At LifeFul, we are very proud of our status as an Accredited and Registered provider, providing to our clients peace of mind knowing that we have met stringent criteria and have been vetted by recognized authorities. Learn more about what it means to achieve NDIS Accreditation.

 

What is NDIS Accreditation?

Lifeful is one of a select group of quality providers, who have voluntarily gone through the rigorous quality accreditation process of the National Quality and Safeguarding Commission. We have committed to providing the highest standards of care and best quality services available in the disability sector.

 

The Benefits of using a Registered NDIS Provider

When asking yourself ‘Should I use a registered NDIS provider?’, it is important to understand that the NDIS Commission holds registered providers to a higher standard than the many thousands of unregistered providers in the disability sector. The difference between registered and unregistered providers is that unregistered providers are not required to comply with NDIA’s Accreditation Standards, and the NDIS Commission doesn’t have any way of enforcing compliance or dealing with issues for clients of unregistered providers.

 

How To Achieve Accreditation

To achieve the status of Accredited Provider, we must complete an assessment against the NDIS Practice Standards. We need to firstly, provide policies, procedures, case notes, registers etc to demonstrate that we have designed a fully compliant system. The Auditors then conduct dozens of interviews with staff, clients, family members, and others to make sure all of our team are complying with our system, for all of our clients, all of the time!

The NDIS Commission also assesses the suitability of our key personnel to deliver NDIS supports and services. The outcome of the audit is then submitted to the NDIS Commission which assesses our application and makes a decision.

Accreditation also requires registered NDIS providers to have an effective system for managing and resolving any complaints and must make it easy for people to make a complaint and ensure that we deal with all complaints quickly and fairly. We must, as a condition of registration, have an incident management system to record and address any incidents that occur in connection with providing supports and services.

And finally, we must have robust systems to avoid and deal with and potential or actual conflicts of interest. Conflicts are inevitable in the disability sector, as they are in business in general, and what matters is that they are recognised, declared, and dealt with effectively.

You can find out more about the requirements here: https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/providers/registered-ndis-providers/registered-provider-obligations-and-requirements

 

The Outcome

LifeFul was delighted to have not only passed the audit process, but to also discover heart-warming feedback from both staff and clients who were interviewed as part of the process. We were so pleased to hear what clients say about LifeFul, and our staff’s thoughts on what it’s like to work for Lifeful.

We have shared just a few examples below:

 

Participant Interviews

“The communication is particularly good, and they are very helpful and approachable. If I have any problems, they are very supportive and they look into it immediately. They are exceptional at what they do.”

“All of the required documentation was sent within 24 hours of meeting, and I could fill it all out. They send emails for questionaries every couple of months to check in and see how I am going.”

“ It has taken the load off my shoulder, and everything is nice and easy.  They have an app that I use so when the invoices come in, I can see it on the app and see what the bill is, and I can push approve or decline and ask a question to provide feedback. They stand in my corner and throw the punches for me. They come up with suggestions about what I could do with my plan. “

“ We can now go on family holidays again and don’t have to have support workers…..we no longer need any support workers in the weekend. We now have the confidence to know what to do…..they have given us our life back.”

“Communication is really really good…..without them,  I would be struggling and wouldn’t know where to go or what to do.”

“They are exceptional at communication. My Support Coordinator keeps in contact, and it is rare that I would go for more than a couple of weeks without any communication.”

 

Staff Interviews

“I have never worked for a company that is so nurturing.”

“I feel really included and that management really listen to us……I am extremely happy, and they are as dedicated as their workers”

“I think that the communication and the weekly briefing is fantastic, and I feel very supported in what I do”.

“The team are very friendly and approachable. For an organisation that is predominantly working remotely, there is a real effort to stay connected.”

 

Get In Touch

To find out how LifeFul can provide you with the highest quality disability services, contact our expert and friendly team now.

Is there a shortage of NDIS services available in your area? A Coordinated Funding Proposal (CFP) may be the answer.

CFPs were introduced by the NDIA to allow participants and communities greater choice and control when accessing disability support services.

