NDIS 2.0: A call for putting participants first

Disability

Last updated

7 Oct 2022

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2 min read

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This week, Australian of the Year 2022 and disability advocate Dylan Alcott OAM presented NDIS 2.0, A Disability-led Plan for the NDIS, to NDIS Minister Bill Shorten at the Parliament House in Canberra.

The report is published by Get Skilled Access (GSA), which was founded by Dylan, and was presented by him and GSA’s CEO Danielle Fraillon.

The report makes 10 recommendations that would work to put people with disabilities and their perspectives first in conversations about the future of the NDIS.

These are:

Not make decisions about us without us.
Remember what the NDIS is for.
Put Participants-first at the NDIA.
Improve the role and performance of Scheme “navigators”.
Change the narrative about costs to benefits.
De-politicise the Scheme’s institutions and rebuild trust.
Improve the availability of supports.
Increase the ability of Participants to make choices.
Focus on the impact for Participants.
Connect Participants with their communities to improve safety.

“We want to thank everyone involved, but also the Government for backing it,” Dylan said, according to a News.com.au report. “These are just words on a page unless they are implemented, and we’ll do anything we can to support it, to make sure all people with disability get the support that they need to be the people they want to be.”

Dylan emphasised that it’s important to listen to the participants’ voices because they’re the ones in the Scheme, and that’s what made “Mr Alcott so excited when Paralympian Kurt Fearnley was named as National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) chair last week”.

Mable fully supports the GSA report and Australia’s commitment to upholding the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD), especially its emphasis on enabling people with disability to exercise their rights, individual autonomy, freedom to make their own choices, and ensuring the full participation and inclusion in society.

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