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National Disability Insurance Scheme (Facilitating the Preparation of Participants' Plans—Tasmania) Rules 2013

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National Disability Insurance Scheme (Facilitating the Preparation of Participants’ Plans—Tasmania) Rules 2013
 
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—Tasmania) Rules 2013
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 State of Tasmania.
These Rules commence on 1 July 2013.
 
The Hon Jenny Macklin MP
Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
Minister for Disability Reform
24 June 2013
Contents
 
National Disability Insurance Scheme (Facilitating the Preparation of Participants’ Plans—Tasmania) Rules 2013  1
Part 1         What these Rules are about 3
Part 2         Preparation of plans for residents of Tasmania  4
Part 3         Other matters  8
Citation  8
Interpretation  8
 
Part 1   What these Rules are about
1.1     Each participant in the NDIS launch 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 an orderly launch, 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 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 groups, known as classes, of participants.
1.3     In Tasmania, the NDIS launch will initially be restricted to persons who are between 15 and 24 years old when they make an access request, and were also under the age of 25 on 1 July 2013: see the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Becoming a Participant) Rules 2013.
1.4     These Rules explain how participants in Tasmania 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 Tasmania. It is intended that future rules will deal with the phasing in of participants who meet the access criteria in the second and subsequent years of the NDIS (those who turn 15 after 30 June 2014).
1.5     The phasing process is based on an agreement that has been reached between the Government of the Commonwealth and the Government of Tasmania (the Intergovernmental Agreement for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Launch, Schedule D—Bilateral Agreement for NDIS Launch between the Commonwealth and Tasmania), and is intended to give effect to that agreement.
1.6     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 Tasmania
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 Tasmania is detailed below.
2.2     The table in paragraph 2.6 sets out five classes of Tasmanian participants and sets out the circumstances in which the CEO is to commence the facilitation 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 flexible. In general, participants in each class commence preparation of their plans sequentially; however, the CEO may open the next class even if not all participants in the previous class have commenced preparation of their plans. For example, the Agency might have the capacity to commence facilitating the preparation of plans in Class 2 before having fully completed the facilitation of plans for Class 1. Also, once a class has opened, it remains open. 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 an NDIS launch area in Tasmania does not fall within one of the classes in the table, which includes those who are not receiving services from a program described 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 the preparation 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 five classes of participants, and the time at 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 are residents of Tasmania)
Circumstances in which the CEO is to commence the facilitation of the preparation of the participants’ plans

Class 1
 
a)      Persons who are receiving, or on the needs register for, an individual support package or a community access package; and
b)      students with disability who have finished, or are expected to finish, school in 2013; and
c)      persons receiving formal out of home care provided by the State of Tasmania
 
As soon as practicable after the participants become participants

Class 2
a)      Persons in receipt of community based mental health services provided by the State of Tasmania;
b)      participants in the Commonwealth Personal Helpers and Mentors program
 
The CEO decides (on or after 1 October 2013) 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
a)      Students with a disability aged at least 15 and under 18; and
b)      persons receiving flexible respite assistance
The CEO decides (on or after 1 January 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 Classes 1 and 2(a) whose plans have been dealt with and the number yet to be dealt with

Class 4
a)      Persons receiving therapy funded through Tasmanian specialist disability services; and
b)      persons living in large residential care facilities
 
The CEO decides (on or after 1 April 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 Classes 1, 2 and 3(b) whose plans have been dealt with and the number yet to be dealt with

Class 5
Persons who are receiving, or on the needs register for, supported accommodation services and who do not live in a large residential care facility
The CEO decides (on or after 1 June 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 Classes 1, 2, 3(b) and 4 whose plans have been dealt with and the number yet to be dealt with

2.7     To avoid doubt, a person may be in more than one class.  In practice, this means that they will be treated as being in the first of those classes. For example, a participant who is a member of Class 1 and Class 2 will be phased in as a member of Class 1.
2.8     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 Tasmania 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 Tasmania 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—Tasmania) Rules 2013.
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.
child¾see section 9 of the Act.
large residential care facility means a residential care facility that has 20 or more beds.
NDIS¾see section 9 of the Act.
NDIS launch area has the same meaning as in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Becoming a Participant) Rules 2013.
NDIS rules¾see section 9 of the Act.
participant¾see section 9 of the Act.