Students will be required to identify a problem, improvement or new initiative in one of the two Policy areas studied in class, and develop a Policy Proposal Briefing Paper that could be presented to an agency or government department Director, or Ministerial staff, to address this identified issue. 

The Policy Paper will be expected to propose a program or service or policy in response to the issue, how the policy could be implemented, the positive outcomes anticipated, any barriers and constraints that might be relevant, what resources would be required in the implementation process, how the policy could fit within government programs, any staffing implications, reporting processes, policy evaluation and what are the expected deliverables. 

Note: The Policy Proposal Briefing will not be in the form of an essay. The writing and referencing style will need to be appropriate to the assignment task. Whilst it is not usual to reference policy briefing papers, as this is an academic exercise you will need to reference where appropriate and provide a reference listing as well.

Issue

For the purpose of the paper, the reviewed public policy is the 'National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013'. Through this act Australia's obligations towards the people with disabilities is exhibited. The act provides National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) which replaces Disability care in Australia. The act ensures social and economic independence of disable in the country. However, through this report it is advocated that the effectiveness of the policy in the changing terrain of disability support is not comprehensive within the country. The NDIS provides access to education for people, along with other social and economic initiatives, yet, it is argued that there is a lack of integrated support to this community through this measure alone (Whitburn et al. 2017). Furthermore, this policy is recognized as fragmented, which restricts the people from achieving its full benefits. These challenges are further studied through this briefing paper.

Background

Policy details

Passed on n 21 March 2013 by federal parliament, the NDIS policy is managed by the NDIS Launch Transition Agency. The agency is responsible for the innovation in the disability sector at Barwon region of Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Hunter Valley in New South Wales (Porter, 2015). The focus of the agency is also to enable awareness about disability in the community. Through this program the original intent was to introduce the referral services and activities for people with disabilities. Also funding for assisting the people with disabilities is provided through this program (Porter, 2015).

 Individual plans for different necessary for scheme participants is also provided as per this plan. In addition, the act provides provisions to the children and nominees for the participant. Furthermore, the act ensures confidentiality of the participants, and focus towards enabling opportunities for the disabled community in the country (Whitburn et al. 2017). The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is governed and funded by the Australian, and participating state and territory governments (Buckamaster, 2017). Since its introduction in 2016, the NDIS offers individualised support to the disabled participants in the form of health, education and housing support (Buckamaster, 2017). These members are also provided a positive community association through providing access to the sports clubs and libraries, in addition to the informal support to their family and the carers (Porter, 2015). Yet, despite the consideration of the policy, the NDIS is not means tested, but a demand-driven scheme (Buckamaster, 2017).

(Some parts of the solution has been blurred due to privacy protection policy)