The handing down of the Disability Royal Commission’s landmark report represents a line in the sand for ending the widespread discrimination and violence that people with a disability experience every day in Australia.  

Through almost 2000 public and private hearings, people with disability and carers delivered at times harrowing evidence, painting a disturbing picture of widespread violence, discrimination and human rights violations.

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From July 1, 2023:

The age of children supported under the early childhood approach will progressively change from 7 to include children younger than 9.

What the change means: Broadly, the change has been made to reflect international understandings of young children as those under 9 years of age. For some children the change will mean greater continuity of care in the first years of school as they remain with their Early Childhood Partner until age 9 rather than 7.

What the change doesn’t mean: Many professionals are aware that children under 7 can access the NDIS through the Early Childhood Approach without a formal diagnosis. There have been misunderstandings that the new age change will mean children may access the scheme in this way up until the age of 9. This is not the case. It is critical that children with no formal diagnosis are referred before their sixth birthday as they will not meet the NDIS developmental delay criteria beyond six years of age. There is no change to the NDIS eligibility requirements or the definition of developmental delay under the early intervention requirements (s25 of the NDIS Act).

For more information, visit the NDIS website or contact the Early Childhood Partner in your community.

Need help supporting a family through the NDIS process? Access an easy-to-read guide for professionals here.

Women with disability experience significantly more violence and abuse than their nondisabled peers. Efforts to implement, evaluate, and scale-up strategies to prevent violence against women are rapidly expanding, but we know less about “what works” to prevent violence against women with disability. While secondary and tertiary prevention aim to identify violence early and prevent further occurrence, this review focuses on primary prevention.

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Curtin University is conducting a research project to improve understandings of disability and family violence to enhance services available to mothers and their children with disability.

Practitioners who have worked with mothers of children with disability who have experiences of family violence are invited to participate in this survey, which seeks to understand how they are supported by family violence services and/or disability services, and what impact having a child with disability has on experiences of family violence.

The survey is online, anonymous and takes up to 30 minutes to complete.

Click here to access the survey

The Disability Royal Commission (‘Royal Commission’) has contracted Taylor Fry and the Centre for International Economics (CIE) to cost violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation (‘maltreatment’) experienced by people with disability in Australia.

This report documents the project’s findings in line with our agreed scope of work.

Specifically this includes:

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This report was compiled to inform the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. It presents data on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, queer and asexual (LGBTQA+) people with disability in Australia. These data are from two large national online surveys, Writing Themselves In 4 and Private Lives 3, which were conducted in 2019. Writing Themselves In 4 focused on young people aged 14-21 years and Private Lives 3 focused on adults aged 18 years and older.

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