Submission to the National Disability Insurance Agency’s Home and Living Policy

Jesuit Social Services recently contributed a submission to the development of the National Disability Insurance Agency’s (NDIA) Home and Living Policy. The aim of the consultation was to inform the way the NDIA supports participants to pursue their home and living goals.

Our submission was based on our experience in engaging with disadvantaged people and communities, focusing on the intersections of disability with complex needs, multiple forms of disadvantage and people involved in the justice system. We are particularly interested in offering input as we are a registered National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) service provider and we deliver supports to NDIS participants with highly complex needs.

Jesuit Social Services made the following recommendations to ensure the NDIS Home and Living Policy meets the needs of people with a disability who have multiple and complex needs and supports them to lead the lives they are capable of.

Summary of our recommendations:

• Improve the accessibility of NDIS accommodation packages by providing a more flexible approach to meet the housing needs of people with multiple and complex needs and developing a transitional housing funding model that can allocate funding quickly to meet immediate needs of complex cohorts.
• Implement a flexible pricing structure that can engage highly skilled staff to meet the complex needs of the diverse range of participants supported by the scheme.
• Enhance access to specialist transitional housing by implementing flexible funding options that can be accessed quickly for participants that are moving to and from transitional housing.
• Strengthen the interface of the NDIS and mainstream services so that co-occurring issues experienced by people with multiple and complex needs are not compartmentalised and dealt with in isolation by numerous service providers.