People with disability have a right to be safe from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation, including when they participate in the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
All members of the community have the right to be safe. For people with disability, this right is reinforced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but not always realised. This has become clear through the experiences shared with previous reviews and inquiries, including the ongoing Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.
The 2016 NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Framework stresses the importance of balancing formal safeguards, such as rules for providers and workers, with efforts to build natural safeguards for participants that support and promote their rights and safety.
There has been insufficient focus on implementing supports to build the capacity of participants and strengthen their natural safeguards. Effort here is critical, and needs to be supported by targeted safeguards for participants facing higher risks and for whom building natural safeguards is more challenging.
This proposals paper provides some background on participant safeguarding and describes our aspirations for empowering participants to exercise their right to be safe. These aspirations reflect what we have heard so far from participants, carers, families, and other interested parties, as well as issues identified in previous reviews and inquiries.
It is clear that more must be done to empower participants to build their capacity and natural safeguards, as well as to support participants facing higher risks. We have developed some ideas for changes to achieve this. We want to hear from you about your views on these ideas and other things we should consider. If you have limited time, we encourage you to focus on the key messages and questions for consultation.
Yours sincerely
Professor Bruce Bonyhady AM
Co-chair, Independent Review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Ms Lisa Paul AO PSM
Co-chair, Independent Review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme