New Reports Confirm the Importance of Community Visitors Programs in Protecting Rights of People with Disability

At the end of last week, the NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce (the Taskforce) released its long-awaited report. This taskforce was appointed by the Commonwealth government to consult with the disability community and begin the process of developing a new registration framework for the NDIS. The taskforce built on the recommendations of the NDIS Review, which found the current registration system needs reform and recommended a new tiered system. Reactions to the recommendation made it clear more consultation with the disability community was required in relation to the specific topic of service provider and disability support worker registration.

The Taskforce has in general supported the recommendations of the NDIS Review recommending reform of the existing one-size-fits-all registration system to a more comprehensive, tiered registration system, with a separate registration category for self-managed participants who directly employ staff. The Taskforce also supported the NDIS Review recommendation to develop a disability support worker registration scheme operating through an “automatic, simple' online portal.

These recommendations are designed to create increased visibility of payments to providers, increase safeguarding, as well as support capacity building of the disability support worker workforce.

When it comes to safeguarding, the Taskforce went further supporting the important work of Community Visitors. Last year the Disability Royal Commission recommended there should be a nationally consistent Community Visitor Scheme in each state and territory to provide independent oversight of service providers providing support in any form of group accommodation. The Taskforce supported this recommendation.

The Taskforce said Community Visitor schemes should be delivered locally but with a national umbrella for uniformity. They highlighted that Community Visitor schemes are an important tool in ensuring quality and safety are maintained, in promoting and protecting the rights and wellbeing of people with disability to prevent abuse and neglect and in acting as an escalation pathway for issues to be addressed.

The Taskforce also endorsed an expansion of visiting Community Visitor visiting parameters to be available to people with disability in private settings who request visits to assist them in  ensuring quality and safety when managing their supports at home.

The recommendations from the Taskforce follow on from the Australian Government response to the Disability Royal Commission Final Report also released last week. The Commonwealth Government committed $4.4 million “to drive a nationally consistent approach to state and territory operated disability Community Visitor schemes to ensure people with disability have equitable and consistent access to community visitors as a safeguarding mechanism” (see page 259)

The recommendations from the Taskforce are in line with the findings of my recent research, coauthored with Jen Hargrave and Piers Gooding Where is the Risk and What is the Risk? The visiting remit of Community Visitor schemes within the NDIS and OPCAT landscapes in safeguarding the rights of Australians with disability.

The research found that Community Visitors are a key mechanism in upholding the human rights of disabled people in closed or semi-closed settings but that there is significant variation in scale, visit numbers and legal parameters of who can be visited across schemes in the four states reviewed in the study. The research also flagged expansion of community visits to day services and Australian Disability Enterprises. However, the research highlighted the unique powers of the Community Visitors to undertake unannounced, onsite visits to closed sites such as group houses, clinical facilities and supported residential services (SRSs) and that provided crucial ‘eyes on the ground’ monitoring of resident wellbeing, living conditions and service quality across an increasingly complex NDIS landscape.

The Commonwealth Government has yet to respond to the recommendations by the Taskforce. If adopted there will be more work to do to harmonise all the different state and territory schemes, and sort out important issues such as the types of settings or individuals that need visiting and parameters around announced and unannounced visits in ensuring safeguarding oversite.

For further reading:

You can find a copy of Dr West's report on Community Visitors here - https://disability.unimelb.edu.au/home/projects/seed-funding/seed-funding-2022/community-visitor-schemes

You can read the final report from the NDIS Provider and Workforce Taskforce on the Department of Social Services website - https://www.dss.gov.au/disability-and-carers-standards-and-quality-assurance/ndis-provider-and-worker-registration-taskforce

You can read the joint response from all Australian governments to the recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission on the Department of Social Services website - https://www.dss.gov.au/disability-and-carers-australian-government-response-to-the-disability-royal-commission/joint-government-response