NDIS Service Agreement

NDIS terms of use for services provided under the platform Like Family

Introduction

This Service Agreement is made for the purpose of providing support under the participant’s NDIS plan.

The parties agree that this Service Agreement is made in accordance with the NDIS, which is a scheme that aims to:

• Support the independence and social and economic participation of people with a disability.
• Enable people with a disability to exercise choice and control in the pursuit of their goals and in the planning and delivery of support provided to them.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities of the Provider

The provider agrees to:

• Review the provision of support with the participant on a quarterly basis as a minimum.
• Once agreed, provide support that meet the participant’s needs at the participant’s preferred times.
• Communicate openly and honestly in a timely manner.
• Treat the participant with courtesy and respect.
• Consult the participant on decisions about how support is provided.
• Provide information to the participant about managing any complaints or disagreements and details of the provider’s cancellation policy (if relevant).
• Listen to the participant’s feedback and resolve problems quickly.
• Give a minimum of 24 hours’ notice to the participant if the provider has to reschedule an appointment to provide support.
• Provide the required notice to the participant if the provider needs to end the Service Agreement.
• Protect the participant’s private and confidential information.
• Provide support in a manner consistent with all relevant laws, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 and the Australian Consumer Law.
• Keep accurate records on the support provided to the participant.
• Issue regular invoices and statements of the support delivered to the participant.

Responsibilities of the Participant/Participant’s Representative to the Provider

The participant/participant’s representative agrees to:

• Inform the provider about the support they wish to be delivered to meet the participant’s needs.
• Treat the provider with courtesy and respect.
• Talk to the provider if the participant has any concerns about the support being provided.
• Give a minimum of 24 hours’ notice to the provider if the participant cannot make a scheduled appointment. If the notice is not provided by then, the provider’s cancellation policy will apply.
• Provide the required notice to the provider if the participant needs to end the Service Agreement.
• Let the provider know immediately if the participant’s NDIS plan is suspended, replaced by a new NDIS plan, or the participant is no longer a participant in the NDIS.

Responsibilities of the Member to Like Family

It is the responsibility of the Member to:

• Inform us about how you wish the services to be delivered to meet your needs.
• Treat us and our Social Carers with courtesy and respect.
• Talk to us if you have any concerns about the services being provided.
• Provide a minimum of 24 hours’ notice if you cannot make a scheduled appointment. If the notice is not provided by then, the cancellation policy will apply – this is the full payment of the scheduled visit.
• Give us the required notice if you need to end the Service Agreement.
• If you are covered under NDIS, let us know immediately if your NDIS plan is suspended, replaced by a new NDIS plan, or you are no longer a participant in the NDIS.
• Inform us if you have a criminal history and the restrictions this places on you and the services that you will be provided. We will assess each situation differently and take into consideration the safety of our Social Carers and the broader community.

Responsibilities of Like Family

We are responsible to:

• Review the provision of services with Members at least every 3 months.
• Once agreed, provide support and services that meet the Member’s needs at the Member’s preferred times.
• Communicate openly and honestly in a timely manner.
• Treat all Members with courtesy and respect.
• Protect the Member’s privacy and confidential information.
• Provide services in a manner consistent with all relevant laws, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 and the Australian Consumer Law.
• Keep accurate records on the support provided to the Member.
• Issue regular invoices and statements of the support delivered to the Member.

Our Services

Services

Like Family (LF) is an online platform that connects care givers (Social Carers) with care receivers (Members). Social Carers advertise their services on their profile so that Members can search the services and contact the Social Carer. We are NOT an employment agency and we are NOT involved in any employment or other relationship between Members and Social Carers.

Services that are provided are “as is” and “as available”. We do not represent or warrant that:

• Content on the website or information provided by any Social Carer is accurate, complete or current.
• A suitable match will be found using the Services.
• Your access will be uninterrupted or error free.

Fees & Payment Schedule

As of 1 September 2023,

For 1:1 support bookings, we charge $55 per hour on weekdays and $74 per hour on weekends and public holidays. 

1:2 support bookings are $36.50 per member, per hour on weekdays and $51.50 per member, per hour on weekends and public holidays.

1:3 support bookings are $27.00 per member, per hour on weekdays and $38.00 per member, per hour on weekends and public holidays.

