are not related to a participant’s disability support needs

•represent value for money

•be likely to be effective and beneficial to the participant, and

•take into account informal supports given to participants by families, carers, networks, and the community.

The NDIA Price Guide is not a comprehensive list of all available supports to assist participants to achieve their outcomes, nor does it prescribe the only supports funded by the NDIS. It includes an item descriptor (support item) against which the cost of the delivery of support can be claimed.

The NDIA Price Guide lists the maximum price providers can claim for personal care, community access, domestic assistance and professional services.

The NDIA pricing is not static with periodic reviews and adjustments of key supports through the transition phase.

In the longer term, the NDIA wants to see a competitive, more open market environment for the provision of supports and services. Potential providers should check this website to ensure you have the latest information when you’re preparing your organisation for the NDIS. Further details can be obtained on the pricing page of the NDIS website:

NDIS roll out

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) started in July 2013.

For the first three years, it is being introduced at trial sites at selected locations because it’s a big change, and we want to get it right and make it sustainable.

On 1 July 2013, the NDIS started in:

• Tasmania for young people aged 15-24
• South Australia for children aged six and under (on 1 July 2014)
• the Barwon area of Victoria
• the Hunter area in New South Wales for people up to age 65.

From 1 July 2014 the NDIS started in:

• the ACT
• the Barkly region of Northern Territory
• the Perth Hills area of Western Australia.

On 1 July 2015, the early transition started in Nepean Blue Mountains area in New South Wales for up to 2000 young people aged 18 and under.

Roll out of the full scheme in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory will start progressively from July 2016.

As arrangements are known for roll out in each state or territory, details will be published on the state or territory page. The details for roll outof the following states are now available[EJ1]:

• New South Wales
• Victoria
• South Australia
• Tasmania
• Queensland- early transition in some parts.

Each State and Territory Government is working with the Commonwealth Government toward reaching agreement on full roll out of the NDIS in that State or Territory. It is critical we build a sustainable NDIS through a carefully managed roll out that gives service providers some time to grow enough to meet the needs of their clients.

This is the largest social policy reform in Australia’s history, and we need to make sure it stands the test of time.

The NDIS is expected to be rolled out in all States and Territories (except Western Australia) by 2019/20.

For further information on the NDIS roll out visit: ndis.gov.au

[EJ1]Mary – Esther wanted to confirm whether we should include South Australia? Is this public?