From 1 July 2019, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission will start managing quality and safeguards in Queensland.
Since 1st March 2019, Victoria ceased taking any new ‘pending state approval’ applications for the NDIS registration purposes. Now, providers intending to achieve the NDIS registration for services in-scope of the Victoria’s quality and safeguards arrangements will be referred to the NDIS commission . Find more information here.
The NDIS will transform the way Queenslanders with disability are supported and the way disability services are funded and delivered. The NDIS is expected to inject approximately $4 billion annually into the Queensland economy once it is fully implemented in 2019, creating a wide range of opportunities for new and established businesses. Between July 2016 and July 2019, >90,000 Queenslanders with disability will transition to the NDIS. People currently receiving support through the Queensland Government will transition to the NDIS alongside new participants.
The NDIS Commission is a newly established independent agency that started operating from 1st July 2018 to improve the quality and safety of NDIS supports and services. It brings together various quality and safeguards functions under a single agency for the first time, with a suite of education and regulatory powers that will apply across Australia. This will improve consistency in regulation and registration for providers in different states and territories.
PROVIDERplus has successfully done 100s of applications under the NDIS Commissioners registration process since its roll out in Sydney in June 2018.
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Journey begins – Your way forward as a registered NDIS provider
As you soon as you get through the application process successfully to become part of a new vibrant, innovative and competitive marketplace., you will then receive a certificate of registration containing the classes of supports/services you are registered to provide, validity period and details of conditions on your registration.
What to expect next once you get registered with the NDIS Commission?
Once you are registered, this information will be published on the NDIS Commission’s provider register. You must comply with all conditions of the registration, including the NDIS Practice Standards and Code of Conduct at all times. Compliance actions taken (if any) in relation to your organisation will be updated onto the published NDIS Commission’s provider register.
Prerequisites to maintain your registration status as an NDIS provider
As an NDIS provider, you are required to:
• Comply with the NDIS Practice Standards and conditions of registration
• Ensure compliance with the NDIS Code of Conduct and support your workers as well to meet its requirements
• have an established in-house complaints management and resolution system, that encourages and supports participants to make a complaint
• have an established in-house incident management system to notify the NDIS Commission of reportable incidents; if any
• Make sure that all workers are screened through a new national worker screening process
• Make sure that your organization meets behaviour support requirements (if applicable).
The NDIS Commission closely monitors registered NDIS providers to ensure that they meet their obligations and comply with the conditions of registrations, and has got the power to suspend, vary or completely cancel registration otherwise. Contact us to see how we; at PROVIDERplus can assist you with an ongoing support to ensure consistent compliance such that you are freed up to focus on the best of what you do as a disability provider.
New centralised NDIS database – Disability workers are now all set to have portable screening credentials
As per rules already set by the NDIS commission, disability workers are required to be screened to ensure that they do not pose a risk to people with disability. As of now, whoever has applied for a disability worker screening check are all set to have portable screening credentials in an online centralised clearance database.
This database is core element of COAG agreement and will be administered by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, whereas states and territories (who agreed to creation of this database in May 2018) will to continue to perform the checks.
“Examples of personal information which may be contained in the database include information relating to the identity of persons who have made an application or had a decision about them made under an NDIS worker screening law,†(ref. The NDIS Amendment (Worker Screening Database) Bill 2019).
Access to the information
Main purpose of this database is to ensure that information therein is up-to-date, accurate, and accessible. It is proposed that the information in database will be accessible (at varying levels of detail) by;
– State and territory screening units
– Department of Social Services,
– The NDIA and its contractors
– The NDIS providers and their subcontractors
“Worker screening is only one of a range of strategies that providers need to put in place to identify and minimise risk of harm to people with disability,†the NDIS commision states. More details are available at https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/providers/worker-screening
