We know swift payment of invoices is essential for providers’ peace of mind – and vitally important for keeping client supports in place! However, there are often delays in processing payments because critical information is left off a claim.
That’s why Kinora, My Plan Manager’s community of solutions, has launched a new channel to help you get paid quickly.
Introducing the Best Ways to Get Paid Quickly channel
Inside this private, provider-exclusive channel, My Plan Manager serves up time-reducing tips and tricks to help you get paid faster, a little like our invoice checklist.
To get paid faster and to have your questions answered:
You can also reply or comment in a topic that’s already there.
My Plan Manager is available to respond to your questions from 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday.
Are you a new NDIS provider?
Then don’t miss NDIS 101 for New Providers – a Q&A event that’s running on Kinora from 3pm-4pm (AEST) this Thursday (13 October).
We’ll cover the basics that all providers should know, including best practice fundamentals for engaging with participants and getting paid.
The great news is, it’s completely free and you don’t need to register. To join this event, log in to Kinora, click this link to post your questions, and we'll answer them live.
Looking to grow your capacity and achieve better outcomes from your National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plan? The SKILL project just might help.
SKILL – which stands for Strengthening Knowledge, Ideas, Links and Leadership – is an individual capacity building project for people with disability and their supporters.
Made up of workshops, peer networks and leadership development, the project has been designed by and for people with disability and funded through a three-year National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) grant to JFA Purple Orange.
SKILL offers a series of free-of-charge online resources covering topics including:
You can also access the SKILL Facebook group and live webinars to build connection and really cement the content you learn!
Click here to learn more and start your SKILL journey.
If you’re a taxi user with disability in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria or Western Australia then you’re going to want to know about this!
A dedicated disability taxi service has launched with a host of tech features that allow you to keep track of your travel spending, see your average trip costs and even nominate your preferred driver – plus much more.
Through the new Black & White Cabs service, Disability Accessibility Support Hub (DASH), you can access a dedicated support manager, nominate a preferred driver, set up a credit account, and take advantage of technology designed to help you monitor your trips and travel spending. You can also elect to receive alerts when your account balance is getting low.
For extra peace of mind, if you reach your account limit or your agreement with DASH expires, your account will be placed on hold. This means you can’t accidentally spend outside of your budget.
And, because you can see your average trip spending on DASH, the service can help you to estimate how many trips you have left with your remaining funding, so you can plan ahead.
Your information is kept private, but you can choose to let your plan manager (us!) or your support coordinator have access to a dashboard to track your trips and spending, which may help with assessing trends in your travel – and preparing for your plan reassessment.
Find out more about DASH and the services available through Black & White Cabs.
It’s a difficult but necessary initiative – the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.
Referred to as the Disability Royal Commission (DRC), it’s been running since 2019, and most recently completed a public hearing in Parramatta focused on people with disability who’ve experienced homelessness. Yesterday, the DRC opened its 27th public hearing in Perth. The five-day hearing will explore conditions in detention in the criminal justice system.
The DRC, which recently released its sixth progress report (highlighting a range of activities that occurred from January-June 2022), takes submissions from people with disability as well as from family members, friends, paid staff and advocates.
If you haven’t yet made a submission and you intend to, the deadline is fast approaching. Submissions must be received by the end of the year (31 December 2022) to be considered. Find more information about sharing your story here and here, and remember, you can access free legal support to help you.
What’s the purpose of the DRC?
The DRC aims to:
The DRC has been gathering information through research, public hearings and people’s personal testimonies about their own lived experience.
It will write and deliver a final report to the Australian Government by 23 September 2023. The report will include recommendations on ‘how to improve laws, policies, structures and practices to ensure a more inclusive and just society’.
What is violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation?
Trigger warning: this can be confronting.
Violence and abuse towards people with disability can include assault, sexual abuse, constraints, physical and chemical restrictive practices, forced treatments, forced interventions, humiliation and harassment, financial and economic abuse, and significant violations of people’s privacy and dignity – either systemic or as an individual.
Neglect can include physical or emotional neglect, passive neglect or deliberately depriving people of physical and emotional support, food, shelter, access, mobility, clothing, education, medical care and treatment. Neglect can be a one-off incident or ongoing.
Exploitation is when a person takes advantage of another person. This could be making the other person do things, taking assets of the other person (including money, making them work etc), or using them physically, sexually or in other ways to take advantage.
What’s the latest?
So far, the DRC has:
The most recent public hearing in Parramatta (public hearing 26) covered the issue of homelessness, including the experience of people with disability living in boarding houses, hostels and other arrangements.