The idea is that it should provide greater value and access to supports by allowing groups to pool their NDIS funding to purchase supports from a shared provider. You can use a CFP when the supports you want are not available locally, are too expensive, or are not good quality. A CFP can help to access NDIS services in remote areas.

A CFP can help to:

• attract specialist providers to your community,
• offer better NDIS value for money, by sharing costs with others, such as provider travel and accommodation and
• strengthen your buying power when purchasing NDIS supports.

How does a CFP work?

To use a CFP, you need to:

1. Find a group of people with similar support needs and form a group. For example, you could link in with other people who require an Allied Health Provider and attract a provider for (say) monthly visits to the area. You can have as many people as you like in the group.
2. Once supports are agreed on within the group, you will need to find quotes, choose a provider, and complete a service agreement for each person in the group. This way supports don’t end if an individual no longer requires that support.
3. Once supports are in place, you should monitor to make sure everyone is receiving the supports.

Can I Get More Help to Setup a Coordinated Funding Proposal?

LifeFul can provide more information, answer any questions, and provide direct support to help you investigate how a CFP can work for you. Our team is very experienced and has current knowledge of all the supports you need.

Contact your LifeFul Support Coordinator and/or Plan Manager on 1800 LIFEFUL to find out how we can help. You can also contact us here.

I sat down with Bethany Knight, a participant of the NDIS with Cerebral Palsy and discussed the challenges she faces within the workplace.

 

Amaya - I think, in some ways we've come such a long way, but I also feel that we’re still so far away from inclusivity and equality, just in terms of employment.

 

You are one of very few of my clients that are employed, and it is a goal for a lot of people. But I think that most workplaces are still so far behind with providing resources, opportunities, and training. Corporations need to put in place a commitment to invest in training for future employers and the staff they already have. Which is essential to work alongside and support people with various learning challenges, or physical challenges, as I see it. And that’s probably because it requires more money, more resources they must spend on someone. So, they're not willing to invest.

 

I have looked at seek ads that promote and encourage applicants from Culturally and Linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with a disability or first nations people to apply. But I always ask myself, what is the reality for a lot of places saying, “okay we'll take someone on, cognisant of the fact that we will have a few extra challenges, but on the other hand, because they have a completely different perspective on things, we can also tap into that. We can use this employee as a resource to communicate with other people and develop a workplace where everyone has something to offer.”

 

I feel like there's always room for it but it's just whether the businesses or organisations are willing to do what it takes. And I think that the money-making part of running a business still out ways the need for inclusivity. Our society hasn’t shifted nearly enough for this to become a reality.

 

Bethany- I think you're right in terms of people with disabilities and work. I would say from the get-go, service providers assume you're not working, so when I say, I need an appointment on a Thursday because that's my day off from work, people are like “Oh you work?” Most people are great about it but it's like, “Ummm no I'm not available all day every day to come in and see you at that time.” It makes it hard to arrange other appointments with your physio that you see every week when they change times on you. But you're right about workplaces. I mean I was open with my workplace about my CP when I applied for my graduate program, and it could have backfired. But they employed me anyway, or maybe they were just like “we can't not employ her because she's sort of disabled.” But still, it's been a fight to get simple equipment, even coming back from my surgery, which was a big surgery, multiple sides, multiple incisions, you know, two weeks in hospital. Then I got told no, you need to come back on-site, and I was like... “why? we worked from home for over 12 months during COVID-19” But I got told, they were trying to take away our desk space so I needed to come back in and work from the hospital. And I said, “but I'm not even confident I can walk from my car to the office”. It was weird, it was like I was talking to a brick wall, because it was like, how can you do this? I've told you what my physical issues are, I've told you what the procedure was and you’re still forcing this on me. Yeah, it was interesting. But then, low and behold, three weeks later, we are in lockdown again and it was like “okay everyone's back working from home.

