The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) has released the Independent Expert Review (IER) Evaluation Report.
We trialled the voluntary and confidential IER program for participants to help resolve their matter prior to an Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) hearing.
The IER program involved legal and disability experts, independent of both the participant and the NDIA, reviewing the matter before making a recommendation for an appropriate resolution.
The IER trial was one of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) initiatives we introduced to reduce our AAT case backlog and improve our dispute resolution processes .
We evaluated the IER trial to assess how effective it was. The report includes feedback from various stakeholders including:
- survey responses from participants, their representatives and the Independent Experts; and
- interview responses from key stakeholders from inside and external to the Agency.
The report also includes data around timeliness, costs and outcomes to help assess the IER trial.
The evaluation report is published on our website
The IER Evaluation Report is helping inform future dispute resolution models.
Our IER trial learnings are already informing our people-centric approach to dispute resolution and how we engage with the disability community.
We continue to communicate and engage with stakeholders to identify ways to improve our dispute resolution processes.