DSA leading advocacy in NDIS review
August 3, 2023
Senior Advocacy Manager, Rachel Spencer, talks about what DSA is doing to ensure feedback from our community is being provided, and solutions found, as part of the NDIS Review. Self-advocate Leigh Creighton (pictured above with Rachel) attended the family forums to share his own experience of a transition period and how the NDIS supported him to move out of home and live independently.
Hearing directly from people with Down syndrome, their families and supporters is vital to our systemic advocacy work. The NDIS Review is in full swing, and DSA have been listening to you, and the NDIS Review are listening to us.
DSA has held focus groups and interviews with people with Down syndrome to find out about the planning process and how planning meetings can be more inclusive. We have also held family forums on planning during transition periods of life.
This includes stages of life we know are coming:
- Early childhood to school
- Finishing school, looking for a job
- Moving out of home
We have also discussed transition periods of life we may not have considered before:
- Ageing: retiring from work or wanting to reduce the number of planned activities, needing to change living arrangements and, health considerations.
- Moving house: moving locations or event moving interstate; losing local connections.
- Unexpected medical and health conditions.
- Ageing parents: losing a parent and the role of siblings in these transitions.
The Review Panel are listening to these issues and challenges, and they want solutions. So, solutions we are giving them!
Thanks to your input, we are focusing on three key solutions:
- Planning; how to include people with intellectual disability better in the process; how to make the process less onerous on families and more transparent.
- NDIS roles: LACs, Early Childhood Partners, Planners; what functions are they doing, what is missing and how can they work with us.
- Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC); the value of our Health, Employment and Leadership projects, and how the ILC program can improve across the community.
As part of our advocacy, we will also be contributing to Inclusion Australia’s work on support for decision making. It is so important that people with Down syndrome, families and supporters have the opportunity to build these skills.
DSA’s State and Territory member organisations are contributing to our response to the What we have heard report | NDIS Review which covers many areas of the NDIS. Their knowledge from the work they do on the ground with people and families is so valuable.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge the work of the NDIS Review Panel. The panel is actively engaging with DSA and listening to the issues and solutions we present. Doing this work collaboratively means we are expecting the NDIS Review recommendations will focus on solutions to ensure the NDIS is the best it can be for people with Down syndrome, all people with disability and the Australian community.
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