A great source of pride for AFDO has been our advocacy for reforms which enable people with disability to shape how they live their own lives.

The reform of disability services to meet the needs of consumers has been a key focus since the very beginning of AFDO. We believe that choice and control should rest in the hands of the very people using the disability system – people with disability themselves. AFDO’s leadership, coupled with a united approach by the disability consumer sector, was key to the introduction of legislation for a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) – a scheme enabling people with disability to make their own informed choices about their lives, the supports they need and where these supports will be accessed from.

We have launched the AFDO Disability Loop website which has up-to-date information on the NDIS. The AFDO Disability Loop website can be accessed at Disability Loop.

Over the last five years, our representation on behalf of people with disability has included:

• Policy papers on the role of people with disability in the NDIS

• Contribution to the design work of the NDIS through representation on two expert groups: Choice & Control and Assessment & Eligibility

• Advice at roundtables on topics including assessment, co-design, market force, social capital and meeting the needs of people with disability aged 65 or greater

• Submissions to the Productivity Commission inquiry, draft NDIS legislation, regulatory impact statement and the NDIS rules and guidelines

• Collaboration with consumer and advocacy organisations to develop a united voice calling for the legislation of a National Disability Insurance Scheme.

• Lead consultations of people with disability and other stakeholders to seek their views about the NDIS, with views submitted to the NDIS Taskforce to inform NDIS development

• A founding member of the National Disability and Carer Alliance with National Disability Services and Carers Australia – an Alliance which continues today

• Advice and support of consumer organisations on a number of roundtables organised by the NDCA looking at the experiences and specific needs of people with disability from rural and remote communities; people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; people from non-English speaking backgrounds; people with cognitive disabilities and people in the mental health system

• Responsibility for disbursing small grants to other organisations for specialist work on the NDIS

• Presentations to the disability sector, families and the public including a presentation at the
  Adaptive Leadership Symposium on leadership change in disability in 2013-2014

• Expert advice to the NDIS National Research Roundtable, attended by 40 researchers, in 2013-14 to development a framework for disability research

• Response to the Terms of Reference for the Select Committee Inquiry into DisabilityCare Australia (now known as the NDIS)

• Meeting with Mal Brough, Chair of the NDIS Standing Committee and Jenny Macklin, Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS

• Briefing to the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS in 2013-14 by Matthew Wright, CEO

• Ongoing conversations with the National Disability Insurance Agency to ensure that the rollout of the NDIS reflects the needs and aspirations of people with disability and remains on track.