New NDIA Participant Safeguarding Policy
The NDIA has released a new Participant Safeguarding Policy.
Everyone has the right to live a safe life, free from harm. We recognise that people with disability are at a much greater risk than others of experiencing violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Together with the NDIA, we are committed to supporting and working with people with disability who engage with the NDIS to take steps to uphold their right to be safe, while respecting individual’s rights to make decisions about risk.
The NDIA Policy aims to help participants reduce risks against violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation in their lives by building or enhancing safeguards. Safeguards are things we can do or actions we can take to manage risks of harm that may be present in our lives. For some participants this might look like building their capacity to recognise risk of harm and improve safeguarding through accessible information, training and education.
The NDIA Policy may be used by providers to guide them in proactively supporting participants to implement safeguards that minimise risk of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation in their lives.
The NDIS Commission will adopt the co-designed participant safeguarding principles outlined in the NDIA policy and will work with the NDIA to roll out relevant actions, to implement the Policy. By working together we can better support participants to uphold their right to safe and quality supports.
The Policy, implementation plan (both also in Easy Read) and co-design story documents are available on the NDIA’s website: https://www.ndis.gov.au/participantsafeguarding