An independent review into the NDIS portal failure that led thousands of participants to have payments fail or be delayed has found the national rollout was under-prepared and went live before it was ready.
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The PwC report was released on Friday as federal, state and territory ministers agreed the Commonwealth would establish an independent complaints and serious incidents system to speed up help to those with a disability.
The review into the mass failures since the myplace online portal went live on July 1 found the information and communications technology implementation "ran out of time" to fully complete necessary activities and proceeded knowing there were risks of serious problems.
"However, the change effort and overall program was under-resourced and underprepared in order to provide the accurate and timely support required by participants and providers when faced with ICT challenges," the review concluded.
Minister for Social Services Christian Porter reached an agreement with six jurisdictions, including the ACT, in Sydney on Friday for a new national framework for quality and standards for service delivery to those with a disability.
"This framework has been two and a half years in development, so agreement in its final form is a very significant and positive step forward for the NDIS," he said.
"The review shows there was no single system failure – rather, the frustrating ICT issues arose from a series of compounding events, linked to deficiencies in the NDIA's governance, operations, change management and communication."
In addition to the complaints and serious incidents system, Mr Porter and his state and territory counterparts – who agreed the impact and scale of recent issues was "unacceptable" – agreed to set up an NDIS Code of Conduct and a national registrar for service providers.
It followed major moves by Mr Porter on Wednesday to order the NDIA to establish an NDIS transition management team to address all outstanding portal issues and participant plan approval targets, and the appointing of a chief operating officer to oversee operational matters during the transition.
ACT Disability, Aged and Carer Advocacy Service chief executive Fiona May said the ACT trial of the portal rollout prior to July 1 with just six participants and their providers was "completely inadequate".
Mr Porter's Wednesday moves continued to fail to address the significant stress and amount of time self managed participants had to spend, "and from what I can see, are still having to spend" to use the portal, she said.
The advocacy body for disability services providers welcomed the "encouraging" response by the minister to increase resources on Wednesday.
National Disability Services chief executive Dr Ken Baker said providers needed to be consulted on the system design.
"We ask Minister Porter to establish an NDIS Technical Advisory Group drawn from people with expertise in the non-government disability sector to provide ongoing advice to the agency and the government about matters pertaining to the portal," he said.
More than 15,000 people had been deemed eligible for the scheme nationally since July 1, nearly 80 per cent of the first quarter target, with more than 4000 people of these in the planning process and more than 1600 people with approved plans.
The successful claims rate was now 96 per cent, up from 70 per cent for many weeks in July, Mr Porter said.
