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This is the sixth annual forum that the Commission has held to directly engage with many organisations whose advocacy is critical for the rights of people with disability.

Your expertise and experience as advocates speaks for itself.

We are pleased that joining today’s session are representatives of national, state-wide and community groups.

I also note that we will be hearing from the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and Minister for Government Services, the Honourable Bill Shorten MP, later today.

It is an understatement to say that:

• scrutiny is high about the future of the NDIS,
• and that change is happening in the NDIS Commission,
• driven by Government priorities and informed by stakeholder feedback.

Today we will give you an update of our current activities in regulating the quality and safety of NDIS services and supports.

And we’ll talk about how the future of the NDIS Commission is set up to make it easier and quicker for participants and providers to deal with us and to understand their rights and obligations.

I’ll kick off by talking about a program to reform our legacy IT systems and make connected intelligence a priority.

Then I’ll outline a risk prioritisation initiative to ensure our complaints and incident systems respond quickly for NDIS participants at highest risk of harm.

And I’ll touch on other activities designed to make the Commission more accessible for people with disability.

I am joined by our Deputy Commissioners, Sian Leathem, Catherine Myers, Rod Carracher and Alisa Chambers.

Sian will update you on developments in complaints and reportable incidents, and on activities to promote fair pricing of services for participants,

Catherine will share insights into our risk-based regulatory campaigns and projects such as the Fraud Fusion Taskforce,

Rod will talk about work to reduce restrictive practices, including compliance activities, and Alisa will focus on future reforms to registration, our Human Rights work and Quality Roadmap.

We will also have a workshop on:

• NDIS Practice Standards,
• regulation of supports shared by three or more participants within a single dwelling,
• and the separation of Supported Independent Living and Specialist Disability Accommodation.

We are looking forward to your perspectives, as advocates for people with disability, to support us in progressing this very important work.

Then we’ll conclude with a 30-minute panel where we’ll turn it over to you for questions to the Deputy Commissioners and me.

Change is certainly underway and a lot more change is coming at the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.

We are building on the foundation of our first years as a risk-based regulator

• by making changes to our people, our systems and our processes
• that will all make it easier for participants and providers to contact us, access information and get the support they need quickly.

An example of how we’ve made it easier is in our Contact Centre in Penrith, New South Wales, where our antiquated telephone system was not meeting community expectations.

It was a frustrating experience

• for our staff,
• for the people you represent, NDIS participants and family members calling with complaints,
• and for NDIS providers calling about registration, reportable incidents and other matters. 

Here is a video about what we’ve done.

As you heard, the introduction in April 2024 of world-class interactive voice response (IVR) technology in our Contact Centre has made it easier to contact the NDIS Commission.

We are answering more calls quicker:

• we immediately doubled our monthly rate;
• and callers who actually want to connect to the National Disability Insurance Agency or to state and territory-based worker screening units are now automatically redirected. All of that was an efficiency as a result of technology.

Staff resources

When I was appointed Acting Commissioner by the Minister in March this year, the impact of the first of two significant budget uplifts for the NDIS Commission was well underway.

In the 2023-24 budget, the NDIS Commission received an additional allocation to scale up the workforce in alignment with demand for the NDIS.

That resulted in our staff numbers growing from almost 600 to around 1000 in a year¹.

With attrition, it means around half the Commission staff have been on board for only six to nine months.

It’s a steep learning curve for everybody but that investment in people will make a significant increase in the Commission’s potential as a regulator responsible for improving the quality and safety of NDIS services.

IT transformation

The Government’s second significant investment came in the 2024-25 budget to improve our legacy IT systems.

This was vital if we are to meet our responsibilities in upholding the human rights of NDIS participants.

The Contact Centre transformation was a forerunner to the second major budget uplift – additional funding over four years to deliver our Data and Regulatory Transformation Program or DART. This is an additional $160.7 million.

This large investment will reform our whole IT system and drive necessary reform to manage registration, complaints, reportable incidents, as well as investigation and enforcement.

It will ensure the NDIS Commission has critical technology systems to be able to use to:

• gather intelligence, and
• better collect and analyse and share data to protect participants.

During 2023-24, we did a lot of preliminary work on our data governance and architecture.

That means taking control of our data and making better decisions around its use.

In the year ahead, we will lay the foundations for the introduction of sophisticated technology to:

• better regulate providers and workers and safeguard NDIS participants,
• reduce regulatory burden, and
• improve cyber security.

Through the DART program, we must establish essential, risk-based regulatory capabilities to meet the NDIS Commission’s existing and future legislative obligations to:

• safeguard participants,
• ensure quality in the market, and
• proactively manage compliance and fraud.

We must solve existing business problems such as:

• challenges our people have in accessing accurate, timely intelligence to accelerate targeted investigations, and
• unnecessary administrative burden on providers, which comes at the cost of focusing on providing quality services to participants.

We will replace our outdated IT system and build a modern, fit-for-purpose intelligence-based system:

• one that’s intuitive and provides the comprehensive, real-time information from multiple sources that we need to make informed regulatory decisions.

We want systems that will:

• help us to exercise the full range of our regulatory powers, and
• resolve complex issues – for NDIS participants, providers and workers – far more efficiently and quickly.

It won’t happen overnight, but our goal is to significantly improve the experience and engagement of NDIS participants and providers with the NDIS Commission.

Cross-agency

One of the outcomes of the DART program will be collaboration with NDIS portfolio and other government partners to expand data sharing arrangements and support informed decision-making.

