State to test rival models of NDIS delivery

A WA trial of the National Disability Insurance Scheme will operate in competition with a federal model to determine which works.

A DECENTRALISED West Australian trial of the national disability insurance scheme will operate in parallel and in competition with a commonwealth model to determine which works best.

Both trials start on July 1. The WA version, My Way, will be based in the lower southwest of the state; the commonwealth model will run in the Perth Hills. “What’s really important is for the first time these people will get the reasonable and necessary supports as an entitlement,” the state’s Mental Health Minister, Helen Morton, said yesterday.

Premier Colin Barnett agreed to the trials last year after initially resisting because of concerns that decision-making under Canberra’s model was too centralised.

Both trials will be evaluated over the next two years by the University of Adelaide. Ms Morton said the model adopted would be the one that provided the most efficient, effective services to people with a disability, and could be a hybrid of the two trials. Seventy per cent of disability services in WA are delivered by not-for-profit organisations. The government says this caters to individual needs. By contrast, Mr Barnett said, the NDIS model was based on “centralised management and control”.