Improving the NDIS

The Participant Service Charter and the Participant Service Improvement Plan are an important part of our Corporate Plan and combine new and ongoing projects we’re working on to improve the NDIS for all participants.

The Participant Service Guarantee

In response to a key recommendation in the 2019 independent review of the NDIS Act (the Tune Review), the Commonwealth government made a commitment to put a Participant Service Guarantee in place.

The Participant Service Guarantee sets clear timeframes we must keep to for

  • access decisions
  • plan approvals, 
  • plan reassessments
  • nominee changes.

This lets participants, families and carers know how long processes will take.

The Participant Service Guarantee includes the five engagement principles in the Service Charter.

These will be set into law when the Guarantee is formally legislated. However, the standards of the Guarantee apply now.

We report on our performance against the Participant Service Guarantee’s timeframes each quarter in our Quarterly Reports.  

The Commonwealth Ombudsman will independently check our performance.

You can read more about the Participant Service Guarantee in our Participant Service Charter.

More information about the Participant Service Guarantee can be found on the Department of Social Services website .

The Participant Service Charter

The Participant Service Charter guides how we will work with participants, their families and carers to deliver the NDIS. It is our public commitment to ensuring we put the participant at the centre of everything we do.

The Service Charter commits us to provide a service that is:

  • transparent 
  • responsive
  • respectful
  • empowering
  • connected.

It explains how participants can contact us, make a complaint or provide feedback and their rights if they do not agree with a decision we’ve made.

Find more information about the Participant Service Charter.

The Participant Service Improvement Plan

We are committed to improving how we serve NDIS participants. To do this, we have created a Participant Service Improvement Plan (SIP). 

The SIP is our blueprint for what we want to change over the next two years to improve the NDIS experience for participants.

The SIP has many improvement activities intended to improve the experience and the outcomes of participants.

The SIP will increase participant confidence in the Scheme, with changes such as:

  • A current contact in the NDIA, and the full name of a person on our correspondence to participants including the reasons behind our decisions;
  • Easy-to-use guidelines, and more plain English descriptions and examples;
  • Plan summary statements and draft plans – before a participant’s plan is approved;
  • Longer duration plans which are reviewed at participants’ or NDIA’s request, rather than on a set annual basis;
  • More responsive and flexible ICT systems, including a new digital platform to support our work with participants, and an NDIS mobile app for real-time transactions.

Find more information about the Participant Service Improvement Plan.

This page current as of
7 September 2022
Indicates required field
Was this page useful?*
Why?
Why not?