It’s a new financial year, which means changes to some key regulatory arrangements.
(1) Annual Wage Review 2022
In its Annual Wage Review 2021-2022 Decision issued in June 2022, the Fair Work Commission announced, amongst other things, an increase to minimum award wages. The increase takes effect from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2022.
For more information about this and other 1 July 2022 changes, see the summary by the Fair Work Ombudsman. The updated Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (Award) is available from the Fair Work Ombudsman, as is the Pay Guide for the Award.
We’re pleased to release our newly revised Australian employment agreement templates for Australian speech pathologists for full-time, part-time and casual employees incorporating the new Award SLP graduate rates and the increased allowance for vehicle use by employees. Click on an image below to download a template.
(2) NDIS Pricing Arrangement and Price Limits 2022-23, and NDIS Emergency and Disaster Management Plan Framework
On 22 June 2022, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) published pricing arrangements for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in its NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2022-23 (Pricing Arrangements), to take effect on 1 July 2022.
Amongst other things, the NDIA modified the definition of short notice cancellation in the Pricing Arrangements, effectively requiring an NDIS participant to give an NDIS provider at least seven clear days’ notice of the cancellation of a support.
In the event of a short notice cancellation, an NDIS provider is able to claim 100% of the agreed fee associated with the support from the NDIS participant’s plan, provided that all of the following conditions are met:
- the Pricing Arrangements set out that NDIS providers can claim for short notice cancellations in relation to the relevant support item; and
- the proposed charges for the activities comply with the Pricing Arrangements; and
- the service agreement between the NDIS provider and NDIS participant specifies that short notice cancellations can be claimed; and
- the NDIS provider was not able to find alternative billable work for the relevant worker and was required to pay the worker for the time that would have been spent providing the support.
We’ve updated our NDIS Service Agreement and NDIS Provider and Health Provider Booking and Cancellation Policy templates to reflect the changes in the Pricing Arrangements with respect to short notice cancellations.
Our revised NDIS Service Agreement also incorporates references to the new NDIS practice standard relating to emergency and disaster management, and we have a new Emergency and Disaster Management Plan Framework.
Disclaimer: we have done our best to ensure that this article is correct as at the date of publication (6 July 2022). It may not reflect any changes to the Award, Pricing Arrangements or other NDIS rules or guidelines after the date of publication. The article is intended to provide general information and is not legal advice. Formal legal and/or accounting advice should be sought for particular circumstances and transactions, or for matters arising from this article.
Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.
Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language
Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.
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