3 April 2020

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Adjusting supports and reducing infection risk

This alert shares the innovative changes that NDIS providers are making to the delivery of supports and services to manage risks associated with COVID-19 to continue to support NDIS participants.

Key points

In response to current social distancing guidance and restrictions on group activities, providers should make changes to their services in consultation with NDIS participants and/or their family, guardian or nominee.

• Where supports can be delivered virtually, providers should facilitate this.
• Where supports involve groups of people congregating, and social distance requirements cannot be met, they should be changed to comply with state and territory orders. This does not include residential arrangements.
• Where activities involve community access that are not consistent with state and territory restrictions, they should be adjusted.
• Alternatives to day activities should be put in place within a person’s home, with social distancing measures in place. If this moves you into a new support category that you are not registered for, you can contact the NDIS Commission.
• Where possible, redeploy staff who may have been working on services that have changed into support activities that meet state and territory requirements. Where this cannot occur, explore options for collaborating with other providers in the local area who have staff shortages.
• If you provide critical supports that are key to the health, wellbeing and safety of a person with disability in living their daily life, take all actions and contingency management strategies necessary to ensure the continued provision of those supports.

Achieving continuity of service

During this time, all providers need to be agile, pragmatic and resourceful in meeting their obligations, and manage risks to service delivery while considering participants’ rights and the need for continuity in supports to keep them safe and healthy.

We recently published a Provider Alert about business continuity planning which set out four key points for providers:

• have a business continuity plan
• know the NDIS participants you support and the impacts on their health and safety if there are changes to their services and supports
• communicate with your workforce and NDIS participants to make sure they understand any changes
• report to the NDIS Commission when you become aware of significant impacts on your ability to continue to provide services and supports.

We also issued an alert about how current limitations on public gatherings, certain facilities and businesses may impact on participant activities such as community supports. In the alert, we talked about the need for you to explore alternatives for activities or supports that must be ceased, or adjusted, and the need to implement risk management strategies to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Minimising transmission risks

In any support, whether continuing or being adjusted, consideration must be given to reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection. Factors that can increase that risk, and the impact of a COVID-19 infection include:

• the likelihood of underlying medical conditions placing individuals at risk for severe disease from COVID-19
• people with complex support needs who may have difficulty meeting the requirements for social distancing and personal hygiene
• centre-based supports, and the management of a centre-based environment may facilitate the spread of COVID-19.

Strategies to control infection transmission:

• Provide adequate training and refreshers to all staff on respiratory etiquette and hand hygiene practices.
• Ensure support workers who have travelled overseas or interstate self-isolate for 14 days before returning to work.
• Conduct routine environmental cleaning, particularly for frequently-touched surfaces and proper waste management.
• Where possible, continue in-home supports and shared care planning to minimise the risk of a participant being admitted to health or quarantined facilities.
• Where a case of COVID-19 is suspected, clear communication on preventive health measures should be given to staff and updated as circumstances change.
• Make sure that participants are kept informed and support them to understand how they can stay safe. There are accessible resources on our Coronavirus information for people with a disability page, including an Easy Read factsheet.

Ideas for adjusting services and supports

Many providers are telling us of innovative ways they are adjusting the delivery of NDIS supports and services to NDIS participants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Below are some ideas received from NDIS providers about how to continue to support NDIS participants while adhering to current advice from the Australian Government, Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer, and state and territory governments about self-isolation and social distancing.  

Provide telephone or online supports

• Where possible, consider moving services to be phone-based or interactive online services rather than face-to-face.

Provide activities in an alternative way

• Where supports are usually provided in groups that are not exempt from state and territory requirements, consider moving to individual one-on-one support (where a participant’s plan/budget allows, and in line with current health advice).
• If participants are unable to access group recreational activities, consider activities that can be provided in the home, such as dance sessions (e.g. “silent disco”), sing-alongs, cooking activities or craft.

Establish COVID-19 communication channels

• Set up dedicated helplines or email addresses to handle enquiries about COVID-19 and changes to services from participants, their families, support worker and others.

Move to drop-in or contactless services

• Where appropriate, consider changing domestic assistance support to welfare checks, with only essential domestic assistance (such as shopping for food, medication delivery or changing bedding) continuing as usual.
• Arrange for support workers to go grocery shopping without participants. They can leave groceries at the doorstep for high-risk groups. 

Arrange alternative ways for participants to communicate with friends and family

• Organise telephone/video calls for participants with friends and family, instead of face-to-face visits. This may include establishing a new team to coordinate and initiate connections for participants and their friends and family to stay in touch.
• Encourage participants to send (or send on their behalf, with their consent) regular emails to friends and family about the participant’s daily activities.

Organise a contingency workforce

• Investigate the availability of staff in your local area whose working hours may have been reduced (e.g. staff who may have been providing group and centred-based activities).
• Explore other potential workforce sources who have the necessary skills to assist with the services and supports you deliver.

Arrange back-up accommodation for isolation

• Identify spare rooms for participants to self-isolate if necessary.
• To reduce risk of infection, identify accommodation for staff to stay on-site or nearby, rather than travelling to and from home.

Variations to registered support categories

If, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, you want to make changes to the supports and services you deliver and these supports are outside the support categories that you are already registered to provide, you can contact us about a variation to your registration. 

Where the additional or new supports you wish to provide are at the same level of risk and complexity as your existing supports, we can consider an urgent registration variation. For example, if you are no longer able to provide supports under Participate in the Community, Social and Civic Activities (Registration Group 0125) but would like to provide in-home supports such as Development of daily living and life skills (Registration Group 0117).  

Further information, alerts and resources

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) information webpage on the NDIS Commission website contains links to updates, training, alerts and other resources.

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) has an FAQ page about connecting with and helping participants, which gives guidance on implementing changes to services and supports. 
 

Contact Us

• Call: 1800 035 544 (free call from landlines). Our contact centre is open 9.00am to 4.30pm in the NT, 9.00am to 5.00pm in the ACT, NSW, QLD, SA, TAS and VIC Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays.
• Email: contactcentre@ndiscommission.gov.au
• Website: www.ndiscommission.gov.au
   

Links to previous COVID-19 provider alerts 

• 31 March 2020: Supporting providers to respond
• 26 March 2020: Assistance for organisations
• 24 March 2020: Information for support workers and access to PPE
• 19 March 2020: Business continuity planning
• 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