What is an Evidence-Based Approach?
One of the key design principles of the NDIS is that decisions are made based on the best evidence available. The NDIS has access to an exhaustive number of experts who assist it in determining this based on current practice. An evidence-based approach involves making decisions and providing support based on the best available, current, and relevant evidence.
Critical Components of an Evidence-Based Approach
- Research: Utilising the latest research findings and data to inform decisions, including peer-reviewed studies, clinical trials, and meta-analyses.
- Expert Opinions: Consulting with experts in various fields, including doctors, psychologists, occupational therapists, other specialists, academics, and those with lived experience of disability.
- Outcomes Focus: Emphasising the outcomes that improve the participant’s quality of life, inclusion, and social participation based on the best available information to determine reasonable and necessary values for money support.
Who Can Provide Evidence to Support NDIS Funding?
Evidence to support NDIS funding can come from various sources, including:
- Healthcare and Allied Health Professionals: Doctors, psychologists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and other specialists can provide detailed reports and assessments demonstrating the participant’s needs and the effectiveness of proposed supports.
- Educational Professionals: Teachers and educational psychologists can provide insights into the participants’ needs in educational settings, particularly for children and young adults. For example, is a student with a disability in a mainstream class or a specialist disability class with environmental modifications and high staff ratios? This can provide evidence of need for the NDIS.
- Participants and Families: The power to decide what evidence to provide the NDIS lies with the legal decision maker. They have the right to determine which evidence is offered to the NDIS. The NDIS assumes capacity until there is evidence that the support need is directly related to the disability for which the person entered the scheme. Just because a type of support is requested does not make it reasonable and necessary or value for money for the NDIS to fund it. The NDIS is the audience. I have seen hundreds of participants believe they are providing the NDIS strong evidence when the reality is that their evidence is not strong and does not demonstrate what they think it does.
Importance of Evidence-Based Practice within the NDIS
• Ensuring Effectiveness: The NDIS can fund supports that are proven to be effective and beneficial by relying on evidence, ensuring that participants receive the best evidence-based support to live ordinary lives.
• Promoting Fairness: An evidence-based approach helps maintain fairness and equity in resource allocation, ensuring that supports are provided based on genuine need. This is a vital aspect of a universal insurance model, without which the NDIS would quickly become financially unsustainable.
• Enhances Accountability: It ensures that the NDIS remains accountable for its funding decisions, providing transparency and justification for the support funded. The need for financial accountability is vital to maintain scheme integrity. The use of taxpayer funds demands financial probity. People misusing public funds is a crime. If someone rorts the tax system or misuses government resources, they rightly expect to receive a penalty if caught. This principle must apply to the NDIS as well. The long-term integrity and accountability of the NDIS is in everybody’s best interest. To act contrary to these principles places the system and everybody it supports at risk.