Sleepovers* are $275.00 on weekdays, weekends and public holidays

*A sleepover shift is an 8-10 hour booking that starts at 7pm or later. Any additional hours are charged at that day's hourly rate.

Transport that is provided as part of a booking is charged at $1.00 per kilometre.

Policies

Conduct

One of our values is community and, as a Social Carer or Member, you’re on this platform to make your life better in some way. Obviously, the other people using this platform are also trying to make their life better. So, use this site with respect, integrity and within the law, treating the platform as if it were your own and treating people as you would want to be treated. In other words, don’t use it to try to sell your box of old belt buckles, whinge about Marge down the street, complain about politics, try to get people to come to your cousin Ronnie’s birthday party, or to try to gather a posse together to bully your little brother’s bully from school. It’s your responsibility to conduct yourself appropriately on the platform and while you are receiving or providing care. If you don’t comply, we will have to remove, edit, refuse to post your content, or remove you from the site. It would be a real shame to do this because it’s not something that we really want to do and it would take up a lot of our precious time. If you are experiencing problems with any user, please contact us via hello@likefamily.com.au.

Disputes

We may monitor disputes between users of the platform, but we don’t have an obligation to get involved. We are the facilitators, while you are the parties to each transaction. By agreeing to these terms, you understand and agree that we are not liable in connection with any dispute or claim that you make against any other member of the platform. We reserve the right to disclose any information necessary to satisfy any applicable law, legal requirement, police investigation or governmental request.

Overdue Payments

It is the members and the NDIS participants responsibility to manage and cover expenses related to the services provided by Like Family. Members and NDIS participants must manage their budget to ensure they have sufficient funds to cover all costs related to services provided by Like Family. If the NDIS participant is unable to cover what is owed, Like Family has the right to cease services from being provided. If necessary, Like Family holds the right to adjust their rate up to the NDIS price guide. This would be communicated in advance to the member.  

 

Feedback and Complaints

Like Family:

• Provides a safe environment for each person to make a complaint.
• Ensures that there are no negative consequences or retributions for any person who makes a complaint.
• Supports participation in the complaint-handling process of any person wanting to make a complaint and will work with the person to identify the desired goal.
• Treats each person making a complaint in a manner that protects their privacy and respects confidentiality
• Is committed to, and demonstrates, fair and timely resolution of complaints.
• Keeps each person informed at all stages of the decision-making process concerning their complaint and the reasons for those decisions.
• Provides each person with continuous and easy access to meaningful and culturally relevant information about the service provider’s complaint policy and processes.
• Provides each person with the opportunity to have a chosen support person, such as an advocate, to assist or represent them during the process.
• Supports each person making a complaint in a way that reflects their individual, cultural and linguistic needs to assist them in understanding and participating in the complaint-handling process.
• Allows each person to determine how, when and where the complaint will be made.
• Provides each person with the opportunity to nominate the person they choose at the service as the key contact regarding the complaint.
• Has a written complaints policy and associated processes which reflect relevant legislation, standards and sector policies.
• Ensures that policies and processes include ways of responding to the cultural and linguistic needs of individuals.
• Records and analyses trends from complaints to drive organisational policy development and continuous improvement.
• Supports each person to participate in the review and development of local complaint-handling policies, processes and report outcomes to them and their families, carers and advocates. Board and/or management committee meetings include a standing agenda item on complaint handling, with trends presented and implications for service planning discussed.
• Is aware that some complaints need to be managed in a particular way, either because the person making a complaint has specific rights of review or because the complaint includes allegations that must be reported to an external body. For example, criminal allegations should be reported to the police.
• Informs each person of their right to make a complaint (where relevant) to the Ombudsman about the provision of a service by a service provider under the Community Services (Complaints, Review and Monitoring) Act 1993 (NSW).

Online Safety and Security

Where you have obtained personal information from another user, including phone numbers, email addresses and residential/postal addresses, and are no longer using this information for domestic assistance purposes, you must return or destroy this information.

Just like your bank account password, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your Like Family account, including your username and password. So, don’t go sharing it out with every Tom, Dick and Harry as you are solely responsible for all activities that occur on your account.

If you notice any funny business going on in your account through unauthorised use, let us know immediately.

Care Recipients

So, you have decided to find one of our awesome Social Carer to help you or someone important to you. Before you can find a Social Carer, we ask that you have the following:

• Upload a photo so that Social Carers know who they’re caring for. Try to make this a recent photo, not a photo of you or your Nan as a child. Only Social Carers you contact will be able to see your picture.
• Make sure that you have provided us with your NDIA number and plan.

