A Brief Overview about NDIS in Perth

In 2010, the Australian government’s Productivity Commission began a public inquiry into a long-term disability care and support scheme. Thus began the road to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which officially began rolling out in 2016. Since the beginning, Interchange has looked on in support of this scheme and its importance to community inclusion support in WA.

Interchange CEO Justin O’Meara Smith stated, "Interchange is ready, willing, and able to do our part to return to the foundational and collaborative principles of the NDIS." In that spirit, Interchange provides some insight into translating the language of the NDIS. With any new scheme, new terms are created, and the definitions of those are not always immediately interpreted. As NDIS registered service providers, Interchange has the knowledge to interpret some of those. The National Disability Insurance Scheme, or NDIS, is the scheme put in place by the Australian government to assist people with disabilities with access to services and activities. With an NDIS representative, the disabled individual develops a plan to get the needed help in achieving personal goals. This often includes funding for supports. The department overseeing the NDIS is the National Disability Insurance Agency, or NDIA.The full scheme is not yet available to all of Australia, but is being rolled out through 2020. As of July 2018, Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, and South Australia have access to the full scheme. By July 2019, plans are to make the scheme available in Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland, and Northern Territory. While Western Australia will not have full access until July 2020, the Perth Hills trial site has been operational since 2014. It was expanded to several local government areas in 2017. Interchange, as an NDIS registered service provider, works with the NDIS to provide community inclusion support for WA. The NDIS is built on an insurance principle. This means that the NDIS uses a different approach from the short-term, welfare-based approaches of previous state and territory government approaches. In those models, many participants had only limited choice or growth. Instead, NDIS takes a long-term approach, with the goal of beginning supports early and working towards each participant’s personal goals, improving quality of life for the long term. The NDIS funds three types of supports through core, capacity building, and capital budgets. The core budget provides direct supports for daily living activities, like housekeeping. The capacity building budget provides supports to help disabled individuals build skills for the future. Capital budget supports include those that help build independence and skills, such as electronic calendars or modified cutlery. The NDIS, with the support of Interchange and other NDIS registered service providers, provides the continued support needed for individuals with disabilities. Through this scheme, disabled individuals are already finding themselves armed with greater opportunities, and the hope is that those opportunities will continue to grow.

Interchange has been working to help individuals with disabilities for over 25 years. Community inclusion is at the heart of what we do. To find out more about why and how Interchange values and builds community inclusion, join our community today.