sarah’s tip the balance story

Tipping the balance logo showing a smiley emoji and a sad emoji on scales with the NDIS logo underneath

Flexibility is not just about participants being able to move funding from one bucket to another it is about giving people with disabilities?NDIS participants greater and broader options to choose from on how they use their NDIS funding. participants don’t just want to be able to move funding from core to capacity building and from capacity building to core supports. Participants who run out of funding for therapy don’t just want to be able to move funding from core support funding to therapy they also want to be able to participate in the community undertaking activities of interests to them and be supported to achieve all their goals not have a plan with goals in that they can’t fulfil because the NDIS does not want to support them with what they want to do. People with disabilities are the experts and are the ones that know what they want, what works and what doesn’t work. Don’t make decisions for people with disabilities/NDIS participants make a collaborative decision and support people with disabilities/NDIS participants with their decisions. Ask People with Disabilities/NDIS participants for their views and opinions. Fund what participants ask for and do it without any questions don’t limit their choices and tell them what they can and can’t use their NDIS funding for. The NDIS was meant to make a difference for everyone not make people with disabilities feel disadvantaged and worse off. Instead of people feeling better off under the NDIS people are feeling disadvantaged and worse off under the NDIS as they are isolated and the flexibility is not the same as to what is was under ADHC. Support Coordination needs to be funded in all NDIS participant plans not only some NDIS participant plans. Information that is sent to the NDIA before planning meetings is not read, Local Area Coordinators and NDIA planners are taking notes from what is written on the documents sent to them instead of asking participants what they would like funded in their NDIS plans.