A family who were self-managing their son's 24/7 supports approached Good Directions to set up a Good Directions Participant-Owned Disability Service. During our onboarding process we found, and addressed, a number of serious concerns.

• Staff were being paid at higher hourly rates in the hope this would mean the service had more freedom to roster them in ways that breached the Award. This led to an accumulated underpayment of more than $300k of workers.
• Fair Work Ombudsman was challenging them.
• NDIS Commission was disputing that their implementation of restrictive practice was only done by family members.
• Behaviour Support Practitioners were struggling to engage.
• The Circle of Support they set up was questioning their legal liability for breaches.
• The NDIS Plan was not sufficient and the NDIS was constantly being asked for top-ups.

No attention was paid to:

• Portable Long Service Leave.
• Staying below 15 workers to keep the small business protections.
• Super and workers compensation for personal service contractors (PSI).
• Increased annual leave entitlement where workers were rostered for more than the threshold number of weekends.

Understanding the Limitations of Self-Management.

The NDIS was chasing them for repayment from claiming administration on some of their self-managed claims as they did not understand that self & plan management are both reimbursement models where only costs can be claimed. Only Registered NDIS Service Providers are authorised to claim the NDIS Price without regard to their cost.

Self & Plan Managed services are reimbursed for items on the NDIS Price List. The rest of their needs have to be paid from their DSP/CRA including a car, a coffee, pay for any damage when on community access, jumper, umbrella – anything really. A Self or Plan Managed participant has to pay for those out of their own funds. This is why SIL Providers charge 50% DSP for Board, 25% DSP+CRM for rent, plus copayments for community access (movies, eating out etc).

Good Directions does not take any DSP or copayments. Good Directions uses the NDIS Price which Registered Service Providers are entitled to claim, to cover support costs and contribute to the daily living needs of the participant including food, rent, and other quality of life initiatives.

Good Directions was able to transition them to compliant processes, provide expert knowledge of navigating NDIS requirements and apply formal registrations that authorise our actions. We provided advances to get started straightaway and were able to reset all the participants arrangements and give a fresh start for the family.