Later today you will hear about existing examples of how we co-operate with other agencies in work to protect NDIS participants from harm.

Sian Leathem, Deputy Commissioner Complaints and Engagement, will talk about Fair Pricing activities that seek to counter exploitation of people with disability in prices charged for supports, services and equipment.

Catherine Myers, Deputy Commissioner Regulatory Operations, will update you on the multi-agency Fraud Fusion Taskforce which works to find and stop the impacts of fraud on NDIS participants.

Complaints processes

I’ve talked about our people and our IT systems. I said earlier that change is coming in our processes.

As a regulator with finite resources,

• the NDIS Commission is responsible for registration applications, regulating NDIS providers and workers and driving up the quality of their services.
• We are responsible for receiving complaints and mandatory notifications about incidents, including the use of unauthorised restricted practices, and
• We are responsible for safeguarding NDIS participants by undertaking compliance monitoring and investigative functions.

Each year since the Commission started, the number of complaints received has doubled.

In the financial year ending June 2024, we received more than 29,000 complaints about:

• provider practice,
• worker conduct or capability,
• alleged neglect or abuse, and other matters.

As advocates for people with disability, you would expect that we get to those matters in a timely manner.

The current volume of complaints, combined with the 70,000 reportable incidents received last year, along with referrals from other agencies, exceeds the NDIS Commission’s capacity.

It’s meant that in the past we’ve taken too long to finalise matters.

Realistically, we’re not going to get more staff so we have to become more efficient and effective in what we do to handle the work that comes in the door.

We must make decisions about which matters to intervene in and the level of regulatory intervention required, based on risk and resources.

To that end, we are designing a risk-based Enterprise Prioritisation Model to ensure our resources are directed to the matters of highest priority, consistent with the NDIS Act.

We have already developed different pathways and regulatory responses depending on the nature of the complaint.

A risk-based prioritisation model means prioritising matters that:

• involve harm, or present serious risk of future harm to NDIS participants,
• show a high degree of provider or worker negligence,
• involve a pattern of conduct or non-compliance by a provider,
• or significantly reduce trust and confidence in the NDIS.

While the Commission cannot investigate every matter, it aims to action all matters, including by:

• responding promptly to all complainants
• referring matters to the correct agency or authority where needed
• providing advice to support NDIS participants exercise their consumer rights
• educating providers on their obligations and requiring them to address problems
• collecting information and intelligence to identify emerging risks and inform appropriate responses, and
• taking compliance and enforcement action in serious matters.

A risk prioritisation model inevitably means that some matters will not receive the same level of intervention or response as was previously the case.

But the truth is, that now, we need to ensure that we give the most attention to those matters that pose the highest risk to the safety and quality of service for participants.

We need to ensure we are properly triaging those complaints and dealing with them differently than we have in the past.

We need to ensure we have capacity to quickly escalate higher-risk matters to our Regulatory Operations or Practice Quality teams;

• for investigation and potential compliance action, such as infringement notices or banning orders.

What I am talking about is the way any regulatory body, law enforcement or intelligence agency treats information. They prioritise risk.

The model we’re looking at – and it is embryonic at this stage – would look at the information we receive and ask:

• What is the risk to the participant and what is the impact on them
• Does it relate to a breach of law and, if so, the gravity of the alleged breach
• What is the attitude and behaviour of the provider – do they have a history of compliance or non-compliance with the NDIS Commission’s Code of Conduct?

These are some of the parameters that will likely inform a risk-based prioritisation matrix model.

We intend to develop case studies against each of the risk criteria so stakeholders will know what the likely treatment of a complaint or incident is, based on the circumstances.

I am confident that our risk prioritisation model will be implemented before the end of the calendar year.

I wanted to be transparent with you today and we will continue to be transparent; the risk matrix and case studies will be published on our website.

The reality is there is an opportunity cost of handling every low-risk complaint and potentially delaying investigations of other matters that involve high risk to the safety of NDIS participants.

Registration reform

The NDIS Commission has a busy year ahead.

The IT investment will help us to drive better registration processes, to resolve applications quicker and drive down cost for providers.

We expect to be involved in the design, implementation and management of a new registration model, consistent with the Government’s response to the NDIS Review and with the benefit of the advice recently provided by the Registration Taskforce.

Alisa Chambers, Deputy Commissioner of our Regulatory Policy, Insights and Review Division, will talk about work we’re progressing to support registration, which includes a review of NDIS Rules and Practice Standards.

We’ll undertake national consultation with NDIS providers and advocacy representatives on issues such as developing new NDIS Practice Standards for supported accommodation.

Driving information accessibility

I mentioned our website earlier. Our Communications and Engagement branch is working to make the Commission and its resources more accessible for participants and their supporters.

• We are developing educational content on the Code of Conduct that will make it easier for participants to understand their rights and what they should expect from providers and workers.
• We are reforming the content on our website to ensure we use plain English and bring it into line with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines for readability.
• Our Contact Centre now offers WebChat which makes communicating with us more accessible for NDIS participants who want immediate assistance but are unable to speak with us on the phone.
• We are conducting human-centred design research, hearing directly from people who use our communications channels, to improve our online interactions and meet expectations in the digital age.
• And finally, in June/July of this year, we initiated a major survey of NDIS participants, providers, workers and the general public, which will help the NDIS Commission create fit-for-purpose resources that meet the needs and communication preferences of our stakeholder groups.

Ends

1. 595 staff at 30 June 2023; 1036 at 30 June 2024 (including 939 APS staff and 97 labour hire resources)