DANA has been funded by the Australian Government to engage with advocates, people with disability and experts as part of the independent NDIS Review. In August 2023, we completed a range of proactive, evidence-based solutions as part of an Engagement and Solutions Project to present to the NDIS Review. The engagement specifically focused on solutions to the problems in the following areas:
- Quality and Safety
- Mainstream and Tier 2
- Supported Decision Making
- Fires, floods and COVID-19
The scope of the project included discussion papers, online forums, and community surveys. The data from these activities helped DANA identify specific changes that can be recommended to improve the NDIS.
Discussion Papers
As part of our NDIS Review engagement, DANA commissioned a series of short discussion papers to explore possibilities for focus group and survey input. The discussion papers have been authored by experts and advocates in the disability field.
Fires, floods and COVID-19
Author: Elly Desmarchelier, disability rights advocate, speaker, and writer.
Quality and Safety
Author: Laura Davy and Molly Saunders, academics and researchers at Australian National University (ANU)
Mainstream & Tier 2
Author: Associate Professor Sue Olney, UoM-BSL Principal Research Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne
Supported Decision Making
Author: Kevin Stone, previous CEO of VALID, and advocacy trainer
Online Forums
DANA held a series of online forums to learn from advocates’ expertise and hear about their big ideas for how the Scheme can be improved. The online forums helped create a space for advocates to discuss key policy ideas to make the NDIS work better to inform the NDIS Review.
The online forums ran from 20 July to 15 August with two sessions on each of the four focus areas.
Staff of member organisations, including advocates of all models (self, peer, family, citizen, legal, individual and systemic) were invited to attend for these online forums.
Short Surveys
We want to tell the NDIS Review about what supports and services people with disability need that are outside the NDIS.
This survey was used to tell the NDIS review what supports are needed outside the NDIS and how to make the NDIS better.