NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission Activity Report

The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission recently released their Activity Report for 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020. For this period, the Commission were operating in all states except for WA. They will start operating in WA from 1 December 2020.  

To save you time, we’ve pulled out some important insights for providers.  

 Participants across Australia 

The map shows the number of participants the Commission is regulating NDIS supports and services for. The total number of participants has grown significantly from 138,888 last year as the Commission was only operational in NSW and SA. 

Complaints

The Commission received 4,469 complaints about supports and services delivered by NDIS providers and their workers. The higher number of complaints in NSW, VIC and QLD reflects the higher number of participants in these states.  

Complaints about provider practice were by far the highest compared to other issues. This suggests there needs to be a stronger focus on providers improving their practice.  

Registration 

There are a growing number of NDIS registered providers, however, many are not active. Out of the 17,253 registered providers, only 9,144 made a claim in the last 3 months. Also, 3,662 registrations expired since 1 July 2019. These statistics raise questions about the challenges providers face in continuing to operate as a registered NDIS provider. 

New and Renewal Applications Progressed

Despite many providers not being active, there are still new providers regularly entering the market. New providers are also regularly entering the NDIS market through the new NDIS Commission arrangements.

Five most Popular Registration Groups

The top 3 groups are the same as last year. Innovative Community Participation and Participation in Community, Social and Civic Activities are new to the top 5 for this period. It’s positive to see providers supporting participants to participate in the community with these registration groups. 

Reportable Incidents 

NDIS providers notified the NDIS Commission of a large number reportable incidents. The number of incidents within each category are below. Please note reports include multiple notifications of the same incident, allegations, and situations where incidents occurred, but the person was not harmed. 

Reports of Unauthorised use of Restrictive Practices 

Reports on unauthorised use of restrictive practices (URP) represents 97% of all reportable incidents.  

The dramatic increase since the first year is due to: 

-wider coverage of the Commission 

-increasing reporting compliance by NDIS registered providers 

-the requirement to report each instance of the use of an unauthorised restrictive practice  

As a result of increased reporting of URPs, The NDIS Commission has initiated compliance activity with 231 providers in NSW and SA. They will expand this to other states in October 2020. 

 Compliance Activity 

Above are the compliance actions undertaken by the Commission over the period. There were 17 of the most serious compliance action, banning orders. The numbers show that the Commission do use their powers, and providers must be compliant to avoid these actions. 

If you would like to read the whole report, head to the NDIS Commission website. 

Are you looking for a solution to help you register or renew as an NDIS provider and stay compliant? Enquire about Centro PROFESSIONAL today. 

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