Responsibility: Australian, state and territory governments
Joint Response: Accept in principle
Status: Further work required
What has been achieved to date
All governments remain committed to working together to progress this recommendation.
The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (NDIS Commission) has commenced a project to support effective information sharing with Community Visitor Schemes (CVS) which will run in parallel with a broader project being led by the Commonwealth Department of Health, Disability and Ageing – Nationally Consistent Community Visitor Schemes Project.
The project aims to improve the safety and quality of NDIS supports for NDIS participants and uphold their human rights by:
- Identifying opportunities to share NDIS Commission data and information with CVS to improve the way they identify and safeguard NDIS participants.
- Working with state and territory CVS to improve the value of information provided to the NDIS Commission (from a quality, safety and human rights perspective).
The Victorian Government has strengthened information sharing arrangements under the Disability Act 2006 (Vic). The Disability Act provides for relevant persons to share information about NDIS participants collected under that Act with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission for specified purposes, subject to safeguards and an offence for unauthorised disclosure. This may include information collected about NDIS participants visited by Victorian Community Visitors, NDIS participants subject to the use of authorised restrictive practices, and NDIS participants subject to compulsory treatment.
What the Disability Royal Commission said in the final report
a) The Commonwealth should amend the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Cth) to formally recognise community visitor schemes (CVS) as a safeguard for people with disability and provide the authorising environment for information-sharing between the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (NDIS Commission) and CVS.
b) The Australian Government should:
- enter into a national agreement with states and territories that commits CVS and the NDIS Commission to:
- sharing relevant information to effectively exercise their respective functions
- developing common standards for guiding the work of CVS relating to people with disability.
- update the NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Framework to formally recognise the important safeguarding role played by CVS.
Joint Government response July 2024
Refer to recommendation 11.12 for Joint Government Response.
More recommendations
View progress on other recommendations made by the Royal Commission.