Chairperson and Executive Officer Report
During 2019, CLP’s focus has remained strongly on offering support and connection for people with disability, alongside their family members, to build good lives as valued and contributing citizens in their local community.
In the last year, we have met many new families and learned of their challenges in securing support that is truly individualised and relevant to the person’s vision for their life.Our efforts have been in helping people to better articulate their needs and review their current supports, so that they can actively work toward their personal goals.
This year has seen the final transition of the people we have supported for many years from State-based funding to the NDIS. Through our investment in pre-planning support, most people received plans with equivalent or increased support funding, while the small number of people who received less funding have been assisted to access a plan review. Growth of around 50 new families during 2019 has been resourced through extensions to existing staff roles, primarily in the area of Support Coordination.
Individually targeted recruitment has enabled us to take on around 75 new support workers. Our challenge is to continue to grow sustainably in a manner that is coherent with our Mission and values, while safeguarding the trusting relationships we have developed with current families.
Every new plan creates the opportunity to re-evaluate how each person’s support can best be shaped for the future.
Supported Living assists people to live independently in the community.
Self-directed Support helps to build the capacity of people and their family to recruit and direct their own workers, building choice, control and flexibility.
Circles Initiative continues to work in partnership with each person to build freely given relationships.
Micro Enterprise helps to craft a new career option by providing support to people to establish their own enterprise. A goal for the year ahead is to build greater awareness of micro enterprise and support more people through personal discovery.
There remain many challenges as we navigate NDIS-land. Many families remain confused and anxious around planning processes and levels of funding. Delayed reviews and simple plan errors cause further
distress, compounded by lack of direct access to NDIA planners. An inordinate amount of time is spent by staff chasing plan errors on behalf of families, while long delays by externalPlan Managers in processing claims compounds difficulty in recouping outstanding debts. The complexity of compliance with NDIS safeguarding requirements pose key challenges to CLP, with significant preparation being undertaken this year for our NDIS Commission Verification Audit.
We continue to work through a challenging transition to a cloudbased system to automate processing of payroll and invoicing. To offset this, ongoing shaping of the NDIS offers cause for optimism in 2020. Increased funding in individual plans to allow for significant price increases from July is assisting CLP with the financial transition pressures felt over the last two financial years.
We are staying closely in touch with the creation of Independent Living Options, based on WA models of 1:1 support to help people live in their own home. Revised Supported Employment options offer the
prospect of greater flexibility for innovation such as through Micro Enterprise. We have seen a few 2-year plans being approved, while a new ‘participant process’ (where the plan is explained to the family prior to finalisation) is being rolled out; both of these initiatives are a step in the right direction.
We are extremely grateful for the ongoing support of Wyatt Benevolent Fund for Micro Enterprise, and also thank the Thyne Reid Foundation for supporting us to build further capacity under the NDIS environment.
We continue to partner with Purple Orange in offering values training and benefit from close research ties with University of SA, Flinders University and the Centre for Disability Employment, Research and Practice (CDERP).
Our sincere thanks go to the fantastic staff of this organisation at every level of service delivery and administration for their dedication and flexibility through the transition period, with grateful appreciation also to our senior managers for their leadership. We acknowledge and sincerely thank all our Board members, welcoming Helen Neale and Michael Mooney for their first terms of office, and thank Darrin Hepworth for his support to CLP and the CLP Trust.
Most importantly, we thank every CLP family for your continued trust and look forward to the year ahead.
Caroline Ellison, Chairperson
Prue Gorman, Executive Officer