While we think that our Social Carers are great and have checked a few key things out about them, we do not guarantee the suitability, conduct or quality of any of the Social Carers or Members. As independent contractors, Social Carers are responsible for their own actions and conduct. We are not responsible for the conduct of any member on the platform, either online or offline.

Process of Receiving Domestic Assistance

You are responsible for all aspects of choosing, contacting, screening, selecting and hiring a Social Carer. To receive domestic assistance:

• Set up a profile with a photo of yourself, giving away some fun, useful and interesting details about yourself. Your profile is not public. It will only be visible to the Social Carers that you choose to message on the platform. Don’t worry, your contact details will NOT be displayed on your profile.
• You will be matched with a list of Social Carers who are in your area, provide the services you require and who share hobbies and interests with you.
• Choose your favourite Social Carer (or a few Social Carers) and start chatting with them via the online messaging system.
• Discuss tasks, times and other requirements with them.
• You should only share your contact details and address when both you and the Social Carer agree on requirements and trust each other enough to agree to domestic assistance.
• Accept appointment in your calendar that the Social Carer has sent.
• Be home at the scheduled time for your Social Carer to come over.
• At the end of visit, you will receive an invoice from the Social Carer for the amount payable, LF will claim this invoice through the NDIS portal.

---

Rights and Requirements

Standard Rights

Each person who uses our services:

• Has the right to information and support to understand and exercise their legal and human rights.
• Will receive a service that maximises their choices for social participation and cultural inclusion.
• Will do so in an environment free from discrimination, abuse, neglect and exploitation.
• Will receive a service that reflects their right to privacy and have their personal records and details about their lives dealt with in an ethical and confidential manner that is in line with relevant legislation.
• Will receive support and self-protective strategies and behaviours that take into account their individual and cultural needs.
• Each child with a disability has the same rights and freedoms as all other children. Service providers will take each child’s best interests into account when providing services.
• If required, LF can assist Members in organising a translator.

Practice Requirements

Like Family:

• Provides services in an environment free from discrimination, financial, sexual, physical and emotional abuse, neglect and exploitation.
• Encourages and supports access to advocacy services by people with a disability to promote their rights, interests and wellbeing.
• Provides opportunities for people with a disability to participate in the development and review of organisational policy and processes that promote strategies for equality and upholding human rights.
• Has the knowledge and skills to implement reporting processes on incidents of alleged or known discrimination, abuse, neglect or exploitation and knows how to notify the relevant external authorities.
• As an NDIS provider registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, as a condition of registration, the Like Family incident management system records and manages incidents that occur in connection with providing supports and services to people with disability.
• Offers appropriate support to the person and their family or carer when they raise or pursue allegations of discrimination, abuse, neglect or exploitation.
• has a procedure to review the implementation of the agreement by someone other than the Social Carer. This process is done by one of our Customer Experience team members. This process is done frequently. 
• can communicate with members by phone, email, SMS or face-to-face to ensure monitoring and feedback is collected. 
• will engage with other providers to help members receive continuity of support, if necessary. 

Participation and Inclusion

• LF supports each person to make decisions about how they connect with their chosen community and are respectful of their choices and plans including work, learning, leisure and their social lives.
• Training and support is provided to staff and volunteers so that workers will understand, respect and act on the interests and skill development of people with a disability over time.
• LF works with people with a disability and their community to promote opportunities and support their active and meaningful participation.
• With the consent of the person with a disability, LF works with an individual’s family, carer, significant other or advocate to promote their connection, inclusion and participation in the manner they choose.
• Staff and volunteers model respectful and inclusive behaviour when supporting people in their community as a way of promoting the uniqueness of each individual.
• LF develops ways to maintain and further develop their local connections so that options for people with a disability to be included and valued are increased over time.
• LF actively seeks connections with the community for people exiting the criminal justice system.

Individual Outcomes

Like Family:

• Supports each person and (when necessary, with consent) their family, carer or advocate to develop, review, assess and adjust their plan as their circumstances or goals change.
• Recognises the importance of risk taking and enables each person to assess the benefits and risks of each option available to them and trial approaches even if they are not in agreement.
• Works with other organisations and community groups to expand the range of service options available in the community.
• Regularly reviews their person-centred approaches to ensure that the organisation has the capacity and capability to deliver flexible and responsive supports and services that meet individual needs and expectations.

