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National Disability Insurance Scheme (Facilitating the Preparation of Participants' Plans—Western Australia) Rules 2014

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National Disability Insurance Scheme (Facilitating the Preparation of Participants’ Plans—Western Australia) Rules 2014
 
National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (the Act)
The Act establishes the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
People who are participants in the NDIS will be assisted to develop a personal, goal-based plan about how they will be provided with general supports and reasonable and necessary supports.
The NDIS will respect the interests of people with disability in exercising choice and control about matters that affect them.
 
National Disability Insurance Scheme (Facilitating the Preparation of Participants’ Plans—Western Australia) Rules 2014
These Rules are made for the purposes of sections 32 and 32A (other than subsection 32A(4)) of the Act.
These Rules are about the circumstances in which the facilitation of the preparation of participants’ plans will commence in the Perth Hills trial site in the State of Western Australia.
These Rules commence on 1 July 2014.
 
Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield
Assistant Minister for Social Services
Dated: 30 June 2014
Contents
 
National Disability Insurance Scheme (Facilitating the Preparation of Participants’ Plans—Western Australia) Rules 2014  1
Part 1            What these Rules are about 3
Part 2            Preparation of plans for residents of Western Australia  5
Part 3            Other matters  8
Citation  8
Interpretation  8
 
Part 1   What these Rules are about
1.1     Each participant in the NDIS will have a plan, prepared by and with the participant and approved by the CEO of the Agency. Among other things, a participant’s plan sets out the supports that will be funded for the participant.
1.2     To enable orderly implementation of the NDIS trial in Western Australia, participants will be phased into the NDIS. There are two steps involved in accessing supports under the NDIS. The first is to become a participant: the prospective participant makes an access request and the CEO decides that they meet the access criteria. The second is for the participant to have a plan approved by the CEO of the Agency. These Rules relate to the second step, and the order in which the CEO will commence the facilitation of the preparation of plans for different classes of participants.
 
1.3     From 1 July 2014, Western Australia will participate in a two-year trial of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) using two different models:
•    WA NDIS My Way model, which will operate in the Lower South West (LSW) and Cockburn/Kwinana areas; and
•    Commonwealth National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) model, which will operate in the Perth Hills area.
 
This rule relates to the NDIS trial to be run by NDIA in the Perth Hills area.
1.4     In Western Australia, the NDIS trial to be run by NDIA will be restricted to the Perth Hills trial site (as defined in paragraph 3.4), which includes the Shire of Kalamunda, the Shire of Mundaring and the City of Swan: see the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Becoming a Participant) Amendment Rules 2014. This is because one of the access criteria for participants or prospective participants in Western Australia is that they reside in one of the areas in the Perth Hills trial site.
1.5     These Rules explain how participants in Western Australia will be phased into the NDIS. The Rules set out the process for working out when the CEO must commence facilitating the preparation of the plan of a participant in the Perth Hills trial site in Western Australia. For participants in these areas, the CEO will commence the facilitation of preparation of plans in an order that depends on the programs under which they are receiving disability services and the postcode in which they reside.
1.6     The phasing process is based on an agreement that has been reached between the Government of the Commonwealth and the Government of Western Australia (the Intergovernmental Agreement for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Launch, Schedule G—Bilateral Agreement for NDIS Trial between the Commonwealth and Western Australia) and is intended to give effect to that agreement.
1.7     The Act sets out a number of objects and principles for the NDIS, to which these Rules give effect. In giving effect to the objects, regard is to be had to the progressive implementation of the NDIS and the need to ensure the financial sustainability of the NDIS.
Part 2   Preparation of plans for residents of Western Australia
2.1     Once a person becomes a participant, the CEO can commence facilitating the preparation of a plan for the person. The process for commencing the facilitation of the preparation of plans for participants in Western Australia is detailed below.
2.2     The table in paragraph 2.6 sets out classes of participants in Western Australia and sets out the circumstances in which the CEO is to commence the facilitation of the preparation of those participants’ plans. The CEO will deal with each class sequentially; facilitation for a class will be commenced once the CEO has decided that the Agency has the capacity to do so, in light of the number of participants in previous classes whose plans have been dealt with, and the number yet to be dealt with.
2.3     The CEO cannot make a decision to commence facilitating the preparation of plans for a class before the date specified in the table for that class. Otherwise, the sequence of classes is not inflexible. The CEO need not be satisfied that all participants in a particular class have had their plans facilitated before moving on to the next class; the Agency might have the capacity to commence the facilitation of plans in Class 2 before having fully completed that task for Class 1. Further, the classes do not close at any point in time. For example, a person in Class 1 who becomes a participant after the Agency has started to facilitate plans for Class 2 participants can still have their plan facilitated while participants in Class 2 are having their plans facilitated.
2.4     If a participant who is a resident of the Perth Hills trial site in Western Australia does not fall within one of the classes in the table, the CEO is to commence facilitating the preparation of the participant’s plan as soon as reasonably practicable having regard to the CEO’s obligations to commence facilitating the preparation of other participants’ plans. Such participants are not part of the phasing sequence set out in the table; their plans will be facilitated as soon as reasonably practicable after they become participants. This ensures equity of access to the NDIS for such participants.
Paragraph 2.4 summarises the effect of subsection 32(3) of the Act.
2.5     In urgent circumstances, the CEO can commence the facilitation of the preparation of a participant’s plan at a particular time, despite the sequence set out in the table in paragraph 2.6. If the CEO does so, the CEO is able to delay the commencement of the facilitation of other participants’ plans, so far as is reasonably necessary, even if that delay would be contrary to that sequence.
Paragraph 2.5 summarises the effect of subsection 32A(3) of the Act.
2.6     The classes of participants, and the circumstances in which the CEO is to commence the facilitation of the preparation of plans for participants in those classes, are as follows:
Class
Participants in the class (who must be residents of the Perth Hills trial site in Western Australia)
Circumstances in which the CEO is to commence the facilitation of the preparation of the participants’ plans

