Acting Commonwealth Ombudsman, Jo Mulder, has released a report into how the NDIA is implementing the Participant Service Guarantee (PSG) and communicating with people about access and planning timeframes.
I acknowledge the Ombudsman’s assessment of our progress towards implementing the recommendations and I accept we can, and will, do more to implement these.
The PSG plays a key role in tracking our performance and measuring participant experience. It keeps us accountable to the service standards we’ve committed to.
It also makes sure we’re providing a good experience for the 739,000 people who rely on the NDIS.
There’s been big changes to the NDIS and NDIA since the PSG was introduced, and the Ombudsman’s Office made its recommendations:
- We’ve introduced a new computer system.
- Government did a review of the design, operations and sustainability of the NDIS.
- New NDIS laws and rules have come into effect.
These changes make some of the original PSG measures less relevant and reflective of the participant experience.
Unfortunately, these changes may have slowed our progress in implementing some of the Ombudsman’s recommendations and suggestions.
We’re looking at what’s changed and how we can create a new PSG to capture our changed service approach and new participant experience.
We’re strongly committed to doing what the Ombudsman said we should do. Many of the Ombudsman’s recommendations are being considered in co-designing a new PSG framework.
You can read the report, and our response, on the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s website .