Ep. 14 - Building Capability in the NDIS | Capability Corner

It's a good question.

And we are doing a whole webinar on that specific topic.

But for the purpose of anyone that is new or not specifically working in the NDIS at the moment, I guess there's a couple of key bills or technically one key bill, the Future Generations Bill, which is about to pass the passage of Parliament or by the time this episode is released, probably pass.

and then the Integrity and Safeguards Act.

So a bill is something that's not yet live, an act is something that's live.

And I think the key intent of these bills is really integrity, safeguarding.

There are a lot of pricing kind of pressures that are driving this, but There's one word that sums up the direction of where this is going, and it's around quality.

And that is absolutely not an acknowledgement that there are not many providers that are absolutely doing quality now.

There absolutely are.

This is a really looking at, as the name says, the next generation of the scheme, looking at what is the intent of the scheme for the advocates and the many people thousands of people that were instrumental in establishing the NDIS.

What is it designed to do and how can we make sure that the scheme into the future is sustainable, it's supported, it's enabling for providers, it meets the needs of participants and it's well understood by anyone that's working in the sector or outside of the sector so that we can ensure that participants' rights and the care and supports that they require continue to be funded for the next generation.

So a bit like creating reliability around that quality so that there wasn't that oversight or standards that people could use as a benchmark to be able to support that.

Yeah, look, I think there are benchmarks, there are standards.

This is a maturing of the regulation, I think.

For many providers, they're already doing wonderful things.

This is an extension.

This is an acknowledgement.

That is the standard that we're trying to all reach for.

But I think...

Regardless of the bill name or the act name, for anyone that is working in this space, the key thing to remember is that through this period of uncertainty where there are changes to eligibility, there are changes to some of the key elements of the scheme, that This can bring a lot of anxiety.

This can bring a lot of stress and disruption to people that are already vulnerable, to people that are already really going through enough uncertainty.

So it really just makes that conversation around rights and protecting the rights of participants and being able to advocate for families and carers just as

critical.

So with change not being for change sake, and it is about reform is about improvement.

Liz, what would you say would be the impact that from these, we talk about the changes, but what is it? What are we aiming for? What's the impact we're looking