Our Council Members connected with the community to find out about issues that affect them.

Our Council Members shared these issues with the NDIA.

Some participants face challenges to get changes made to their home.

The community is confused about how short term accommodation works – a place for someone to stay for a short time.

Some participants face challenges with the way specialist disability accommodation (SDA) is changing.

For example, the NDIA are building more apartments.

But participants want other options, like a home.

SDA is a NDIS support.

It’s housing for participants who need extra support most of the time.

There needs to be a better way to support participants when their parent or carer passes away.

For example, they shouldn’t need to move out of their own home.

And we need to focus on making sure there are no younger people living in residential aged care, unless they need to.

Residential aged care is where older Australians live when they can’t live in their home anymore.

The community shared that there are still a lot of problems with NDIS plans.

Some participants are getting less funding.

Funding is the money from your plan that pays for the supports and services you need.

It can also take a long time for the NDIA to make a decision about someone’s plan.

Participants aren’t being included when the NDIA reviews their plan.

There are also more participants who aren’t allowed to manage their plan on their own.

There are challenges with how much funding participants can get for behaviour support.

And there are less providers who want to support participants with their behaviour.

Providers support other people by delivering a service.

It can cost a lot of money for people to get what they need to apply for the NDIS.

For example, a report from their doctor.

There are also delays for people to get information about:

• how their disability affects their life

• what supports they need.

Participants face challenges when they’re ready to leave hospital because:

• it’s taking a long time for the NDIA to review their plan

• they can’t find a place to stay that meets their needs.

And some participants can’t use the funding in their plan to support them.

NDIA managers and staff are showing that they want to work with people with disability.

There aren’t enough workers who support children with their health care, such as early support for children as they grow and develop.

Some participants in places far from large cities or towns can’t use their plans.

This is because there aren’t enough services where they live.

And COVID-19 makes it harder for participants to find and use:

• services
• support workers.

There isn’t enough information about how the NDIS must work with the police and courts in different:

• states
• territories.

This includes how it works for young people.

All government services need to give better support to participants with:

• complex needs
• more than 1 disability.

This includes services like health and education.

Businesses are charging participants more for their services.

People are interested in the work Australian Disability Enterprises do.

An Australian Disability Enterprise provides work and support for people with disability. We often call them ADEs.

Participants are happy about providers offering new services.

Local Area Coordinators (LACs) are people who support people with disability when they take part in the NDIS.

Some LACs are supporting parents to become nominees.

Your nominee is someone you choose to:

• make decisions for you
• do things for you when you can’t do them on your own.

If a parent becomes a nominee, a person with disability has less control.

And they can’t make as many decisions about their lives.