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This is a summary of the Participant Reference Group’s (PRG) meeting. The PRG consists of 22 participant and carer representatives across Australia. The PRG is a key platform to make sure the participant voice is heard and understood by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). Feedback from meetings is used to inform strategy, policy development, system and service delivery development and review, to support continuous improvement.

Reforms led by the Minister for the NDIS are contributing to Scheme expenditure being $1 billion lower than forecast in the 2024-25 Budget. The reforms are expected to stabilise the growth in Scheme expenses over the next 4 years.

Three people have been jailed in New South Wales for their roles in a multimillion-dollar defrauding of the NDIS, in a week NDIS Minister, the Hon. Bill Shorten MP announced further measures to crackdown on rorts. The sentencing is the result of an investigation into several suspected fraudulent providers in western Sydney. The investigation, led by the Australian Federal Police in partnership with the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), AUSTRAC and Services Australia, uncovered more than $5.8 million in fraud during the thorough investigation. Two other men were sentenced to imprisonment in 2022 as part of the investigation.

Key Themes and Insights Agenda item 1: DRCO 2024 workplan discussion Key Themes: DRCO 2024 workplan; DRCO Forum working group updates. Key Insights: The Membership working group developed and shared a process for DRCOs to raise issues for consideration at the Forum. The Accessible Communications working group is working with the NDIA on a pilot project for developing accessible communications for people with intellectual disability. The pilot will provide a model for the Agency to develop accessible communications for other disability communities. The Employment working group has held its first meeting. It identified focus areas of: customised employment work experience...

The Australian Government is taking action against some unscrupulous providers who are exploiting the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) by encouraging thousands of participants to spend their NDIS funding too quickly and on non-disability supports. This week, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission have taken the initiative to write to plan managers and support coordinators who support NDIS participants, reminding them of their obligations. Earlier this month, both the Federal Budget and the NDIA’s Quarterly Report showed that intra plan inflation was a major cause of growth in the Scheme. NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said the letter to plan managers also reflects anonymised data matching between 900 NDIS plan manager ABNs and the ATO, which showed that 343 of those ABNs would have failed a statement of tax record at the time.

The NDIA and NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission is writing jointly to all Plan Managers and Support Coordinators who support participants to remind them of their obligations to meet record keeping responsibilities and conflict-of-interest obligations, not engage in practices which facilitate the misuse of NDIS funds and comply with all Commonwealth, State and Territory laws, including tax obligations.

Rocky Bay is working in partnership with Latrobe University to implement an Active Support and Frontline Practice Leadership Model. The Active Support and Frontline Practice Leadership Model, featured in the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission’s recent Own Motion: Inquiry into aspects of supported accommodation (January 2023), seeks to empower participants to decide how they live and the level of support they receive. Staff will receive training on empowering participants to exercise their ‘choice and control’ to become more independent within the home environment. They will provide ‘just the right amount’ of support and guidance, enabling participants to complete tasks autonomously in a safe and supported environment.