Member Update: National Disability Insurance Agency January-March 2019 Quarterly report – Queensland Statistics

Background

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) recently released the quarterly report for January to March 2019. The quarterly report provides the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Disability Reform Council with information (including statistics) about participants in each jurisdiction and the funding or provision of supports by the NDIA in each jurisdiction.

What’s happening in Queensland?

The Queensland Quarter 3 report gives the following data:

• Queensland new participants to the scheme is 12, 274, sitting at 27% of estimated numbers in bilateral;[i]
• Queensland has a total of 46,036 participants now being supported by the NDIS in Queensland, including children in the ECEI program
• In Queensland, 59% of scheme to date bilateral estimates have been met (1 April 2016 – 31 March 2019)

Roll out progress for new participants’ remains significantly low in Queensland. These figures highlight that with only three months of data until 30 June 2019, there are almost 33,000 Queenslanders with disability, understood to be eligible for the scheme without access to the reasonable and necessary support they need.

In comparison to almost all other states and territories, with the exception of the Northern Territory, Queensland new participant numbers remain low at 59% of bilateral estimates. In comparison, all other states and territories are sitting between 70% to 151% of scheme to date bilateral estimate met as at 31 March 2019.

This highlights the critical need for the additional support people require to enter the Scheme, including making an access request, gathering the supporting evidence they need, engaging in pre-planning activities and attending planning meetings.  This support is vital to ensure people get the best outcomes from the NDIS.

Other Queensland highlights

Participants and Planning  

• 90% of participants surveyed rated their satisfaction with the Agency’s planning process as either ‘Good’ or ‘Very Good’.

Committed Supports and Payments

• $1.4 billion has been paid to providers and participants:
  • $0.3m in 2015-16,
  • $111.2m in 2016-17,
  • $495.7m in 2017-18,
  • $837.7m in 2018-19 to date.

Providers and Markets

• There were 5,405 registered providers at 31 March 2019, representing a 16% increase for the quarter.
• 42% of registered providers were active at 31 March 2019.
• 40% of registered providers are individuals/sole traders.
• 25% of registered providers are receiving 80-90% of payments made by the NDIA. QDN identifies that this data potentially suggests that a smaller, more established section of the market are receiving the majority of the funding..

Mainstream Interface

• 91% of active participants with a plan approved in 2018- 19 Quarter 3 access mainstream services.

Participant Profiles

• 62% of participants are men and 37% are women . QDN sees that more analysis is required to determine why this gender divide exists and suggests once understood, mabybe some targeted approaches are required to inform women with disability about the NDIS.
• Of the participants with a plan approved in 2018-19 Q3:
  • 3% were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, compared with 8.2% in previous periods combined. 1.6% were young people in residential aged care, compared with 1.8% in previous periods combined.
  • 8% were culturally and linguistically diverse, compared with 4.6% in previous periods combined.

The full quarterly reports can be downloaded here: https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/publications/quarterly-reports

[i] National Disability Insurance Agency, The Queensland COAG Disability Reform Council Quarterly Performance Report for Quarter 3, March 2019 accessed on 15 May 2019 at https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/publications/quarterly-reports