Minister for the NDIS, Bill Shorten, has announced a new taskforce to improve NDIS registrations.
Working alongside people with disability, the NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce is designed to ensure provider and worker registrations lead to better outcomes for participants, according to the Department of Social Services.
The Taskforce follows a recommendation made in last year’s NDIS Review to “design and implement a graduated risk-proportionate regulatory model for the whole provider market” to create greater visibility and regulation of NDIS providers and workers.
The Taskforce, announced on Monday 12 February, will advise the government on the changes needed to overhaul the current registration system.
It will be led by lawyer and disability advocate Natalie Wade, former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Allan Fels, former ACTU Assistant Secretary and training and safety expert Michael Borowick and former Administrator of the Northern Territory Vicki O’Halloran.
“Australia can lead the world in a regulation model of disability services, including delivering trail blazing solutions like we want to achieve with the NDIS. To do this, we need to overhaul the current shoddy and inconsistent registration by making it more transparent and targeted to deliver quality and consistent outcomes that reach all groups of participants and providers,” Minister Shorten said.
“Together with the disability community, this Taskforce will give Government advice to design a new regulatory model to close the gaps that currently exist in regulation of the NDIS market for people with disability.”
He added that choice and control would remain in the hands of participants and their families.
Among the jobs of the Taskforce will be to consider how to ensure all providers meet a minimum regulatory standard. The Department of Social Services said it will be “informed by the disability community, as well as the NDIS provider market and workers”.
The Taskforce will provide a report to the government with its advice and recommendations in mid-2024.