Dion and Bradley

Dion, in his mid-teens, is very social and loves communicating with people. He has autism, Tourette syndrome and speech and language delays. A local speech therapist has been helping Dion with his communication, supporting him to self-regulate more easily.

‘The speech therapist is highly regarded in her field of expertise,’ Bradley, Dion’s foster carer, told the Royal Commission. ‘We have seen such an incredible growth in our foster son’s behaviour, confidence and communication skills that can be directly attributed to her intervention.’

However, because the therapist has chosen not to register with the NDIS, Bradley can’t use Dion’s NDIS funds to pay for the therapy.

Foster carers are unable to self-manage an NDIS plan. Only NDIS participants whose plan is self-managed or managed by an agency can use unregistered NDIS providers.

Bradley raised this issue at a recent NDIS planning meeting. The staff member suggested the child protection agency manage the plan. Bradley had already approached the child protection agency – they do not manage any of the NDIS plans for children with disability in their care.

He left with the understanding Dion’s plan would include plan management, allowing him to engage an agency to make payments on Dion’s behalf.

However when they received Dion’s plan, it didn’t include plan management. Dion was still only able to access NDIS registered therapists.

Bradley requested a review of the plan. In addition to plan management he also requested extra speech therapy.

Dion was about to start a school-based work experience program. The additional speech therapy would be targeted and focused on supporting Dion transition from school to the workplace.

Dion would have the opportunity ‘to engage in workplace experiences that he would otherwise have been excluded from and will help towards building his independence in the longer term,’ Bradley said.

‘The review process involved getting further reports from all of the therapists involved at an additional cost.’ He said it then took six months to have the review meeting.

While they waited, Bradley continued to pay for Dion’s speech therapy and counselling. ‘We could not in all good conscious simply stop access to the essential services whilst waiting for the NDIS.’

Eventually the NDIS agreed to plan management funding. Bradley said this ‘should be a standard practice for all people in care with a disability’.

But the NDIS refused to support the targeted speech therapy. ‘The NDIS made contact directly with the therapist and questioned her plan in great detail.’ Bradley said the questions indicated the person had limited understanding of speech therapy.

‘It would appear that our foster son’s needs as outlined in great detail by the speech therapist will not be met as a direct result of the request not being “necessary or reasonable” a totally non-transparent statement. This is in direct contravention to the statement made by the NDIS that “your funding is based on what is ‘reasonable’ and ‘necessary’ to achieve your goals,”’ Bradley said.

‘I would like to see if we can improve the way these young people have access to the funding and services they need to enhance their lives and provide them with the best possible outcome.’