Amaze announced as member of NDIS Autism Advisory Group

Amaze has announced it is a member of the newly established Autism Advisory Group for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, along with our colleagues from Autistic Self Advocacy Network of Australia & New Zealand, Autism CRC, AAB-ASD and the Australian Autism Alliance.
We will continue to advocate to ensure the needs of all autistic people are met from the NDIS and receive the support and services they need.

The advisory group has been established to provide advice and feedback to the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
The creation of the group group reflects the NDIA’s commitment to working with key stakeholders and experts who support autistic people.
A statement from the Ministers for the Department of Social Services says the establishment of the advisory group is consistent with the Government’s commitment to a fact-based collaborative approach to issues related to autism and the NDIS and the NDIA’s unequivocal commitment to delivering quality outcomes for all people with autism, both children and adults.
Among the issues the advisory group will be asked to discuss are:

• The increased prevalence of autism within the Australian population, as reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics;
• The work, funded by the NDIA, but undertaken independently by the Autism CRC to develop a set of best-practice diagnostic guidelines. This work has been submitted to the National Health and Medical Research Council for review;
• The relevance of the new PEDI-CAT (ASD) as a functional assessment tool in the Australian context;
• The NDIA’s proposal, as part of its Participant Pathway work, for an independent third party to undertake a pilot to assess which functional assessment tools are most appropriate to assist making eligibility assessments for the NDIS. There will be no cost to individuals seeking access to the scheme from the proposed pilot;
• Whether functional assessment tools can assist with defining the necessary supports for participants to have a better life;
• The best approach to delivering autism services for eligible NDIS participants and children who receive ECEI services, within the context of broader mainstream autism services.