At the end of last week all the disability ministers met in Melbourne to continue to push the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme across Australia.

Every Australian Counts worked hard to make sure disability housing was top of mind at the meeting and achieved some good first steps in action on the disability housing issue. You can read more about that here.

At the meeting the ministers confirmed the full roll out the scheme would begin on 1 July 2016 as they had previously committed (see our NDIS roll out map for timeframes).

Interestingly though, there was also some indication given on how some of the states and territories plan to roll out the NDIS in their jurisdiction.

New South Wales will do it by geographic area combined with some targeted groups. For example they announced in the lead up to the NSW election they would start delivering early intervention services for up to 2,000 young people with disability living in Penrith and the Blue Mountains – a combined geographic and specific group of people with disability.

Northern Territorians can expect a staged roll out by geographic regions. Other states and territories didn’t provide any new information about the roll out in their area but all committed to provide more information about timings and locations by the end of August this year.

The ministers also committed to release a strategy to ensure a fair market and an adequate workforce for the NDIS to facilitate the choice and control of the person with disability. They said they’d do that by this June, just a few months away.

Other items on the ministers agenda were allowing the states to access more funds now to facilitate the roll out and the framework Information, Linkages and Capacity Building aspects of the NDIS.

Read the full communiqué from the ministerial meeting.