Class 1
LAC participants and New participants who reside in the 6056 postcode.  
As soon as practicable after the participants become participants

Class 2
LAC participants and New participants who reside in any of the following postcodes: 6054, 6055, 6062, 6063, 6066, 6067, 6068, 6069, 6079, 6090.  
The CEO decides (on or after 1 October 2014) that the Agency has the capacity to commence the facilitation of the preparation of the participants’ plans, in light of the number of participants in Class 1 whose plans have been dealt with and the number yet to be dealt with

Class 3
LAC participants and New participants who reside in any of the following postcodes: 6057, 6058, 6074, 6076, 6083, 6084, 6107.  
The CEO decides (on or after 1 January 2015) that the Agency has the capacity to commence the facilitation of the preparation of the participants’ plans, in light of the number of participants in Classes 1 and 2 whose plans have been dealt with and the number yet to be dealt with

Class 4
LAC participants and New participants who reside in any of the following postcodes: 6070, 6071, 6072, 6073, 6081, 6082, 6556, 6558; and
Participants in receipt of DSC funding but not accessing LAC who reside in any of the following postcodes: 6063, 6066, 6067, 6068, 6069, 6090.
   
The CEO decides (on or after 1 April 2015) that the Agency has the capacity to commence the facilitation of the preparation of the participants’ plans, in light of the number of participants in Classes 1, 2 and 3 whose plans have been dealt with and the number yet to be dealt with

Class 5
Participants in receipt of DSC funding but not accessing LAC who reside in any of the following postcodes: 6055, 6083; and
New participants who are not in Class 1, 2, 3 or 4.
 
The CEO decides (on or after 1 July 2015) that the Agency has the capacity to commence the facilitation of the preparation of the participants’ plans, in light of the number of participants in Classes 1, 2, 3 and 4 whose plans have been dealt with and the number yet to be dealt with

Class 6
Participants in receipt of DSC funding but not accessing LAC who reside in any of the following postcodes: 6054, 6056, 6062, 6084.
 
The CEO decides (on or after 1 October 2015) that the Agency has the capacity to commence the facilitation of the preparation of the participants’ plans, in light of the number of participants in Classes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 whose plans have been dealt with and the number yet to be dealt with

Class 7
Participants in receipt of DSC funding but not accessing LAC who reside in any of the following postcodes: 6057, 6058, 6070, 6071, 6072, 6073, 6074, 6076, 6081, 6082, 6556, 6558.
 
The CEO decides (on or after 1 January 2016) that the Agency has the capacity to commence the facilitation of the preparation of the participants’ plans, in light of the number of participants in Classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 whose plans have been dealt with and the number yet to be dealt with

Note: the terms LAC participant, New participant, DSC funding recipient and Perth Hills trial site are defined in paragraph 3.4.
Consultation
2.7     If the CEO is considering making a decision referred to in the third column of the table in paragraph 2.6 after the date mentioned in that column, the CEO must, as early as possible:
(a)     seek the views of the Government of Western Australia and of the Commonwealth Department that administers the Act about the proposed decision (including their views about the effect that making the decision would have on arrangements agreed between the Commonwealth and
Western Australia for the funding of the NDIS); and
(b)     use his or her best endeavours to reach an agreement with those entities about the proposed decision.
 
Part 3   Other matters
Citation
3.1     These Rules may be cited as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Facilitating the Preparation of Participants’ Plans—Western Australia) Rules 2014.
Interpretation
3.2     These Rules include text that summarises provisions of the Act. The boxed notes identify such text, which does not form an operative part of these Rules.
3.3     Terms and expressions that are used in the Act have the same meaning in these Rules unless these Rules display a contrary intention—see the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 and the Legislative Instruments Act 2003, which include definitions and rules of interpretation that apply to all Commonwealth legislation. For convenience, the more important definitions from the Act are identified or reproduced in paragraph 3.4.
3.4     In these Rules:
Act means the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013.
Agency¾see section 9 of the Act.
CEO¾see section 9 of the Act.
Participant in receipt of DSC funding but not accessing LAC means a person who:
(a)    is in receipt of support or services funded by Western Australia’s Disability Services Commission or was in receipt of support or services funded by Western Australia’s Disability Services Commission in the previous 12 months; and
(b)    is not a LAC participant.
LAC participant means a person who:
(a)    is accessing Western Australia’s Local Area Coordination (My Way) program; or
(b)    has accessed Western Australia’s Local Area Coordination (My Way) program in the previous 12 months.
NDIS means the National Disability Insurance Scheme (see section 9 of the Act).
New participant means a participant in the NDIS who is neither a LAC participant nor a participant in receipt of DSC funding but not accessing LAC.
participant¾see section 9 of the Act.
Perth Hills trial site means the area specified in subparagraph 4.4A(a) of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Becoming a Participant) Rules 2013.