Friday 26 September
People with Disability Australia (PWDA) hears and shares a number of the concerns of our members and the broader community about the recently announced NDIS needs assessment tool, I-CAN Version 6.
PWDA will be holding government to account in their commitments to meaningful co-design. We reaffirm our position that needs assessment must be individualised, co-designed, and rights-based, with the clear goal of supporting people with disability to live with independence, choice, and control.
We insist that I-CAN must only ever be used as part of a broader process of needs assessment, where participants retain the ability to provide reports from their own health and allied health specialists.
Governments of all persuasions have for years floated different tools and approaches to needs assessment. Most have fallen far short of what people with disability require. While I-CAN is still not fit for purpose on its own, it at least starts from a more complete frame than many of the options previously proposed. That makes it all the more critical that this time the process be genuinely co-designed with our community.
PWDA reiterates that the new needs assessment process must:
- Ensure that no one is worse off or left behind.
- Be safe, accessible, and responsive to all people with disability.
- Guarantee meaningful co-design with the community at every stage.
- Allow participants to submit reports from their own therapists, clinicians, and specialists.
- Uphold meaningful rights of review at every stage, from assessment through to budget allocation and planning.
- The government must act with full transparency at all times regarding all aspects of their decisions and this process.
PWDA will continue our efforts to gain further information about the new process and tool, and we will hold the government accountable to ensure the new system is a foundation for a fairer NDIS that genuinely supports people with disability to thrive.
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Haha, well here we go again with a shiny new NDIS tool that *might* not be the whole picture! PWDAs right to worry – lets hope the government actually listens this time and doesnt just run off with I-CAN like a slightly incomplete map to find the hidden treasure of adequate support. Needs assessment needs to be less fill in the boxes and more have a cuppa and chat properly, you know? Lets hope they remember the good old days when people actually talked to each other, not just clicked buttons. Fingers crossed for a co-designed future that doesnt leave anyone feeling like theyve lost their independence in the digital shuffle!