In his opening address, DRC Chair, The Hon Ronald Sackville AO KC, stressed the importance of secure housing as a human rights issue. He quoted the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, saying: “Homelessness is a profound assault on dignity, social inclusion and the right to life.”.
“The experience of homelessness will not be fully captured unless the definition goes beyond the deprivation of physical shelter. Reducing the definition to merely putting a roof over someone's head will fail to take into account the loss of social connection, a feeling of belonging nowhere and the social exclusion experienced by people living in homelessness.”
During public hearing 26, the DRC heard from people with disability about:
The DRC also heard from staff of the Australian Government and the New South Wales Government about their own housing and homelessness policies and programs and how they support people with disability.
The second part of the hearing looked at Supported Residential Services (SRS) in Victoria. SRSs are privately operated businesses and many of the residents who live in them have a disability and require support for everyday activities. The DRC heard from residents, families and an SRS owner.
Thinking about making a submission?
If you’ve been thinking about making a submission – by phone, video, art project, or in writing – including in your first language (translators, including First Nations translators, are available), you have until the end of the year.
Sometimes it can be hard to know where to start. To help, you can read these questions posed by the DRC and consider some or all of them.
You can make a telephone submission by calling 1800 517 199 to make an appointment.
You can post your submission to GPO Box 1422, Brisbane, QLD 4001.
You can email DRCenquiries@royalcommission.gov.au. This is also the email to use if you need help sending audio or video files.
You can upload audio and video (up to 4gb) in the online form. Please note you can answer some of the questions on the form or all of them.
For the deaf and hard-of-hearing, call the National Relay Service on 133 677 and tell them you want to call 1800 517 199 (you’ll then likely need to make an appointment).
To call in a language other than English, call the free Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) on 131 450 and tell them you want to call 1800 517 199.
Again, find more information about sharing your story here and here.
Free legal support to help you in your submission
You can get free support from Your Story disability legal support. My Plan Manager spoke to them recently.
You can phone Your Story on 1800 77 1800 or go to www.yourstorydisabilitylegal.org.au for more information.
If you’re deaf or hard-of-hearing, you can contact Your Story through the National Relay Service 133 677 and telling them you wish to contact 1800 771 800.
Has the DRC affected you? Do you need support?
The Blue Knot Foundation has free specialist counselling and a referral service for anyone affected by the DRC. Call the national hotline (open every day) on 1800 421 468.
If you’re deaf or hard-of-hearing, you can contact the Blue Knot Foundation through the National Relay Service 133 677 and tell them you want to call 1800 421 468.
If you or someone you know needs support in another language, call the National Counselling and Referral Service on 1800 421 468 and ask for an interpreter (the counsellor will arrange this) or call the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450 and ask to be connected to the National Counselling and Referral Service on 1800 421 468.
Braille documents can be ordered by 1800 517 199.
Have you thought about how you can best support the social and emotional wellbeing of children with disability?
National not for profit organisation, Emerging Minds, has a suite of free online courses and resources designed to help foster positive mental health for children aged up to 12 years.
Developed in partnership with children with disability and their families, the resources are perfect for anyone who works with children, including disability support workers, allied health professionals and general practitioners.
Emerging Minds’ Practice Development Manager, Dr Daniel Moss, said it was vital that mental health support was considered as part of a holistic approach to children’s care.
“Studies show that from the age of three years, a child with intellectual disability is already significantly more likely to develop mental health difficulties. But with the right support, professionals can prevent these challenges from developing and continuing into adulthood,” said Dr Moss.
“As professionals, we need to keep in mind the different factors that can influence the mental health and wellbeing of children with disability. Incorporating child-centred, family-centred and communication-focused skills and interventions into our everyday practice will help us to better support both children and families.”
Learn more about Emerging Minds’ suite of disability resources and sign up for free.
Since its inception, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has provided funding for people with disability who qualify for an NDIS plan. However, in order for supports to be funded by your plan, they must be a type that can, by law, be funded or provided, and they have to meet the NDIS reasonable and necessary criteria.
So, what is reasonable and necessary?
In its own summary, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) says:
“The Australian Government made laws about what we can fund under the NDIS. All supports need to meet the criteria in these laws before we can fund them in your plan. We call these the NDIS funding criteria.”
“For example, supports need to be related to your disability, value for money, effective and beneficial, and most appropriately funded or provided by us. Each support must meet these criteria individually, but the supports must also meet the criteria when considered as a package.”
Want to know more? Here’s six key points about what’s considered to be reasonable and necessary.
1. The support will help you to work towards the goals in your plan. Remember, you can set any goals you like, and you can change your goals whenever you want to. But it’s important to know that the NDIA isn’t obligated to fund all your goals.
2. The support will help you to participate socially or economically. It will help reduce the barriers to participation that exist because of the intersection of your disability and community access.
