A4 and SOfASD made a joint submission to the ACT Standing Committee on Health, Ageing and Social Services about the NDIS. It concludes with the following section:

Conclusions and suggestions

The NDIS has enormous potential to improve the lives of Australians with disability and the whole community. But to achieve its goals, the NDIS needs to be so much better than it is now.

The NDIA seems to have issues particularly with autistic participants.

The NDIA needs to engage with ASD stakeholders. It needs to develop a culture of respect for people with disability, especially autistic people, and their associates.

NDIA staff must become properly informed about ASD. The NDIA’s existing culture of misinformation and distrust is extremely detrimental.

Better reporting is needed. The NDIA should report separately on numbers, spending and outcomes for pre-school, school-age and post-school categories.

Governments and the NDIA need programs to develop a workforce to better support the NDIS and people with disability, especially autistic people whose numbers continue to increase well beyond the capacity of the existing workforce.

The ACT Government needs to address the non-NDIS support that people with disability need, especially in education, employment and accommodation.

You can download it from the Committee's website (use this link) or from A4 website using the link below.