Below find our latest legal webinar, supporting NDIS Providers to be not only successful but ensuring you don't have any nasty legal surprises.
- Legal aspects to consider
- Legal and business considerations
- Risk and insurance
- Reporting obligations
- What makes a good SIL Provider in practice
What is a SIL or Supported Independent Living?
Supported Independent Living (SIL) is a type of NDIS support.
It was previously funded under Core Supports in an NDIS plan, but now falls under Home and Living Suppports under the new NDIS PACE system.
Participants are usually funded for SIL if they have more complex needs. SIL provides help and/ or supervision of daily tasks to NDIS participants live as independently as possible, while building their skills.
SIL is usually delivered:
- in a Participant's home where they live alone
- in a group or share home
- together with Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA)
It is very important to note that SIL funding does not cover the cost of accommodation. There is often confusion here.
SIL and Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) can sometimes go hand in hand, but just because a Participant has SIL funding does not mean they will have SDA funding as well.
SIl can happen in several ways: ○ In a participants own home; ○ In a group or shared home; or ○ In conjunction with specialist disability
Key Legal Aspects to consider
When starting out as a SIL provider, it is crucial to get an understanding of the legal and regulatory landscape.
Leasing or rental considerations when delivering SIL
- Primary Lease: If you are entering into a lease for a property that will be used as a SIL house, you should have the lease reviewed to ensure that you can use the rental property as a SIL House.
- Agreements with tenants: You also need to ensure that you have the correct agreements prepared to use with the participants living in the house.
The type of agreements needed may vary depending on the number of participants in each house and the state in which you are providing the services.
It is important that you are aware of the participant’s rights under the relevant residential tenancies law as well as your rights to terminate and evict a participant if the SIL arrangement is not working.
- Registration: In addition, in some states you may also need to register as a rooming or boarding house.
- Service agreements: Legal Vision generally recommends 2 agreements.
In addition to any accommodation agreement that you may have with the participant, it is best practice to have a service agreement setting out the agreed roster of supports.
You also need to decide whether you will be invoicing daily or weekly and have a plan in place for irregular supports.
Other Legal Considerations
Conflicts
You may also need to consider whether you have to disclose conflicts of interest (if providing both SDA and SIL).
Subcontracting
If you are choosing to use subcontractors, you need to ensure that your agreement with any subcontractor sets out clear obligations and KPIs that the subcontractor needs to meet.
You should also check that the subcontractor uses appropriately qualified staff, is provided with handover notes and agree to follow your policies and procedures in relation to incident reporting and management.
The agreement should also cover things like indemnities and insurance to protect yourself if the subcontractor should make a mistake. If you are a registered provider using unregistered subcontractors, you remain liable.
Privacy
You need to be aware of your privacy obligations and data retention obligations.
You need to be proactive and prepare for this. May also need to keep a register.
You also need to ensure that you have procedures in place to collect informed consent from the participant or their representatives before disclosing their personal information to other providers.
It is also important to ensure that your subcontractors deal and use personal and sensitive information according to all applicable privacy laws.
You also need to familiarise yourselves with the laws in your state. For example, in Victoria, all disability providers also have to comply with the Health Records Act.
Dispute resolution and complaints process
You need to ensure that you have a robust internal process to deal with complaints and dispute resolution.
This includes both in relation to participants and with any third party providers you may use.
You also need to ensure you have policies in place to help resolve disputes between participants that may be sharing a home.
Reporting Obligations
All providers have mandatory reporting obligations. Some states have additional obligations in relation to children.
Restrictive practices and positive behaviour supports
All providers should be aware of the requirement to report any unauthorised use of restrictive practices to the NDIS Commission.
If you are a registered provider, providing supports to a participant that has a PBSP in place which includes restrictive practices, you need to ensure that you are across all regulatory requirements – at both the NDIS and state level.
Some states, have additional mandatory legislation dealing with restrictive practices.
What makes a successful SIL Provider
SIL is one of the most complex services to offer in the NDIS.
To deliver SIL successfully you will need to balance the needs of the business, your obligations, your client needs, and staff support.
The rewards for you as a business may be significant, but so are the risks. This means you need to be skilled at service delivery, compliance AND the human element of creating a community
The Key to success is being PREPARED and in the planning upfront. Getting SIL clients can be a lengthy process as it has many steps to success. It can be complex and take between 6-12 months to:
- gather customer interest
- find the right house
- match participants/housemates
- complete the risk review
- transition participants into a SIL environment
Considerations when finding SIL clients
- Understand your client's needs, goals and aspirations.
- Engage with all the stakeholders: Participants, Support Coordinators, LAC, planner, family, parents, guardians, doctors, clinicians/therapists. It will take a team to do this well.
- Understand the risk environment: ensure your onboarding process includes a proper risk assessment for your client.
- Ensure you have as much information as you need to make a good match: You will assessments/reports from clinicians, GP.
- Shared risk culture: consider what will your client accept as a risk and what will you as an organisation accept. What is the appropriate level of risk to take?
- Consider that you are creating communities: housemates need to be compatible and should be given opportunities to meet before moving in - orgnanise a coffee/meet in the park.
- Matching of people is more an art than a science: make sure you are matching interests and needs.
Key business considerations:
- Staffing: Contractors v employed staff.
- Staff training; One client said: This takes an “extreme level of management”.
- Find tools that help the process: Rostering tools that consider awards, penalties, staff break, and staff burnout. Some tools have algorithms that you can set.
- Marketing: Invest in a team that builds your pipeline: if it takes 6-12 months then you need to manage expectations
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