‘One-size-fits-all approach doesn't work': Plan to save the NDIS billions
Billions of dollars in disability payments could be funnelled to struggling children through daycare programs under a plan to ease the financial strain of the nation's insurance scheme while ushering in a new era of early intervention.
Taxpayers would save $12.1 billion over the next decade if 10 per cent of National Disability Insurance Scheme payments were set aside for people not currently on the scheme – including children needing temporary support – and the current model of individual support plans was reserved for Australians with life-long disabilities, a report says.
It can take years of waiting and one-on-one specialist appointments to gain support under current NDIS procedures. Removing some of that red tape and allowing children with autism and developmental difficulties – and their parents – to receive support directly at childcare and primary schools would be more effective and cheaper, according to the Grattan Institute report.
This new era of the disability scheme, known as 'foundational supports', could be funded using the existing NDIS envelope, the think tank's report says, and should be brought in over the next five years if the new-look system is to pile the least amount of pressure on federal and state budgets.
Governments could save an additional $34 billion over 10 years by not needing to find extra money for the new disability system.
Foundational supports were meant to roll out on Tuesday under the original deadline set by previous NDIS minister Bill Shorten. However, that start date has been pushed back to at least December as the states and federal government negotiate details.
Grattan Institute disability program director Samuel Bennett said the NDIS had transformed the lives of tens of thousands of people but had grown 'too big, too fast'.
'Something needs to be done,' Bennett said.
'Time has shown a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work. What children and families really need is evidence-based early intervention – preferably available where the child already lives, learns and plays – rather than navigating this bureaucratic nightmare that is today's NDIS.'
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