So I bang on about the conflict of interest constantly.
Just a reminder of what this is. This is when a provider is your Support Coordinator and any of your other supports. You can read my blog here about what is a conflict of interest.
So with the Tune Review out, I was somewhat happy to see the following amendment to the NDIS rules.
16. The NDIS Rules are amended to:
a. set out the factors the NDIA will consider in funding support coordination in a participant’s plan,
b. outline circumstances in which it is not appropriate for the providers of support coordination to be the provider of any other funded supports in a participant’s plan, to protect participants from provider’s conflicts of interest.
You can read the full review here.
Crossing my fingers, toes, eyes and everything else that I can cross, that this leads to providers actually offering choice and giving control to the people with the NDIS plan. Rather than the sense of entitlement many seem to have about someone else’s funding..
Remember, it is not OK if:
- your support coordinator has referred all your services into their own organisation, unless this is something that you have asked for.
- come plan review, you have nothing to show for the funding that was spent, because your support coordinator just referred you to their own service to help you find a job, and all you have to show for it is a crummy resume. But somehow $5k worth of CoS funding was used, along with another 5k of Finding and Keeping a Job.
We would love to hear if you have any other examples when the conflict of interest has meant that your plan has been spent with nothing to show for. We need to show this so that the NDIA and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission really understand what is going on.
Read our recent story here about how life changing it can be when you have the right support coordinator – A Place to Call Home blog.
Get in touch if you would like to know why our Support Coordinators are different.
