CORONAVIRUS INFORMATION FOR PROVIDERS - 19 March 2020

REGISTERED NDIS PROVIDER - BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING

This information from the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (NDIS Commission) is to assist NDIS providers when planning for changes that may occur to their service delivery due to COVID-19.

Key points

• Have a business continuity plan – having and regularly reviewing a business continuity plan, allows you to assess risks to your business, your staff, and the people you support, and have identified strategies to manage those risks in the event of a crisis.
• Know the NDIS participants you support – the extent to which NDIS participants rely on the supports you provide and the extent to which their health and safety may be impacted, should supports and services be disrupted.
• Communicate – ensure your workforce and the NDIS participants you support understand what you will do and how you will support them in the event of a crisis.
• Report – when you become aware of significant impacts on your ability to continue to provide services and support you need to advise the NDIS Commission.

Background

The NDIS Code of Conduct, NDIS Practice Standards and associated Quality Indicators provide a powerful guide for providers to understand your obligations when delivering supports and services to NDIS participants.  You should use these as tools to frame your planning activities and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To date, the Australian Government’s Chief Medical Officer has not issued advice requiring disability providers without contamination or exposure to COVID-19, to isolate or limit access to supports and services to NDIS participants. Accordingly, the NDIS Commission expects the provision of supports and services that are not currently impacted by COVID-19, to continue to be offered to NDIS participants.

This is a rapidly changing situation. A number of states and territories have declared a health emergency and you should continue to monitor relevant information from the Australian Government’s Chief Medical Officer and your state or territory’s Chief Health Officers as it becomes available.

No matter what the scale of the organisation, or type of services delivered, all NDIS providers should have a plan to actively manage the risk of possible disruption to the supports and services you provide to NDIS participants.

Business continuity planning

Have a business continuity plan

You are expected to have plans that set out how your organisation will manage in the event of a crisis or disaster situation. Many providers have detailed plans that set out how they will respond in general situations.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique, complex and constantly changing situation.​

The NDIS Commission recommends that you:

• ​​test your plans to the specific impacts of this pandemic on your business, and refine as required

• set regular review points for the plan, so that you can respond to this rapidly changing situation, and adapt to additional advice from the Australian Government, as required.

When testing the plan, ensure that any third parties included in the plan are able to fulfil their responsibilities to your organisation. You should also:

• identify options for managing temporary changes in support, should this be required

• identify the staff in your organisation who have capabilities in contingency planning, infection control, or other specialisations who can be deployed to provide support

• know your staff availability to support potential gaps in service provision, which may be created by workers impacted by COVID-19

• identify the need to engage an alternative workforce, ensuring that inductions are appropriate to set the expectations for working with people with disability. These might include:

  • undertaking the NDIS Commission Worker Orientation Module

  • ​ensuring they have the appropriate competencies to deliver the appropriate services and supports in accordance with the expectations of the NDIS Practice Standards.

Know the NDIS participants you support

Undertake a risk assessment of the supports and services that your organisation provides. This should include the degree to which NDIS participants rely on those supports and services to meet their daily living needs, and the extent to which their health and safety would be affected, should those services be disrupted.

Know your NDIS participants as individuals including their specific needs and how they would like to receive information. Understand how this would be impacted if changes were made to existing service and support arrangements.

Make sure participant records are up-to-date and accessible, so that their support needs and preferences are clear, documented and available should new or temporary staff be required to support them. This might include their preferred means of communication, specific needs and preferences, health care plans, behaviour support plans, other providers, and their representatives.

If possible, understand any informal supports and services that may be available to the person with disability.

Communicate

Familiarise your workforce and any third parties with the business continuity arrangements and triage points within your organisation.

Familiarise your workforce with policies, procedures and responsibilities regarding infection control.

Make sure clear communication channels are in place with all of the NDIS participants that your organisation supports. This will enable the effective communication of any changes that might be required to a participant’s supports and services.

Report

Notify the NDIS Commission, via our website, when significant impacts to support and service provision occurs. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, these may include you becoming aware:

• ​that the COVID-19 pandemic has, or is likely, to significantly impact your organisation’s ability to provide supports and services to NDIS participants

• that a significant shortfall in available workers to provide the supports or services your organisation is registered to provide

• of the cessation, on a temporary or permanent basis, of the provision of supports or services that your organisation is registered to provide.

Further information, alerts and resources

The NDIS Commission’s COVID-19 information webpage contains links to updates, training, alerts and other resources.

Links to previous COVID-19 provider alerts 

• 17 March 2020: Online training module for support workers
• 9 March 2020: Provider obligations and COVID-19 health information
• 7 February 2020: Information about the novel coronavirus outbreak