The Queensland Government has issued public health directions that affect all providers in South-East Queensland, including those delivering supports in disability accommodation settings.
Key points
- South-East Queensland is entering a three-day lockdown from 4pm AEST on Saturday 31 July 2021. These restrictions will be in place until 4pm AEST on Tuesday 3 August 2021.
- Disability support workers are classified as essential workers.
- There is specific advice that applies to residential disability settings.
- Notify the NDIS Commission of any significant changes to services or supports as a result of the new restrictions.
- NDIS providers should review their outbreak management and business continuity plans, and take steps to prevent the risk of infection of NDIS participants and workers.
- Information and support to access COVID-19 vaccinations should be facilitated, to both NDIS participants and workers.
Updated Health Directions
The Queensland Government has imposed a three-day lockdown in South-East Queensland, from 4pm AEST on Saturday 31 July 2021. These restrictions will be in place until 4pm AEST on Tuesday 3 August 2021.
The impacted Local Government Areas(LGAs) are:
- Brisbane City
- Moreton Bay Regional Council
- Gold Coast
- Ipswich
- Lockyer Valley Regional Council
- Logan City
- Noosa Shire Council
- Redland City
- Scenic Rim Regional Council
- Somerset Regional Council
- Sunshine Coast Regional Council.
We encourage you to read the full details on the Queensland Government website.
Please ensure that you, your workers and the people with disability that you support understand what these changes are, and how they affect the supports and services you deliver.
Please ensure that you, your workers and the people with disability that you support understand what these changes are, and how they affect the supports and services you deliver.
Disability workers are essential workers
Disability workers are classified as essential workers under these restrictions, and should continue providing supports to people with disability, where possible, in accordance with the restrictions.
If you support people with disability who live alone, make contact with them to ensure they have everything they need to stay at home safely. Offer assistance if they need it.
Directions for residential disability settings
There are visitor restrictions and PPE requirements in place for residential disability settings in the impacted LGAs. These directions restrict visitors from entering these services and requires the wearing of face masks for those permitted access to these services (excluding residents).
We encourage you to read the full details on the Queensland Government website, including further information and Q&As on the Disability Accommodation Services information page.
As these restrictions will impact your visitor management policy, you should clearly communicate this temporary change with the NDIS participants you support and their support networks using their preferred form of communication. You should explore alternative ways for people with disability to connect with their support network, such as phone or video calls.
Notification of changes or events
You must notify the NDIS Commission of any change or event that significantly affects your ability to comply with any of your conditions of registration, including compliance with the NDIS Practice Standards. You must use the COVID-19 notification of events form to report these changes.
Your requirements to notify the NDIS Commission of reportable incidents under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Incident Management and Reportable Incidents) Rules 2018 are separate from the COVID-19 notification of changes or events and remain unchanged.
Outbreak preparedness
Registered NDIS providers have obligations to have outbreak management and business continuity plans which:
- identify which supports are critical for the health, wellbeing and safety of a person with disability
- identify and assess risks to people you support, your workers and to the organisation, and implement controls to mitigate these.
For guidance on preventing and managing COVID-19 outbreaks in disability residential settings, please refer to the Communicable Diseases Network Australia’s (CDNA) disability supplement.
Additionally, the NDIS Commission’s fact sheet on outbreak preparedness provides information on preparing for, preventing and managing an outbreak in disability settings.
You should consider the following as part of your emergency planning and preparedness:
- review and update your emergency plans, including arrangements to ensure that you meet your obligations to maintain continuity of support to NDIS participants
- outline workforce contingency plans in the event of an outbreak
- set up an outbreak management team with an incident controller
- establish a COVID-19 incident reporting process.
Supporting participants
- Continue to provide support to people with disability to have safe community access for essential supports (such as exercising, essential shopping, accessing the COVID-19 vaccine, or attending medical appointments).
- Identify any participants who have advance care or healthcare or support plans, and keep a copy.
- If any participants are at higher risk, prepare a hospital bag with things they might need for an overnight stay.
Infection control
- Implement standard infection control precautions throughout all work places.
- Ensure all your workers are familiar with and practice sound infection control, physical distancing and hygiene practices throughout all work places.
- Ensure all workers have been trained and have had refreshers on infection control and use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
- Undertake a stocktake of PPE and consumables to ensure you have adequate PPE stock in the event of a confirmed or suspected infection.
- Source additional supplies if necessary.
- Plan for increased environmental cleaning.
- Develop an appropriate isolation approach, should one become necessary.
- Minimise staff working across multiple sites.
Communications
- Establish communication channels to keep your workforce informed.
- Review strategies for communicating with participants and their support networks.
Promoting access to COVID-19 Vaccinations
Information about access to COVID-19 vaccinations should be promoted, to both the NDIS participants you support and your workers.
Supporting NDIS participants to access COVID-19 vaccinations
Our provider alert of 9 June 2021 contained resources to help you to support them to understand the vaccination process and to provide informed consent.
Our fact sheet, called ‘COVID-19 Vaccines: Informed consent, preparing for the vaccine, and restrictive practices’, aims to assist NDIS providers to better understand their obligations when supporting people with disability to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Australian Government Department of Health (Department of Health) has published an information page on their website for people with disability about COVID-19 vaccines. This page contains important information for providers and participants about COVID-19 vaccines, and will be updated regularly. A range of Easy Read and Auslan resources about the COVID-19 vaccines are also available. We strongly encourage you to visit these resources and share them with the people with disability that you support.
Vaccination advice and information for disability workers
The Department of Health issued a Disability Provider Alert on 12 July 2021. This alert contained strong encouragement from National Cabinet for all disability workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, to protect your own health and the health of the people with disability you support.
We encourage you to read the full details in the alert.
The Department of Health has dedicated information pages for disability service providers about COVID-19 vaccines.
The Department of Health will continue to update the information on these pages, so we strongly encourage you to visit these pages regularly.
NDIS Commission COVID-19 information and resources
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) information webpage on the NDIS Commission website contains links to updates, training, alerts and other resources.
We also have a COVID-19 webpage containing information for people with disability, and a webpage of frequently asked questions about COVID-19 for all stakeholders.
