Independent Advocacy and the NDIS
Position Statement – June 2012
Definitions and Acronyms:
“Advocacy” is taking action to promote, protect or defend the rights, interests or well-being of a person or group.
“Independent” means freedom from influence by agencies or government entities with responsibility for the
provision of supports and services to people with disabilities.
“NDIS” is the National Disability Insurance Scheme
“NIIS” is the National Injury Insurance Scheme
“DSO” is Disability Support Organisation (as described in by the Productivity Commission Inquiry Report: Disability
Care and Support)
Why Independent Advocacy is Important
The ready availability of independent advocacy is a necessary safeguard for those people with disabilities who are
facing complex, challenging or intractable issues about their rights or well-being; and for those who find it difficult
to advocate for themselves and do not have strong family member advocates. This is particularly true in a system,
like ours, which relies on individuals to speak out when they need assistance or experience inequity or injustice.
People with disabilities experience injustice, abuse and neglect to a greater extent than the general population.
Any aspect of their lives may be affected. This is a world-wide phenomenon and arises from the interaction of
people’s disabilities with environmental factors and societal attitudes.
Independent advocacy support enables all people with disabilities, regardless of their personal or family’s
advocacy capacity, to have their interests pursued and their rights exercised. It thus works as an early
intervention or protective measure in the lives of people with disabilities.
Availability of Independent Advocacy Support
Advocacy support from independent disability advocacy organisations should be available to all people with
disabilities who are at risk of their human rights and fundamental freedoms being breached or who need support
to speak up for themselves as a group or as individuals. It should be available to people with disabilities across the
spectrum of human and government activity including but not limited to the six outcome areas detailed in the
National Disability Strategy i.e. inclusion and access; rights protection, justice and legislation; economic security;
personal and community support (including the NDIS and the NIIS); learning and skills; health and wellbeing.
Some independent advocacy organisations focus specifically on reducing the susceptibility of people with
disabilities to injustice, abuse and neglect by supporting them and/or their family to become more effective
advocates or by assisting the person with disability to create and maintain a relationship with another person who
is committed to advocating for their interests. Other independent advocacy organisations focus on working with a
person or people with disabilities to address specific justice and well-being issues on an individual and/or systems
level.
Independent Advocacy and the NDIS
Independent advocacy support, directed both to enabling advocacy to be undertaken by ordinary citizens and to
rectifying or preventing wrongs being done to people with disabilities, will continue to be needed when we have a
an NDIS and NIIS. This is because the NDIS and NIIS, like all similar schemes, will perform imperfectly at times, and
because the Schemes are intended to address only one part of the life experiences of people with disabilities.
Independent advocacy support is fundamentally different from service provision and the proposed DSO role.
Independent advocacy agencies enable people with disabilities to identify and take action to address their rights
and well-being issues i.e. they enable decision-making directed to an advocacy purpose. DSOs will support people
with disabilities to determine and manage their desired suite of services and supports i.e. they will support
decision-making directed to a service planning and management purpose. The DSO role is thus very similar to that
of the existing brokerage and case management agencies.
Decision-making is integral to any kind of activity. Decision-making support for an activity should be provided by
those who are both knowledgeable and experienced in carrying out the particular activity and who are also
experienced in facilitating decision-making in relation to that activity.
In the context of the NDIS and the NIIS, independent advocacy support should be available, on demand, to all
people with disabilities:
 Prior to and throughout eligibility and assessment processes
 when any issue or conflict arises with the NDIA or NIIS, a DSO or service provider
 to engage in service quality processes
 when an issue arises in relation to the services, supports or policies delivered by other (non NDIS or NIIS) arms
of government
This is true, even though a DSO or an NDIA case manager may offer support, because people with disabilities
should have the option to choose advocacy support that is both partisan to their interests and independent of the
NDIA.
The NDIS and NIIS will not remove the need for independent advocacy support because:
 No systems are perfect
 Systems are administered and services are provided by people who do not always act appropriately
 There will always be pressure on government to divert NDIS and NIIS money to other purposes
 The NDIS addresses only the disability specific support needs of people with disabilities. It does not address
the inequities and injustices of other sectors eg education, health, justice, housing, income support etc.
 Governments trend towards one-size-fits-all approaches and ever increasing controls over their funded
programs. This, if not resisted, progressively limits the independence and autonomy of any beneficiaries.
 Effective advocacy requires learned knowledge and skills
Independent Advocacy Administration and Funding
The purpose of the NDIS and NIIS is to provide to all people with disabilities the necessary disability specific
supports and services to enable community inclusion and a reasonable quality of life. Independent advocacy
support is a necessary disability specific support that should be available to all people with disabilities, whether
they receive support through NDIS Tier 2 mechanisms (for all people with disabilities); Tier 3 mechanisms (for
people deemed eligible for funded individualised supports); or through the NIIS. For this reason independent
advocacy support should be funded from the NDIS and NIIS (and any other disability specific) funding pools at a
minimum defined percentage of the total level of funding.
To maintain advocacy independence, avoid conflicts of interest and ensure that it is focused on all the issues
impacting on the rights, interests and well-being of people with disabilities, advocacy funding should be
administered at arm’s length from the NDIA and NIIS through a separate National Statutory Advocacy Authority.
The next best options include:
 A Commonwealth Department that is not linked to the NDIA or NIIS
 State Departments not linked to the NDIA, the NIIS or to other services commonly subject to advocacy.
Independent advocacy agencies should be directly funded by government because the advocacy work undertaken
is in the nature of a public good with potential to yield benefits to many people with disabilities.