Early Intervention Service
Provider Newsletter
Issue 3 – October 2015
The Service Provider Newsletter provides updates for panel members
registered for the Helping Children with Autism (HCWA) or the Better Start
for Children with Disability (Better Start) programmes.
Through these programmes, service providers have now delivered over
1.8 million services to eligible children. Thank you for your contribution to
this impressive achievement.
In this issue:
Update on NDIS and My Way roll-out and transition
Early Intervention Service Provider Operational Guidelines
Policy Updates
Guidelines for Good Practice – Early Intervention Plans
Reporting Update
Contacting the Department
Early Intervention Service Provider Newsletter
Update on NDIS roll-out and transition
The NDIS continues to be rolled-out in the following areas:
• South Australia for children up to and including age 14
• Australian Capital Territory
• Barwon area of Victoria
• Hunter area of New South Wales
• Perth Hills and Lower South West of Western Australia
• Barkly region of the Northern Territory
• Tasmania for 15-24 year olds.
NSW - Nepean Blue Mountains
The Nepean Blue Mountains trial site was launched on 1 July 2015 for children and young people
aged under 18 living in the Local Government Areas of Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury, Lithgow and
Penrith.
From 1 September 2015, the NDIA has been processing Access Request Forms for those children
currently accessing state-based disability services. All other children will be gradually phased-in.
Autism Advisors and Registration and Information Services have been advised to continue registering
newly diagnosed children in this site until further information on the phasing-in arrangements are
known. Registration services and Service Providers should, however, continue to refer parents/carers
to the NDIA to start their registration process.
The NDIA has opened an office for people living in the Nepean Blue Mountains which is located at
331 High Street Penrith and opens 9-5 Mon-Fri. See NDIS Office Penrith for a street map showing
the location of the office.
Queensland - Townsville, Charters Towers and Palm Island
On 25 September 2015, the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments announced an early
transition to the NDIS in the Local Government Areas of Townsville City, Charters Towers Regional
Council and Palm Island Aboriginal Shire
The early transition will target eligible children and young people (less than 18 years of age) in
Townsville and Charters Towers; and all eligible participants on Palm Island.
The early transition is available to those who meet the NDIS access requirements, including people
who do not currently receive supports from the Commonwealth or State governments.
Around 1600 people are expected to be eligible for the NDIS in these sites, with up to 600 of these
people expected to receive their funded packages by 1 July 2016. Of this 600, 300 clients will
transition from existing Queensland disability services and 300 clients will be new participants,
including children currently accessing HCWA or Better Start children.
Commonwealth programmes, including HCWA and Better Start, and state-based services and
supports will continue until eligible people have their plan in place with the NDIS.
Detailed information about the roll-out is available at NDIS Sites.
Western Australia – NDIS My Way.
The NDIS trial in WA is unique, as it includes two different models: The Commonwealth’s NDIS
model; and the WA State Government’s My Way model, administered by the Disability Services
Commission.
The Commonwealth’s NDIS model is currently available in the Perth Hills area. The WA State
Government’s WA NDIS My Way model started in the Lower South West on 1 July 2014, with
Cockburn and Kwinana joining on 1 July 2015.
Providers wishing to provide services and supports as part of the WA NDIS My Way trial need to
apply via My Way provider application.
Further information on the My Way trial is available on the WA NDIS My Way website.
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How will the transition to NDIS and NDIS My Way affect FOFMS?
As clients transition to the NDIS and My Way, their Eligibility End Date will be changed in FOFMS to
the date their NDIS or My Way plan was approved.
Please check if your client remains eligible or has moved onto NDIS or My Way by reviewing the
client’s Eligibility End Date. This date can be found under the ‘EI More Info’ tab. HCWA and Better
Start will not pay for services provided after the child’s eligibility end date. However, you will be able
to submit claims for services provided prior to this date.
It is your responsibility to check the client’s eligibility and financial balance from their Client Record in
FOFMS before delivering a service, particularly if you are in an NDIS trial site.
If a Service Provider or parent/carer has any questions about the transition to the NDIS or NDIS My
Way, they can contact the DSS Early Intervention Helpdesk on 1800 778 581 or email
early.intervention@dss.gov.au.
More information
For more information about the NDIS please visit the NDIS website or call 1800 800 110. To receive
regular updates about the NDIS, sign up on the news page.
More information about transitioning from HCWA/Better Start is available from the DSS website.
Please visit the Transition to NDIS page for more information about transitioning to the NDIS. More
information on transitioning to My Way is available by visiting the Transition to WA NDIS My Way
page.
Early Intervention Service Provider Panel Operational
Guidelines
Please ensure all staff are familiar with the guidelines which can be downloaded at Early
Intervention Service Provider Panel Operational Guidelines. Please note that Specialist Teachers
of the Vision Impaired have been added as full panel members including being able to provide
services as a sole provider.
Policy updates
Receiving financial benefits for referrals
A service provider has contacted the Department to report a case of a resource provider offering them
a financial incentive for recommending and referring clients to them to purchase resources.
This practice is unethical and service providers are encouraged to contact the Early Intervention
Helpdesk on 1800 778 581 to report any further instances of this practice.
Administration costs-resources
A reminder that The Department expects service providers will keep administration costs to a
minimum, thus maximising the amount of early intervention funding available to families.