 

I'm on the Accessibility Action Plan Committee, which is service-wide and I'm the token disability person, and they're trying to get more people from the community with lived experience of disability. It's been fascinating because you can see from an overarching point of view that there's a desire there to employ people with disabilities. But I’m thinking, how on earth can you do that. From a logistical point of view. And the hospital is nowhere near even considering it, because they ask me, “do you think, people with disabilities know how to get resources? or where to go for support in the workplace?”

 

And I'm like no! “I have been working here for 11 years and any support that I've got is only because I've gone to a manager who's been supportive and tried to help me get a chair or something that I needed”. But even getting something simple like a chair with arms to help me lever myself up or a stand-up desk, took like six months, and that was a really basic request. I had to get documentation for a chair, which is just ridiculous. And now they're like, oh maybe everyone should just get stand-up desks. and I'm like, Well, yeah, maybe they should. you're going to have fewer injuries statistically. Give people a workplace from the get-go that is open to having resources provided to their staff. Don't wait for them to get injured or wait for them to tell you they've got a disability before it's offered.

 

Even simple things like the hospital pathways are not suitable, which blows my mind for a hospital. I can't wait to tell them about my opinion at the next meeting. For example, the pathways will go from being a concrete path, then all of a sudden it goes to a sandy pathway and then nothing at all, and if you want to cross to the other side of the road where the pathway continues you have to cross a road with no crossing or lights. So, if you are a wheelchair user or anyone parking in the back car park, to get to the hospital or the mental health ward, you've got pathways chopping and changing, uneven ground and it's a real problem for accessibility in general, which is ridiculous, given it's a hospital. So not only are there going to be disabled people but there’s also going to be people post-surgery or with walking aids.

 

It annoys me every time I walk around that side of the hospital. There's no safe place. It's stuff like that. If the workplace isn't accessible from the outside, just to the general public, how is that going to be for people with disabilities? The is a lot of work they must do, to make the workplace inclusive. I mean I know they were having a big discussion about what to put on the job descriptions to encourage people with disabilities to apply, like you said, don’t say it if you can’t off them the right kind of support.

 

I think one of the goals of the plan was to hire people with intellectual disabilities. I was like, “okay, but to do what? And who's going to support them? because you can't just be like, sure we'll employ these people with really diverse needs who potentially haven't worked before and then give the managers no additional training or have no support structure in place for the people that you employ”. So, I mean I'm very supportive of the workplace being more inclusive but I'm conscious of the fact that you don't want somebody dropped into a situation where they're not going to thrive. And, I think, from a personal point of view, people with disabilities don't want their employment to be tokenistic. I don’t want an organisation to just tick off the diversity box and say “yes, she’s our disabled employee”, you know like, that's not cool. You want to be employed because you know your role is meaningful and that you're the best applicant, not just because you have a disability. But that's my personal view though, I don’t want to speak for anyone else.

TTP stands for Temporary Transformation Payment. It was designed by the NDIS to assist providers with transitional costs and to fully implement the scheme without impacting the quality of services being delivered to participants.

 

Many disability providers have successfully transitioned over to the NDIS; however, it certainly hasn’t been without its fair share of hiccups along the way. Transitions are never easy, especially ones of this size. The NDIS is the largest social change since the introduction of Medicare in the 1970s!   

 

NDIS Registered providers are subjected to the highest level of auditing, quality and safeguarding and strict NDIS Practice Standards. In recognition of this premium level of service and safety, the NDIS allows a higher Support Worker rate.

 

The TTP rate for the remainder of 2021 and 2022 is set at 4.5 % above the standard NDIS Support Worker hourly Rate. Over the next five years it is due to fall by 1.5% each year until the rate is no longer available.

 

LifeFul has been a TTP registered provider since March 2021. LifeFul receives the TTP rate as published in the NDIS Pricing Arrangement and Price limits (also known as the Price Guide) for supports provided in the community and in -home; in a variety of delivery settings. We offer highly skilled support staff for participants living independently in their own home, in a group or shared home environment, and in SIL and SDA setting. Currently, LifeFul have a Medium-Term Accommodation (MTA) housing option and have commenced our first Supported Independent Living (SIL) arrangement.

