If you or your employer provides a service to a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participant, and either or both of you gets paid under the NDIS, then you’re required to adhere to the NDIS Code of Conduct.
The NDIS Code of Conduct is designed to promote a safe and skilled workforce to serve participants in the Scheme, and it applies to every provider – both NDIS registered and unregistered – and to NDIS workers.
Brush up on what the NDIS Code of Conduct sets out for providers and workers – and find out what we’re doing at My Plan Manager to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of people with disability – by reading on.
The NDIS Code of Conduct helps protect the health, safety and wellbeing of people with disability by setting out acceptable, appropriate and ethical conduct for NDIS providers and workers. The requirements in the NDIS Code of Conduct are fundamental to the rights of people with disability, as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
NDIS providers and workers must:
1. Act with respect for individual rights to freedom of expression, self-determination and decision-making in accordance with applicable laws and conventions.
People with disability have the right to make their own decisions, to be free to live the life they choose, and to have the same rights and freedoms as any other member of the community. (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission)
That’s why, at My Plan Manager, we place huge emphasis on supporting choice and control for every client – a commitment that forms the basis of every decision we make.
We aim to present information to our clients that they can use to make decisions – like what kind of providers they want to use and where they want to spend their funding. Then, if requested, we assist them to act on those decisions by helping with budgeting and setting funding aside to access the providers they want to see. This gives our clients more control of their NDIS plans, their budget and their lives.
2. Respect the privacy of people with disability
Everybody has the right not to have their personal information disclosed without their informed consent. NDIS providers should respect and protect the privacy of everyone they provide services to and have policy and procedures to ensure they manage information in accordance with privacy laws. (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission)
At My Plan Manager, our staff are trained to protect the personal information of our clients and we’ve created policies (if ever there’s a case where client privacy is compromised) to minimise exposure of personal information and the subsequent damage that may arise from it. You can find our Privacy and Dignity Policies and Procedures here.
We also undertake proof of identity checks when clients and providers call us and request private information.
We have specific training about privacy and dignity that we approach from a rights-based agenda (as opposed to a box our team members have to tick). This means our clients’ privacy is at the heart of the training we provide to our team members and is emphasised through it, as part of the person centred approach we take.
We’re also currently working towards being accredited with the International Standards Organisation (ISO) 27001 Standard, which assesses and accredits information security management. The 27001 Standard entails an external and independent review of our policies and systems to ensure we protect the confidentiality, integrity and accessibility of our client data at a world class level.
Once accredited, we’ll be one of the first plan managers to achieve this external validation of our systems.
3. Provide supports and services in a safe and competent manner with care and skill
Providers should ensure they have competent workers to serve their clients. They should ensure their workers have the necessary training, skill and qualifications for the services they provide. (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission)
At My Plan Manager, our team members are provided with training at key stages of their employment, including induction and refresher training, to have competence in assisting our clients in a range of areas – in addition to processing their NDIS invoices.
We also have a competency framework that’s used to structure our team member training, which is externally reviewed as part of our ISO 9001 accreditation. We’re one of only a few plan managers to have the ISO 9001 accreditation at present.
We also adhere to NDIS Practice Standards that are audited every three years.
4. Act with integrity, honesty and transparency
People with disability have a right to accurate, accessible and timely information that includes the cost and efficacy of services. (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission)
At My Plan Manager, we scrutinise every invoice to make sure clients aren’t being charged more than the rates set out in the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits. We also help clients to verify the services they’ve been invoiced for, and they can let us know if they have any concerns about invoices or the charges being made by their providers.
We’re able to provide accurate, accessible and timely information through technology that lets our clients see their information – including their NDIS plan budget – in real time, via the client portal and mobile app.
Our clients can choose to receive SMS text notifications when their invoices are processed, and we have service level standards – including call response and invoice processing times – that we monitor and are reviewed under our ISO 9001 accreditation.
5. Promptly take steps to raise and act on concerns about matters that may impact the quality and safety of supports and services provided to people with disability.
NDIS providers have a responsibility to provide safe and quality services. That’s why they should have effective complaints, resolution, incident management, investigation and disciplinary processes. (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission)
At My Plan Manager, we can provide information if clients have concerns that need to be reported to the NDIS Qualify and Safeguards Commission or to the National Disability Insurance Agency.
If a client has a concern about fraud, if something goes wrong with their supports or services, or if they’re at risk of danger, we can provide information on who to report it to and how, and we’re committed to reporting first and third party reports if ever required.
This basically means we’ll provide a report to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission if ever we become aware that a My Plan Manager team member or provider is involved in a ‘reportable incident’.
The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission considers a reportable incident to include these scenarios when they’re related to NDIS services provided:
We have a dedicated Quality and Risk team that’s in charge of notifying the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission if a reportable incident does occur. The team looks after subsequent requests, and answers communication from the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, once informed.
6. Take all reasonable steps to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against, and exploitation, neglect and abuse of, people with disability.
Evidence demonstrates that people with disability are at a far greater risk of experiencing violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation than others in the population and this often goes unrecognised and unaddressed. Women and girls with disability are at far greater risk of violence, and children and young people with disability experience violence and abuse at approximately three times the rate of children without disability. (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission)
We know that people with significant or profound disability are particularly vulnerable to systemic and opportunistic harm, and we’re often their first line of defence in raising concerns about actual and potential risks.
That’s why we proactively work to detect and report vulnerability, safety and safeguarding concerns, to improve outcomes for the thousands of Australians with disability who we support.
7. Take all reasonable steps to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct.
Sexual misconduct is a broad term encompassing any unwelcome acts or behaviour that are experienced by the person with disability as being sexual in nature. This includes physical and verbal actions committed without consent or by force, intimidation, coercion or manipulation. It includes sexual violence and exploitation but is not limited to actions which constitute a criminal offence. (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission)
The relationship between a worker and a person with disability relies on a great degree of trust. All forms of sexual misconduct constitute a breach of this trust and a breach of the NDIS Code of Conduct.
The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission states that an NDIS provider’s guidance for their workers should:
As we’ve outlined above, we know that people with significant or profound disability are particularly vulnerable to systemic and opportunistic harm, and we’re often their first line of defence in raising concerns about actual and potential risks.
That’s why we proactively work to detect and report vulnerability, safety and safeguarding concerns, to improve outcomes for the thousands of Australians with disability who we support.
We often get asked the difference between the NDIS Practice Standards and the NDIS Code of Conduct, and here’s the simplest response:
The Practice Standards outline the legally binding quality standards that registered providers must adhere to, while the NDIS Code of Conduct sets out expectations of how providers and workers will conduct themselves when delivering services.
For the latest information about the NDIS Code of Conduct, visit the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission website.
