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It’s now over two years since the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) began and Vision Australia has over 200 clients participating in the scheme across the trial sites in Geelong, Newcastle, and Canberra and in the newly established roll-out in Western Sydney.

Individualised funding for disability supports is a relatively new practice in Australia, so it’s important to test how effectively the NDIS and Vision Australia are delivering against this new service model.

Recently, the Government Relations and Policy team led research into the experience of Vision Australia’s clients as they navigate the NDIS, with over 72% of our participants completing a telephone or online survey.

Overall, Vision Australia’s clients’ experiences with the NDIS are very encouraging:

  • 69% of clients were satisfied with the support they had received from the NDIA throughout the process of becoming an NDIS participant
  • 77% of clients felt that they were receiving more support now than before they became an NDIS participant
  • 73% of clients felt that their NDIS planner was aware of their blindness and low vision needs
  • Overall, 75% of clients were satisfied with their NDIS package

There are still some areas for improvement, particularly around communication between clients and the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), who administer participant plans, as: 

  • 1 in 4 clients expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of the communication they’ve received from the NDIA.
  • 16% of clients reported having difficulty receiving information from the NDIA in their preferred format
  • 35% of clients found the application process to become an NDIS participant difficult, particularly respondents living in Geelong (44%) and those aged between 19 and 50 years of age (45%).
  • The Government Relations and Policy team will use these statistics to advocate to the NDIA to improve the quality and level of communication with NDIS participants who are blind or have low vision.

In regards to Vision Australia, 81% of our NDIS participants were satisfied with the services they’ve received from Vision Australia. This result is only slightly lower than the overall client satisfaction score of 88% for the 2015 financial year, suggesting that we’re heading down the right track in meeting the needs of our NDIS participants.

The results of the survey also showed that 89% of clients had accessed Vision Australia’s services prior to receiving their NDIS package, with the highest rate of new referrals coming from clients aged 18 years and under and between 51 to 65 years (15% respectively). This gives us a strong indication of the growth areas within the disability consumer market.

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