Over the last month, NDS has kept the sector informed and provided advocacy around the NDIA’s PACE rollout and all matters NDIS. 

PACE is one of the key deliverables for the Participant, Platform and Process Improvements Initiative (3P), which is the NDIA’s strategy to improve the client experience. 

An evaluation report of the trial was recently released and the NDIS has published on their website 'What we heard,' a detailed summary of the feedback. 

Responding to NDS advocacy and feedback from the broader disability community, the NDIA has made several improvements to PACE. You can read a summary of these improvements on the NDIS webpage. 

Among the improvements are ‘ring fencing' for Home and Living Supports, better communications to improve safeguards for providers, the term Participant-Endorsed Provider (PEP) replaced by My Provider, and better plan visibility. 

Having felt under pressure to prepare members for the September rollout, we were happy to hear last week that it has been postponed until 31 October.  

Our research shows that many providers are not ready for the new system. To help providers understand what is involved, the NDIS is holding face-to-face meetings in Cairns (Wednesday 30 August) and Brisbane (Friday 31 August), with special sessions for plan managers and support coordinators. The NDIS events page has all the details.  

The other crucial issue this month was dealing with the fallout from the announcement of the Annual Pricing review. Members have told us that the 5.3 per cent increase in Price Limits did not cover their rising costs.  

NDS continues to advocate to Federal Government around the need for appropriate NDIS pricing that reflects the actual costs of delivering disability services. 

While we have called upon the government to address the concerns of the sector outside the NDIS and Annual Pricing Reviews, we encourage you also to voice any systemic concerns to your members of parliament. 
 
More locally, NDS has been engaging with networks, travelling to various parts of the state. I recently took time to catchup with organisations operating in Townsville, Ingham, Charters Towers and Ayr regions. As I always do, I found it valuable to see the Queensland sector from these varied perspectives.  

The Queensland team and I always look forward to engaging with you and amplifying your voices, so please don’t hesitate to contact me around any matter at all.