It is anticipated that during an eligible child’s paid therapy session, parents and service providers
would identify resources that can assist the child. Once agreed, either the parent or provider can
source and purchase the item, with the provider making the claim in FOFMS after the purchase has
been made.
It is important providers discuss sourcing/purchasing options with families, especially when sourcing
an item by the family could avoid or reduce any administration fee.
Service providers are not expected to spend excessive time sourcing, ordering and claiming for
resources, however, the Department does recognise that in some cases there may be a small
additional cost for the provision of these services.
It is expected that the administration fee will lower where:
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Early Intervention Service Provider Newsletter
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a parent sources and purchases the resources or
the service provider is supplying an agreed resource from their own stock.
Service providers must explain to the parent prior to claiming that they intend to charge an
administration fee and how much this fee will be.
All Agreement to Purchase Resources forms must include a description of each item and its cost, the
itemised administration fee and the total amount to be claimed.
Administration fees cannot be a percentage of the overall cost of the resources or related to
administration costs incurred by a service provider as a part of their involvement in a consortium
arrangement.
Where multiple resources are ordered by the service provider the Department will only accept one
administration fee, not one fee per resource.
Fixed costs incurred in purchase of a resource (e.g. delivery charge) will be accepted by the
Department.
Prepayment of resources or therapy sessions
A reminder that the Department will only make payments to service providers (on behalf of eligible
children) for services delivered. Service providers are not permitted to arrange for pre-payment of
resources or services or charge for services in advance, for example, to enable a family to utilise
funding beyond a child’s 7th birthday.
Specialist Teachers Vision Impairment
Specialist Teachers for clients with vision impairment have recently been approved as panel service
providers including as sole traders. These teachers are required to be registered members of the
South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment (SPEVI). Further information is available at SPEVI
Professional Standards website.
Guidelines for Good Practice - Early Intervention Plans
The Early Intervention Operational Guidelines provide principles for good practice, to address and
clarify appropriate models. A good practice early intervention plan is one that meets the needs of the
family, supports the purpose of the service and is measurable against the service outcomes. Early
intervention plans must document:
• the child’s areas of strengths and needs;
• goals for intervention, identified through a collaborative process with those involved with the child,
including the family; and
• information about how these goals will be addressed.
There are a number of basic, good practice principles that are fundamental to working with young
children and their families. Service providers must demonstrate adherence to the following:
• Individualised Assessment for Intervention Planning: This refers to assessments carried out with
eligible children to determine their strengths and needs in a range of core areas. This assessment
guides the content of intervention while providing information about the best techniques to use with
an eligible child. The process should not be confused with assessment for diagnosis. Assessment
for intervention planning may take a range of forms including parent questionnaires or structured
observations in play.
• Individualised programming based on strengths and needs: programming for intervention should be
individualised and based on the findings of the intervention planning assessment. Programmes
should be designed to address the eligible child’s needs while acknowledging, drawing on and
encouraging their areas of strength and talent.
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Early Intervention Service Provider Newsletter
• Review, evaluation and adjustment of programme: Intervention programmes need to be evaluated
regularly to ensure they continue to meet the needs of the eligible child. This process involves a
review of the early intervention plan goals and a review of the eligible child’s skills and needs to
ensure the programme is effective, e.g. the eligible child is showing improvement and the goals are
still relevant or development of revised and, if required, new goals. This should be completed in
collaboration with the family and other key people in the eligible child’s life.
• Collaboration with other professionals.
• Family centred practice: includes acknowledging the uniqueness of each family, enhancing parental
competencies, involving families in programming decisions and developing collaborative
relationships between parents and professionals.
Report updates
Service Provider Six Monthly Reports
As you may now be aware the six month reports are no longer a requirement under the new funding
agreements that commenced on 1 July 2015, however reports for the period of 1 January – 30 June
2015 are still required to be completed and are accessible via FOFMS for your completion. An email
has been sent to you with instructions on how to complete the report. Completion of performance
reports is a requirement of your grant agreement with the Department and if you have outstanding
reports from previous reporting periods, you are still required to complete these. If you have not seen
any clients in the reporting period you are still required to complete the report.
For the future we would strongly encourage you to email any issues or problems you may have
previously included in your six monthly reports directly to the Early Intervention Helpdesk, contact
details below.
We would also ask that you report any good news stories via email to the helpdesk as well.
Future articles in the Early Intervention Service Provider Newsletter will focus on issues raised in
these emails. The Department is planning to occasionally conduct surveys with service providers to
gather data of reporting purposes and to inform policy analysis or development.
Contacting the Department
The email address for the DSS Early Intervention Helpdesk is early.intervention@dss.gov.au. The
contact number for the Helpdesk is 1800 778 581.
The Early Intervention Helpdesk supports all providers and families under the HCWA and Better Start
programmes. .
Please note that as of Monday 19 October 2015 the Early Intervention helpdesk hours will be
changing to:
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AWST (Perth) time from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
AEST from 11:00 am to 2:30 pm and 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm
Daylight saving AEST from 12 noon to 3:30 pm and 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Please check the Early Intervention Operational Guidelines before contacting the Helpdesk, as these
Guidelines may provide the answers to your questions.
For FOFMS issues please call the FOFMS Helpdesk on 1800 020 283 or email
FOFMS.helpdesk@dss.gov.au.
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