Following consideration of the submissions they received, the PC released a position paper that outlines the Commission’s early thinking on NDIS costs. The purpose of this position paper is to seek feedback on the Commission’s preliminary conclusions, and on any additional issues that should be considered before the public release of the final study report.

Related links:

• Productivity Commission – Position Paper
• Productivity Commission earlier Issues Paper that aimed to help participants prepare a submission

The submission focuses on the issues facing people with young onset dementia and their families and highlights the major service gaps that people face.

• Department of Health and Ageing – Consultation
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data on Australians with young onset dementia July 2022

In June 2013, the Queensland Public Advocate called for submissions to an Inquiry into the situation of individuals with disability in long stay health care facilities in Queensland.

The Public Advocate’s Report was tabled in the Queensland Parliament on 7 November 2013.

In her report, Queensland Public Advocate, Jodie Cook, called for far reaching systemic reform and collaboration between Queensland’s health and disability services to resolve this longstanding problem.

While recognising the evolutionary nature of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the Young People In Nursing Homes National Alliance believes the NDIS Bill 2012 needs to build key features into the Scheme design to meet the requirements of both the launch phase, longer term operation and community expectation.

The Young People In Nursing Homes National Alliance congratulates the Commissioners on their draft report into Disability Care and Support.

While the Alliance supports the general thrust of the report, we believe that scheme design elements as outlined in the draft report can be improved; and the links with existing community sector infrastructure can be harnessed to make the NIIS and the NDIS schemes more effective and viable.

The key element that the Alliance believes needs to be comprehensively reviewed is that of the Disability Service Organisations – a key part of the Alliance’s construction of these new schemes in its first submission. As the front end of the new schemes, these vital organisations need to do much more than just the role of financial intermediary that was ascribed to them in the draft report.

In the Alliance’s view, these organisations are key to the success of the new schemes because of their capacity to provide comprehensive and inclusive assessment and planning, manage service providers, ensure plans are being implemented appropriately, promote and involve local community and volunteers and, most importantly of all perhaps, proactively manage consumer and provider expectation around what the scheme can or cannot deliver.

The Australian Government asked the Productivity Commission to undertake a public inquiry into a long-term disability care and support scheme. The Alliance made numerous submissions during the Inquiry representing the needs of the YPINH cohort.

The Australian Government supports care for older Australians living in aged care homes through a government subsidy that homes receive based on the aged care provider’s appraisal of each resident’s care needs. From March 2008, the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) replaced the Resident Classification Scale (RCS) as the mechanism to allocate this Government subsidy.

The ACFI was developed in response to the Review of Pricing Arrangements in Residential Aged Care carried out by Professor Warren Hogan in 2004 and the RCS Review in 2003. The ACFI is designed to:

• better match funding to the complex care needs of residents;
• reduce the documentation created by aged care providers to justify funding; and
• achieve higher levels of agreement between aged care staff and departmental review officers in review audits (known as validation).

The Australian Government committed to a post-implementation review to ensure that the new instrument is meeting its objectives.

People living with Young Onset Dementia

Young Onset Dementia is poorly recognised. People living with this condition require different responses to those of older poeple living with dementia.

For too long, residential aged care has remained the default option for people living with young onset dementia who can no longer live at home.

The submission calls for immediate government action to develop the age appropriate supports and services in the community these individuals require.

Key issues

People who suffer traumatic head injuries playing sport have no personal injury insurance for lifetime support.

The Alliance has called for this cover to be included in the general injury stream of the NIIS.

To read more about the inquiry, go to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry homepage

Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee