Training and Support for Consumer Technical Experts

Overview

A consumer technical expert (CTE) is defined in the NDIS (Approved Quality Auditor Scheme) Guidelines 2018 (the Guidelines) as, ‘a person with disability who has the training, experience and skills to be involved in the audit team’. The Guidelines are underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which is intended to uphold the rights of people with disability. To support this, the Guidelines make consumer technical experts (CTEs), or people with disability, part of the audit process as members of an AQA audit team. The NDIS Commission is focusing efforts to grow a suitably trained and skilled CTE workforce, delivering on the commitment to routinely include CTEs in AQA audit teams. This in turn will drive improvements in quality, safety, and innovation in the provision of NDIS services and supports to NDIS participants. In particular, the NDIS Commission is interested in approaches that develop the capacity of people with disability to undertake CTE roles on audit teams of AQAs in accordance with the Guidelines, for the purposes of the Rules. The intent of this grant is to further this purpose by seeding the establishment of a skilled pool of CTEs representatives of the NDIS population. It is proposed that the CTE pool can then be drawn upon on an as-needed basis by AQAs as a usual part of composing audit teams to undertake a NDIS audit process. The CTE model will be co-designed with people with disability and based on best evidence and practice.