 

Please note that the TTP has no impact on the rates that we charge for Plan Management, Support Coordination or Therapeutic Services.

 

This is an exciting time as the organisation grows and develops its services to support more and more people … in the ways they choose to be supported. And to make sure all of our clients Live Life on their own Terms.

I sat down with Bethany Knight, a participant of the NDIS with Cerebral Palsy and discussed openly her upbringing with disability.

 

Bethany:
My mother was a kindergarten teacher for 35 years. So, she was very aware I guess when I wasn't meeting my milestones, you know, crawling and walking. But it took until I was two to be officially diagnosed because apparently, they like to wait until you do walk for the first time to make these kinds of assessments but that was many years ago. So, she knew I was different, obviously, but also, she was used to dealing with children who had disabilities and parents within the school systems who had children with different challenges.

My parents dedicated a lot of time to my allied health supports such as Occupational Therapy and such, but also, my mother would advocate at school for me, not to be excluded from things or make me feel different. I wasn't coddled. She would say to my teachers, "just be aware and keep her safe". I mean sometimes that didn't happen. One time we were playing "what's the time Mr. Wolf" and there were like 45 kids running and I got bumped and I fell over and broke my arm. So, my mum was like, "Okay well maybe don't let her do that.... but include her in things she can participate in".

My parents made physio fun and part of everyday activities really, so it wasn't a chore, but something I enjoyed, but also presented the idea to me, which I think is important for people with disabilities or anyone with any type of issues,
I'd say, and I now say this to my clients sometimes,
"just because you have a mental health struggle or whatever,
doesn't give you the right to be a crappy human.
Everyone has their stuff going on, but it's still not okay to talk to me like that."
I think sometimes kids with disabilities get a bit entitled and a bit coddled, and that's not helpful for them as humans, because life isn't easy, you know, for anyone, sometimes you get special treatment but not all the time. Life is hard and you must learn to manage that.

 

I consider myself lucky because of how I was raised. A client of mine with a mild intellectual disability was becoming unwell and she knew about my physical disabilities. I remember her saying to her doctor one time,

 

"look at Beth, look at what she can do because she got help when she was young. If I had had help when I was young, my life could have been very different."

 

She was older than me, I think at that point she was in her late 30s and she had really low literacy skills, and could do basic thinks for herself, and she was interested in employment, and she had life prospects, wanted to have a baby, but she hadn't met anybody and didn't feel like she could. It was really sad, and she acknowledges that if perhaps she'd had early intervention, rather than struggle through school and life. She could have had a life with meaning and purpose and achieved some of her goals of work and having a family.

But my parents were amazing. When I got into nursing, when I said that's what I want to do, we didn't know if it would work out. My orthopedic surgeon at the time said no, don't do it, you will get too tired, but he couldn't stop me. He could have said, "Well, if it makes you tired, you will just have to manage it" you know? Luckily, my mum and dad said that “if you can get into your course then we will pay for your first year of university, and we will just see how you go and at the end of that first year if it's too much, or it's too hard, that's okay.

 

We will just look at other interests of yours and other opportunities,
but for now, give this ago.
Make sure you stick it out, don't quit.
You must commit to it.”

The first year of the nursing degree also had a placement that gave me some practical skills and allowed me to know if I was going to be able to handle it. And so, my parents didn't just dismiss me and think it was just going to be too much for me. Whereas I think that could have easily been the case, you know, if I didn't have parents who thought, "We think she's got capacity and can judge yourself and she has been known to be able to do lots of other stuff people thought she wouldn't be able to do." I mean, looking back with what I know now, and how the medical system works, if someone had said to me: you can still do what you want and do a job that is caring for people and supporting them through tough times, but you could maybe do social work. That would have been a less physical job. That would have been good for me, but I didn't have that understanding and awareness then. So now I've kind of moved into a nursing role that takes a lot less fine motor skill. But yeah, it's tough when people don't get the support and opportunities as I did.