A quarterly report from the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Disability Reform Council has revealed that wait times for children accessing the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) have dropped by more than half.
Minister for the NDIS, Stuart Robert said more children across Australia were gaining access to the scheme than ever before.
“Between 1 July and 31 December 2019, 19,000 children received their first NDIS plan – much higher than the previous six months when approximately 14,000 plans were issued,” Mr Robert said.
He said scheme waiting times for children had halved in the July to December period compared with the previous quarter.
“In December 2019, the average time to complete an access decision was four days, and the time between gaining access to the Scheme and receiving a first plan has almost halved in the last six months and for children under the age of six, it has fallen by 58 per cent.”
“However, there is still much more to be done and the National Disability Insurance Agency board and management are committed to improving the experience for participants and their families/carers,” Mr Robert said.
He said the report found that there were now almost 340,000 Australians receiving supports from the scheme, which was a growth rate of more than 2,000 participants per week on average.
Mr Robert said ‘first plans’ for participants in the last quarter of 2019 were completed in 77 days on average, compared to 88 days for the quarter ending September 2019, and 133 days in June.
