Provider Newsletter March 2021

NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission

Provider Newsletter - May 2021

This newsletter is sent to the email address associated with your registration, which means that if you unsubscribe from this email, you are unsubscribing from other important correspondence from the NDIS Commission, including renewal reminders.

COVID-19 vaccine roll-out for people with disability and disability workers

The Australian Government Department of Health has published information on their website about COVID-19 vaccines for people with disability, disability providers and disability workers. These pages contain important information about the vaccines and the rollout of the vaccination program. These pages are updated regularly.

We are committed to communicating information from the Department of Health on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout for people with disability and disability providers as it becomes available. We will continue to share this information with you via our provider alerts.

Our COVID-19 vaccine information webpage has links to updates about COVID-19 vaccines and resources for NDIS providers. We also have a COVID-19 vaccine webpage with information for people with disability.

If you are not a registered NDIS provider, you can subscribe to our provider alerts for the latest information.

Best practice guidance for providers

We are committed to ensuring that you have access to key guidance on best practice and innovation, and have recently issued a series of five practice alerts to support your delivery of some of the most complex supports.

We also support the development of guidance by key researchers in the disability field. The new Frontline Practice Leadership Training Resource is designed for frontline supervisors, service managers and experienced support workers. Developed by the Living with Disability Research Centre at La Trobe University, it contains six training modules that provide information about how to perform the five tasks of Frontline Practice Leadership, video clips of practice, and exercises. This resource can be used for in-house training, individual study or in team discussion.

NDIS Workforce Capability Framework

We have launched a new Capability Framework for the NDIS workforce that describes the attitudes, skills and knowledge expected of all workers funded under the NDIS.

The Framework is written from the perspective of the participant and describes the capabilities that workers need to deliver services and supports. It provides a common language to describe ‘what good looks like’ when services are delivered in line with the NDIS principles, based on human rights and participant choice and control.

A user-friendly, online version of the Framework will be launched in mid-2021. Until then, more information about the Framework is available on our website.

What to expect when we receive a complaint about your organisation

Having a complaints management system in place is a condition of your NDIS provider registration. Even if your organisation is unregistered, you must be able to effectively manage complaints.

When we receive a complaint, we seek to resolve it quickly, while still giving proper consideration to the issues raised. Complainants are not required to raise the issue directly with your organisation first, and complaints can also be made anonymously.

A complaints officer will contact you to outline the issues and seek information.

To resolve a complaint we may:

require you to examine and attempt to resolve the complaint and report back to us
request that you participate in a conciliation process
provide you with advice and assistance
take other action we consider appropriate.

It is useful to recognise that complainants usually expect acknowledgement, answers, action, and apology. Your role is to ensure that people feel that they have been understood, provide a clear explanation, take steps to address the concerns and, where appropriate, offer a genuine apology to rebuild relationships.

NDIS Worker Screening Check

Applying for an NDIS Worker Screening Check

The NDIS Worker Screening Check is conducted by the relevant Worker Screening Unit (WSU) in the state or territory where a person applies for the check. The WSU also decides whether a person is cleared or excluded. For more information, visit the WSU webpage in your state or territory:

Australian Capital Territory: Access Canberra
New South Wales: Service NSW
Northern Territory: SAFE NT
Queensland: Disability Worker Screening
South Australia: Department of Human Services Screening Unit
Tasmania: Consumer, Building and Occupational Services
Victoria: Department of Justice and Community Safety
Western Australia: Department of Communities

Before a worker’s acceptable check expires, they will need to apply for an NDIS Worker Screening Check if they want to continue working in a risk assessed role. In some jurisdictions, in certain circumstances workers can work in a risk assessed role once they have submitted an application for an NDIS Worker Screening Check, provided they are in the process of obtaining a clearance. We have published a table on our website that sets out the relevant arrangements.

Check the status of your workers

Your NDIS provider registration requires you to ensure that workers in risk assessed roles have either an acceptable check under the transitional and special arrangements or an NDIS Worker Screening Check, and to keep appropriate records. Use the NDIS Worker Screening Database (which you can access through the NDIS Commission Portal) to confirm that a worker has a clearance and is eligible to work.

See our website for guidance and information about the NDIS Worker Screening Database.

Update on worker screening

Since the new worker screening requirements were implemented on 1 February 2021, over 60,000 workers have received an NDIS worker screening clearance.

Three workers have had their NDIS worker screening clearance suspended, and 48 are the subject of an interim bar (which means they cannot work in a risk assessed role for a registered NDIS provider while their suitability to hold an NDIS worker screening clearance is reconsidered).

A further five workers have been excluded from working in risk assessed roles with NDIS participants.

Delivering behaviour support

You must be registered to deliver behaviour support before performing functional behavioural assessments, or writing behaviour support plans. Our fact sheet and website provide more information on registration requirements, and how to be considered suitable as an NDIS behaviour support practitioner.

Behaviour support practitioner suitability assessment update

The national implementation program for the Positive Behaviour Support Capability (PBS) Framework began in January 2021. This requires behaviour support practitioners to be assessed against the PBS Capability Framework and apply for determination of their suitability to deliver behaviour support services. Only practitioners who have been considered suitable as an NDIS behaviour support practitioner can deliver specialist behaviour support services, including conducting behaviour assessments and developing behaviour support plans.

If you are a behaviour support practitioner in New South Wales or South Australia you should have submitted your assessment and application, or if new to the market, should be preparing to submit your application in the coming months. Your provisional suitability status remains in place until you receive an outcome for your application.

If you are a behaviour support practitioner in Queensland or Victoria, you need to submit your application between 1 July 2021 and 30 September 2021.

If you are in the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania, the Northern Territory or Western Australia, you can begin preparing the required assessment documents and collecting your work practice examples for your portfolio of evidence.

Our frequently asked questions page provides more information about the behaviour support practitioner suitability assessment.

NDIS Commission website redevelopment

This year we are redeveloping the NDIS Commission website. We are planning to make it more user-focused, intuitive and easy to navigate, with a more logical structure.

During the project we will need input and feedback from a range of stakeholders – including NDIS participants, providers, workers and advocates – to help ensure our new website is as accessible and useful as possible for our key stakeholders.

If you or any of your staff members would like to help us with this, we want to hear from you. Please email our Communications team with your contact details, and we will be in touch over the coming months to invite you to participate in various activities to test the structure and layout of the proposed new website.

Changes to the Reportable Incidents Portal

Reportable Incidents Approvers are now required to enter a valid NDIS number for any person with disability who is involved in a reportable incident (either as the impacted person or as the subject of allegation). If a Reportable Incidents Approver attempts to submit a five day notification without a valid NDIS number, they will receive an error message. If an error message is received, the Reportable Incidents Approver should check that the correct NDIS number has been entered. For more information, please contact us.

Letter from Registrar to residential aged care NDIS providers

The NDIS Commission Registrar, Samantha Taylor PSM, has written to all registered residential aged care providers supporting NDIS participants in response to a number of questions from the sector. The letter and attachment are on our website.