WA NDIS extension and expansion
tate-wide roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Western Australia will commence on 1 July 2017.
Before starting a state-wide roll out, both Governments agree they need to work with people with disability, their families, carers and the disability sector to design the best possible approach to implementation of the NDIS for people with disability in WA. Extending the existing trial and expanding it into new areas allows time to undertake that work properly while continuing to learn from two models being used.
As a result, the existing trials operating in the Lower South West, Cockburn-Kwinana and the Perth Hills will continue to operate, as they currently are, until state-wide rollout commences on 1 July 2017. Further, the State Government’s WA NDIS model will expand into the City of Armadale, the Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale and the Shire of Murray on 1 October 2016. The Commonwealth Government’s NDIA NDIS model will expand to the Shires of Chittering, Northam, Toodyay and York, the Town of Bassendean and the City of Bayswater from 1 January 2017.
This will see approximately 11,000 West Australians with disability become eligible to take part in the NDIS trial in WA by 30 June 2017. This represents around a quarter of the people with disability in our state, and the trial sites will be WA’s first full-scheme areas.
Throughout the nearly two years the trials have been running, both governments have learned a lot about what works for people participating in them. The implementation of the NDIS in Western Australia will draw from the lessons of the trials, including the independent evaluation, and from a series of conversations with the community, facilitated by the Ministerial Advisory Council on Disability. The WA NDIS will apply the same eligibility requirements, same reasonable and necessary supports and same portability of supports as the rest of the country. It will incorporate the best features of both NDIS models trialled here to ensure Western Australians with disability achieve the same or better outcomes as they would in other states, through a model that is responsive to local needs and is accountable to the WA community.