Service Access

Like Family:

• Is both proactive and responsive in providing people with a disability, their families and carers information about the features and capacity of the services they offer.
• Develops and applies easy-to-understand, consistent and transparent access processes so that each person is treated fairly and according to their assessed need.
• Regularly reviews their information, policies and practices for service access in consultation with people with a disability, their families and carers to identify and minimise barriers that may impact on a person’s fair and equal access to services.
• Understands the broad range of support and services available to meet the needs of people with a disability, their families and carers in the community.
• Works with the local community and other mainstream and specialist organisations to maintain community engagement and referral networks.
• Provides information and support to the person when recommending or referring other services or activities.

Service Management

Each person receives quality services which are effectively and efficiently governed by the corporate governance body of our organisation. As a service provider, Like Family HQ (someone else then the support worker) will:

• Have written policies and associated processes which reflect relevant legislation, standards and funding requirements and sector policies that are accessible to all stakeholders.
• Have processes to monitor compliance with relevant legislations and policies to continuously improve organisational performance.
• Encourage and support people with a disability, their family and carers to participate in the planning, management and evaluation of the service.
• Inform stakeholders how feedback has been used to improve service management and delivery.
• Have a workforce planning and recruitment strategy in place to ensure the organisation has a skilled, engaged and responsive workforce.
• Have processes in place for succession planning of leadership staff and other key positions recruited and maintained to deliver the range of services provided by the organisation to meet service delivery outcomes.
• Provide regular staff and volunteer training, support and supervision to flexibly meet the needs of people they support.
• Monitor the performance of support workers through phone, email, SMS and face-2-face communication after each booking as well as when trigger events occur. 
• Create and maintain accessible and safe physical environments in accordance with all fire safety requirements and occupational health and safety legislative policy requirements.
• Implement the organisation’s strategic and business plans utilising good practices including community engagement initiatives.

Ending this Service Agreement

Should either party wish to end this Service Agreement they must give 1 month notice. If either party seriously breaches this Service Agreement the requirement of notice will be waived.

Minors

It is a condition of our insurance that that a guardian be present at all times if minors under the age of 16 will be present during provision of Like Family’ services. present . Insurance for minors under 16 years of age, is a condition that the guardians are present at all times.

---

Legislations

This Policy has been developed to be used in conjunction with the following legislations and will be used when managing and responding to community complaints:

• Carers (Recognition) Act 2010
• Community Services (Complaints, Review and Monitoring) Act 1993
• Community Welfare Act 1987
• Disability Inclusion Act 2014
• Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002
• Home Care Service Act 1988 
• National Disability Agreement 2013
• National Disability Insurance Scheme (NSW Enabling) Act 2013
• New South Wales Government Disability Policy Framework
• Ombudsman Act 1974
• Freedom of Information Act 1982
• Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014
• Public Interest Disclosures Act 1994

Online Mandatory Reporting Guide

Like Family has the knowledge and skills to implement reporting processes on incidents of alleged or known discrimination, abuse, neglect or exploitation and know how to notify the relevant external authorities.

Please contact us as soon as you notice personal abuse or any other type of misbehaviour. Social Carers must contact LF management as the first point of contact, before notifying the authorities.

As a registered NDIS provider, Like Family must notify the NDIS Commission of all reportable incidents (including alleged reportable incidents) that occur (or are alleged to have occurred) in connection with the provision of NDIS supports or services Like Family delivers, even where Like Family has recorded and responded within its own incident management system. It is a condition of Like Family registration that it complies with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Rules about notifying NDIS of reportable incidents.

For an incident to be reportable, a certain act or event needs to have happened (or be alleged to have happened) in connection with the provision of supports or services. This includes:

• the death of a person with disability
• serious injury of a person with disability
• abuse or neglect of a person with disability
• unlawful sexual or physical contact with, or assault of, a person with disability
• sexual misconduct, committed against, or in the presence of, a person with disability, including grooming of the person with disability for sexual activity
• use of a restrictive practice in relation to a person with disability where the use is not in accordance with an authorisation (however described) of a state or territory in relation to the person, or if it is used according to that authorisation but not in accordance with a behaviour support plan for the person with disability