Social participation includes the things you like to do – like playing sport, meeting up with friends or attending events. Social participation support is also funded to help you do the things you need to do, like attending medical appointments or going to school.
Economic participation means the things that will help you get or keep a job. It could be training and studying outside of high school, volunteering, learning new skills or doing work experience.
3. The support is value for money and what it costs is reasonable in terms of the benefits you’ll receive and the cost of a different support. The NDIA says this important so the NDIS will continue to be financially sustainable for you and current participants as well as future participants – recognising that anyone can acquire a disability at any time.
When looking at value for money, the Agency says it takes a long term view on supports and how they’ll benefit you – for example, a home modification may reduce your need for other supports, so if the NDIA plans to fund a home modification, it will need to take that into account when considering what other supports are reasonable and necessary, such as the amount of care you need at home.
If the home modification will reduce your care needs, the Agency may need to reduce the amount of care it funds, as a higher amount may not be reasonable and necessary when the whole package of supports is considered.
4. The support will be effective and beneficial for you and is deemed to be of current good practice. This means the NDIA will consider if other participants with similar disability support needs as you are also using the supports successfully. It also means you may not need an expert report for every single support if there’s evidence of other participants with similar disability support needs as you also getting benefit from the support you’ve requested.
5. The funding of the support looks at what it’s reasonable to expect society at large to provide. This is where the Agency looks at what it’s reasonable to expect of your informal supports – family (if you’re in contact with them), carers, friends, neighbours and community groups, taking into account your age.
The thinking is if you’d like to widen your social circle, it makes more sense for a friend to help you with that rather than a paid support worker. The NDIA will also look at whether the capacity of your informal supports is decreasing – for example, if your parents are ageing, and finding it harder to support you.
6. Finally, the NDIA checks that the support is most appropriately funded by the NDIS. It won’t fund you for things that should be provided elsewhere (even if they’re not) or supports that everyone is eligible for, like mainstream healthcare, education, justice, housing and more.
Your local area coordinator or NDIS planner will look at each support’s reasonable and necessary criteria as well as the reasonable and necessary nature of your entire plan and its benefit to you holistically.
And there’s more information on the NDIS website about each of these six points, including case-study style examples.
Voting – it’s how you have your say about who you want to represent you in local, state/territory or federal politics.
You have the right to vote and your vote counts, so it’s important you’re prepared well before election day. It’s compulsory that everyone who’s eligible enrols to vote and votes on election day (or through another means). It’s also important to be enrolled well before an election so you’re eligible to vote when the time comes.
Depending on your accessibility needs, you might want to explore different options for enrolling to vote and voting.
The Australian Electoral Commission – responsible for federal elections in Australia – has a range of options that people with disability may wish to use, including:
Victorians are the next group of voters heading to the polls – the Victorian state election will be held on 6 November. For general information about voting and accessibility in Victoria, go here.
In the 2022 federal election, all voters were able to vote in person, either early or on election day, or apply for a postal vote. The same will be the case in the Victorian state election, and some voters may be able to vote by post for all upcoming state/territory and federal elections.
In Victoria, there will be options for phone voting, and voting onsite at some hospitals, community centres, aged care facilities and homelessness support agencies, and voters may also apply for a Braille voting pack.
For other states/territories, look up your local Electoral Commission website or talk to someone who may be able to support you to find more information – it’s all part of living in a democracy!
We might not have the hoverboard from Back to the Future and the flying cars from The Jetsons have yet to zoom in, but technology is opening up access in ways we wouldn’t have dreamed of in previous generations.
In Apple products alone, there are tonnes of accessibility options designed to support people with disability, from vision impairment, hearing loss and deafness, through to mobility limitations and cognitive impairment.
This article in TechGuide comprehensively explains options for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, AirPods and Apple Watch, but here are some of our favourites.
Don’t be alarmed if your screen time report increases after you implement some of these options! You’ll be using your device to its full capability.
Are you a university student with disability in your final or second-to-last year of study? Yes? Then you could complete a paid internship as part of the Australian Government’s Stepping Into program.
The program links students who identify as having a disability, mental health condition or chronic illness with employers who are pioneers in their field and creates a pipeline of diverse talent.
Stepping Into recognises students with disability may not have the same opportunities to work or access internships while studying and that academic transcripts don’t always reflect a student’s true potential.
To be eligible for Stepping Into, you must be an Australian citizen and able to commit to the entire program – a 152-hour placement, which can be undertaken on full time or part time hours.
You will need to complete:
You’ll be paid at the rate of an Australian Public Service (APS) Level 2 position.
For more information, go to https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/department/careers/entry-level-programs/stepping-into-program and apply today.
