Draft Self-Management Policy and Pricing Framework
Consultation report
What people told us
This report is written in an easy to read way. We use pictures to explain some ideas.
The report has been written by WA’s Individualised Services (WAiS) and People with disabilities Western Australia (PWDWA).
When you see the word ‘we’, it means WAiS and PWDWA.
Some words are written in bold.
We explain what these words mean. There is a list of these words on page 24.
You can ask for help to read this guide.
A friend, family member or support person may be able to help you.
What’s in this document?
About this report 4
What is self-management? 5
About the results 6
What did we learn? 9
What should happen next? 19
Word list 24
More information 25
About this report
In December 2016, the Disability Services Commission (DSC) asked us to talk to the community about 2 important documents:
• the WA NDIS draft Self-Management Policy (the Policy)
• the draft Self-Management Support Clusters and Pricing Framework (the Framework).
These documents are part of setting up the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in WA.
We connected with over 170 people around WA through:
• surveys
• workshops.
We did this in December 2016 and January 2017.
We would like to thank everybody who shared their ideas with us.
What is self-management?
At the moment, an important change is happening in relation to NDIS funding.
This is the money that people receive from the government for disability support.
Self-management is one way people can manage their funding.
This means that people can manage some or all of their funding themselves.
Self-management offers you more choice about the services and supports you use.
It also means that you can employ your own support workers if you want to.
Being able to self-manage is something you can:
5. learn
6. get better at over time. We also call this capacity.
About the results
DSC has written a new policy about self-management.
A policy is a document that describes what the government is planning to do.
170 people took part in our online survey about the Policy.
150 people took part in our survey about the Framework.
We held 3 workshops in January – 2 in Perth, 1 in Busselton.
More than 50 people took part in the workshops.
How we did our research
We did our research in 2 ways. We:
1. collected data and studied the numbers
2. talked to people and studied what they told us.
We made sure the surveys were available in plain English and Easy Read so everyone could take part.
Everyone who took part was very interested and involved.
The challenges we faced
We faced some challenges while we were talking to the community.
We did our research during the summer holiday period.
The community had very little notice that they could take part.
More people might have taken part if we did our research at another time of year.
Some people didn’t like:
3. the questions we asked
• doing the survey online
• the multiple-choice style questions.
Some people felt the multiple-choice questions led them to give a certain answer.
To make it more balanced, we gave people space to write responses in their own words.
Most people wrote detailed comments. We paid close attention to these.
What did we learn?
Talking to the community helped us learn a lot about what people think when it comes to
self-management.
It is important to be flexible so that people can make changes easily if they want to.
People said that they want to be flexible in how they work towards their goals, even if this is different to what is in their plan.
The WA NDIS must be flexible.
People should be able to make changes without needing to:
• review their Plan
• do lots of paperwork.
People can manage their own funding if they want to.
Many of the people who came to our workshops told us they strongly believe that:
• we should assume people can self-manage from the beginning
• a person with disability or someone who represents them should decide if
self-management is right for them.
The Local Coordinator (LC) is someone who helps people with disability:
• set their goals
• write their plans.
People said that the LC shouldn’t be the one who decides if someone should self-manage.
There are people who already have lots of knowledge, skills and experience with self-management.
People want to do the right thing.
People are willing to be accountable for how they manage their funding.
This means that people take responsibility for the money and keep good records.
People also want plenty of:
• flexibility
• choice and control.
Self-management shouldn’t include too much paperwork.
Many people said that people who self-manage should be able to buy services that can help them self-manage.
People can get better at self-management over time.
People said that the LCs should help people build their capacity to self-manage and offer:
• support
• information
• guidance
• advice.
People want to make their own decisions about whether they self-manage or not.
Their family, friends, supporters or other people they trust could also help them make this decision.
People aren’t sure what ‘shared management’ means.
Shared management is an ‘organisation- managed’ funding instead of self-managed funding because:
• the money is managed by an organisation
– the service provider – not a person
• the service provider is accountable for how the funds are used.
People don’t like the idea of a Management Plan.
The Policy said that there should be a plan that explains how people will manage their funding.
People told us that they don’t want this.
Instead, we think there should be a checklist that is:
• clear
• simple
• easy to put into practice.
The checklist should only be 1 page long.
People want a high level of choice about the support they get to self-manage.
When you self-manage, it can take a lot of work to get all your supports right.
You need to:
• write plans that have goals and strategies
• get quotes for some of the supports you need
• meet with the LC and possibly their manager
• go through approval processes.
Good support when you need it is an important part of success with self-management.
People who self-manage need to stay safe and be treated well.
People with disability and their families think that staying safe and being treated well is really important.
They don’t want to be abused or neglected when they are using disability supports.
People want more information about:
• what abuse and neglect are
• who to contact if someone is being abused or neglected
• how to make a complaint.
There should be rules about how people are treated.
While we were talking to the community, the NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Framework (the Framework) came out.
This is a document for the National system.
WA has agreed to this Framework.
The Framework:
• takes care of many of the things people are worried about
• looks at ways people who self-manage can be protected from abuse and neglect
• describes the role of community visitors.
The self-management pricing should be the same as the service provider pricing.
At the moment, the pricing in the Policy is different for service providers and people who self-manage.
Having the same prices will:
• help people find and keep good staff
• give people opportunities for training
• give people support they need to do paperwork and organise things.
What should happen next?
These are the ideas we have about how to make the Policy better.
Our ideas are based on what people told us.
DSC will make decisions about what actually goes in the Policy.
• Tell the community about what we found out.
DSC needs to let the community know how this report will affect what is in the:
• Policy
• Pricing Framework.
• Make sure people can understand what ‘shared management’ means.
DSC needs to change the Policy so people can understand that ‘shared management’ is a version of ‘Organisationally Managed Plan Management’.
3. Explain what ‘capacity’ means.
DSC needs to explain that ‘capacity’ means being able to:
• self-manage
• learn how to self-manage.
4. Believe that everyone can self-manage.
DSC needs to change the Policy so it shows that anyone can self-manage if they have capacity to or can get help to self-manage.
• A person with disability or someone who represents them makes decisions.
This person is called a representative.
DSC needs to consider the Policy so it includes the person with disability or their representative being involved in making the decisions about self-management.
• Explain what people who self-manage need to do.
DSC needs to put the things people need to do in the Policy. This should be a short, easy, 1 page checklist.
• Revise the WA NDIS Self-Management Guide.
DSC needs to review and update the WA NDIS Self-Management Guide then send it to anyone who wants to self-manage.
• Delete the Management Plan from the Policy.
DSC needs to make sure the Management Plan isn’t talked about in the Policy at all.
Instead they could replace it with the checklist.
• Include what’s in the Quality and Safeguarding Framework.
DSC needs to add the important things about
Self-Management in the Quality and Safeguarding Framework to the Policy.
• Make some changes to the Safeguarding section of the Policy.
DSC needs to make small changes to what some parts say. This will make it clearer.
• Make flexibility an important part of the Policy
DSC needs to add information that explains how the WA NDIS will be flexible.
12. Pricing Clusters and Framework
DSC needs to update the pricing for people who self-manage so it matches the service
provider pricing.
Word list
Accountable
People take responsibility and keep records.
Capacity
Being able to self-manage.
Funding
Money that people receive from the government for disability support.
Policy
A document that describes what the government is planning to do.
Representative
Someone who represents a person with disability.
Self-management
People can manage some or all of their funding themselves.
More information
For more information about self-management you should contact WA NDIS.
1800 996 214
(Freecall)
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