Page 2237 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 3 August 2021
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The changes also include the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission transitioning the ACT to their regulatory framework for NDIS participants on 1 July 2019, as well as the inclusion of aged-care providers in the register of the NDIS commission from 1 December 2020, bringing those based in the ACT under the ACT Senior Practitioner.
The ACT is the only jurisdiction in Australia to have regulatory oversight of child protection services, disability, education and care under the same legislation. Many of the providers operating within the sectors covered by the act are new to a regulatory approach to the authorisation, reduction and elimination of the use of restrictive practices.
Additionally, the Office of the Senior Practitioner has been utilising manual data collection methods which are time-consuming in both reporting and interpretation of the data. The Senior Practitioner has worked tirelessly over the last 12 months to deliver a data system to digitise data collection. In June 2021 the new restrictive intervention data system platform had a soft launch, meaning providers as prescribed by the act will now move to an online and electronic database to create positive behaviour support plans and report against restrictive practices, whether these be routine or emergency uses.
These factors have resulted in a lack of trend data and a complex context in which to gauge the effectiveness of the act’s implementation and the efficacy of the provisions in reducing and eliminating restrictive practices. It is expected, as providers further embed practices within their organisations, to see an increase or a levelling out of the number of plans which include a restrictive practice and the individual instances of use of a restrictive practice before we will see a reduction in their use.
This bill seeks an amendment to section 54 to provide further time to allow the changes to have stabilised and for RIDS to be embedded into practice. I am confident that this amendment will mean a more robust review of the operation of the act will be undertaken, including consideration of the professional expertise required to undertake such a review and, importantly, how the experiences and voices of people subject to restrictive practices will be documented, explored and analysed to tell us about the effectiveness of the act and identify any areas for improvement. This will ultimately provide a more holistic picture of the restrictive practice landscape in the ACT.
As previously committed, I will provide an interim update to the Assembly on the implementation of the act, and I have asked the Community Services Directorate to provide me with an interim update by December 2021.
I again thank the individuals and organisations who were involved in the consultation, development and review of this bill. I also thank the officials who have worked on this bill and the scrutiny of bills committee for its consideration. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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