July 1^st saw the official rollout of the NDIS for around 2000 young people living in the Penrith and Blue Mountains areas, a year ahead of schedule. Every Australian Counts celebrated with a kick-off event that had thousands attending or watching the event online.

The same day also marked two years since the NDIS was launched in the Hunter and while there are still adjustments needed to cater to everyone’s different and specific needs, feedback from participants has shown the scheme to be working well. Maitland residents with disability are the next to join those already in the Hunter trial site.

Other trial sites hitting the two-year mark are those in Barwon, for kids under 14 in South Australia and for young people in Tasmania.

And the NDIS has also now been operational in the ACT, Barkley and Perth Hills for a year .

Each site has its challenges but the Agency, participants and service providers are all learning as they go, slowly ironing out the bugs, which should make it much smoother for the other rollout areas when their turn comes.

Also this week, trials for the Western Australian Government’s NDIS My Way began in the cities of Cockburn and Kwinana, with around 2,700 people going to benefit from the scheme there.

Perhaps best of all, according to the NDIA’s Two Year Progress report around $754 million has been committed to supports for people with disability – within the projected budget for the scheme.

Still, there is plenty of work to do to turn these significant milestones into the full roll out of the NDIS to some 460,000 people over the next few years.

There is still a long way to go. People with disability and their families are still anxiously waiting to learn when the NDIS will be coming to them. State and territory governments have promised to deliver the full roll out timetable by next month. Bring it on!