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Speak Out
October 2015
Speech Pathology Australia
NDIS UPDATE
Super Speechie
has heard about
the NDIS on the TV and radio, and she
knows that it is having a big impact on
service delivery for children and adults
with disabilities, but what will it really
mean for her practice?
The National Disability Insurance
Scheme (NDIS) commenced roll-out in
trial sites around Australia in July 2013.
More than 13,000 individual participants
have been provided with funding since
that time, and it is anticipated that when
the scheme is fully rolled out in July
2019, more than 400,000 people will be
accessing supports through the NDIS.
There are now trial sites running in every
state and territory except Queensland,
for either age or geographically defined
groups. The NDIS continues to develop
and modify its operations based on
learning from the trial sites. As an
insurance model, the NDIS has a focus on
provision of early intervention (with the aim
of reducing the amount of funded support
required for individuals across their
lifetimes). Another important feature is that
funding goes directly to individuals, rather
than block grant funding to providers.
People with disabilities have access
to more funding than was previously
available, and participants are now able
to exercise choice and control over how
and with whom they spend their funds.
Many people who were not previously
able to access disability supports
are now able to do so; the July 2015
quarterly report on the NDIS indicates
that 41% of those who have been
provided with plans have not previously
accessed funded support.
The traditional clients for Super
Speechie’s practice have mostly been
children with speech and language
difficulties, as well as some children with
Helping Children with Autism (HCWA)
or Better Start funding, but she is keen
to expand her client base.
Should she
register as a provider with the NDIS?
As the scheme has rolled out, children
who were receiving or would have been
eligible for HCWA and Better Start
funding have been transitioned to NDIS
funding, and it can be anticipated that
these funding sources won’t continue
following full scheme roll-out. There has
been a growth in demand for speech
pathology in all sites, and in South
Australia, new and existent providers of
disability focused allied health services
have been significantly impacted. Many
participants are choosing to access their
services from single discipline private
allied health providers, and create their
own allied health team, rather than
accessing their supports from a single
provider organisation.
The NDIS is also providing access to
early intervention supports (funding) for
children who may not have traditionally
received services through the disability
sector, including children whose only
or primary impairment is within what
the NDIS describes as ‘expressive and
receptive language’.
Providers are required to be registered
with the NDIS to provide supports to
participants who choose to have their
NDIS plan (funds) managed through the
NDIS. Participants who are managing
their own funds are able to access their
supports from anyone, and the process
works in much the same way as for
Super Speechie’s previous clients who
were self funding. Currently the majority
of participants (95%) are having some or
all of their supports managed through
the NDIS.
The NDIS Quality and Safeguarding
framework is in development, but it
isn’t yet clear what future regulations
will apply around service provision.
Although the process of registering is
a little demanding, for the foreseeable
future, registered providers will benefit
by having access to a much larger group
of potential participants.
Super Speechie decides to investigate
becoming a registered provider with
the NDIS. The area she services isn’t
in a trial site yet, but she wants to be
prepared.
When can she register, and
what is involved?
(NB: The SPA ‘Registering to be a NDIS
Provider’ document, on the
Resources
webpage of the
Information for Members
tab, provides a step-by-step guide,
including relevant links and more.)
You can register to be an NDIS provider
at any time that you wish to provide
supports within a trial site. To date, the
NDIS has opened up registration a few
months before the launch of a site, and
generally only to registered providers
who had a service site geographically
in a specific trial site. Some members
who use telepractice have recently
been successful in being registered as
a provider in more than one trial site i.e.,
for trial sites other than those in which
their business is physically located.
Information and guidelines about
registering as a provider are available
on the NDIS website. The application
can be completed and submitted
electronically. As well as providing
information about her business
structure, Super Speechie also has to
provide information about her suitability
to provide specific supports, using
the guide available. It took a while to
complete, and then a while before the
registration was official; Super Speechie
got to know the phone number for
provider support pretty well, but finally
she was all ready to go.
So, then what?
How will participants
find her? Will the NDIS planner be
recommending her to participants?
The NDIS doesn’t provide
recommendation for specific providers
to participants; this would be contrary
to their important principle of offering
choice and control. Participants can use
the ‘Find Registered Providers’ page on
the NDIS website, which lists providers
under the support clusters they offer,
and provides contact details and a web
address. Some of the ‘supports’ offered,
such as support coordination, may
include identifying and organising other
providers. In other cases, participants
ask for suggestions from colleagues in
other allied health professions as well
Super Speech Pathologist raises some NDIS FAQs