Support Needs Assessments have made their appearance in the most formal way. The tender documents posted within the announcement yesterday reveal the intent and the desired process for these assessments and claim to be planned to roll out over the next 5 years which gives us more time than our anticipated September launch. Here’s what we know so far.
Support Needs Assessments for Children
The tender for Support Needs Assessments for children under 16 years asks for submissions for suggestions for which tool might be the most appropriate for this group while also meeting the requirements listed by the NDIA.
‘Under new framework planning, participants will undergo a comprehensive needs assessment to identify their disability support needs. The outcomes of the needs assessment will be detailed in an assessment report, and then used to determine the participant’s flexible budget and any stated supports in accordance with a transparent budget method outlined in a legislative instrument.’
The tender documents that the NDIA understand that specialised tools will be required for children. The assessments should meet the following criteria:
- the level of support needed by children (i.e. by assessing support needs directly), or through the assessment of functioning or development
- level of support needed by children (i.e. by assessing support needs directly), or through the assessment of functioning or development
- a child’s level of functional ability or development (including to support the identification of a developmental delay in children under six years of age)
- a range of life activity/developmental areas where a child may need support or experience a reduction in functional capacity, including, but not limited to:
- Self-care
- Communication/language development
- Cognitive development
- Mobility/motor development
- Social-emotional development
- be capable of being administered in a strengths-based, culturally safe, and trauma informed way and reflective of a contemporary understanding of disability, including the specific needs of children. This includes the ability to understand a child across multiple naturalistic environments, and how their support needs, functioning or development may progress over time.
To respond to this request the tender provides a form with the questions that the NDIA would like answered, most of which are more technical aspects of the assessment tool that is being submitted as an option.
So basically it seems that the Agency would like the community to contribute its own ideas about which tools might be suitable for the Support Needs Assessment process.
You can read the tender on the Austender website, we suggest that you search ‘NDIS’ and that way you will see all current tenders including the one for the Support Needs Assessments for over 16 years (detailed below).
Support Needs Assessments for Over 16 Years
This tender provides much more detail about what the NDIA want this assessment process to do.
There are three aspects to this tender – wide ranging in terms of subject matter, expertise and scope. The NDIA expresses their wish that a single tenderer complete all three components, which indicates that either a very large organisation with the range of expertise or a consortium is likely to be the winning bid. Will that organisation have a background in the disability or human services world?
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- ‘Assessment tool(s) solution The first component of the Requirement is the provision of a licencing arrangement which enables an NDIS workforce to administer a tool for assessing support needs of adult (16+ years) NDIS participants. This component may consist of a single assessment tool or a combination of tools.
- Operationalisation support services
The second component of the Requirement is the provision of services to support the NDIA to deliver a workforce training and accreditation support that is suitable for the NDIS needs assessor workforce. - System integration solution
The third component of the Requirement relates to the provision of, or support for, a system integration solution. Tenderers must meet this component of the Requirement by providing a response to Option 1 – NDIA Build, but may also include in its Tender one or more of the other’
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In terms of what the desired, it is this table that contains the most revealing information. We have chosen just a few of these points to show you here and suggest that you read the full document to gain the full picture.
- The tool(s) primarily assesses the concept ‘support needs’ and does not primarily assess other concepts such as functioning, severity of impairment, quality of life, or non-disability support needs (e.g. carer support needs, or supports only related to other areas of need such as health or housing).
- The structure of the tool(s), including the domains and associated items is well-validated, supported by a strong theoretical/conceptual basis with empirical evidence.
- The data derived from the assessment tool(s) include scores for each domain and/or support need area in sufficient detail to inform the budgetary requirements of the participant.
- Evidence to indicate the assessment tool can accurately predict support needs, as demonstrated through its practical application in another relevant context and/or statistical evidence within a research context
- The tool(s) are able to be administered by a multi-skilled workforce with differing levels of professional qualification and disability experience.
- There are a range of points addressing the need for the tool to be delivered in trauma informed and culturally appropriate ways; across environments and across various disability groups.
Targeted Modules
A third tender has been posted with regards to Support Needs Assessments. This one is asking for
information on available off-the-shelf needs assessment tools which assess disability support needs in relation to the following support types:
- Assistive technology
- Vehicle modifications
- Home modifications
- Disability-related health supports
- High level attendant support
The document states that the tool should do the following:
- The tool(s) should be able to identify the NDIS support types that would meet a participant’s disability-related support needs
- Able to provide outputs that can support the prediction of a budget sufficient to fund the relevant support
- be capable of being administered in a strengths-based, culturally safe, and trauma informed way and reflective of a contemporary understanding of disability.
What This Means For Allied Health Businesses
On the positive side, this finally puts some shape around something that we have known was coming for the past year or so. If all this is implemented, Participant needs will be assessed using a standardised tool (or tools) administered by an NDIA employee.
In terms of your businesses – it’s time to start thinking about the potential impacts of this change. Do any of us really know what the NDIA mean by a 5 year time frame? Does this mean that we won’t see anything for 5 years or does it mean that it will roll out gradually OVER five years? What happens to all the assessments we have been doing until now? How will this affect Plan Budgets?
The time to work with some assumptions, risk assess and develop mitigation strategies is now.
What You Can Do Now
First of all, wouldn’t it be nice if we knew what our own Peak bodies were doing in this area? We are already mobilising around Foundational Supports, add Support Needs Assessments to the questions that you are asking of the organisations that we are paying those membership fees to.
Second – Every Australia Counts have launched their campaign asking for the government to slow down and commit to co-designing the SNA. Nacre are a proud signatory to this letter. Watch the campaign closely and support the efforts where you can.
Third – jump into our Facebook group Allied Health Business Brilliance today where we will keep you in the loop as we are hearing more information and you will find out about the things that we are doing to support you through this change.
