INTRODUCTION
1. On 30 May 2008, all Disability Ministers agreed to bring about improvements to disability advocacy under the National Disability Agreement.
2. The National Disability Agreement paragraph 28 states:
‘Governments agreed to consider improvements in administration of advocacy services, with a focus on improving service delivery and access to advocacy services for people with disability. Responsibility for funding advocacy services will be reviewed in this process’.
3. The Disability Policy Research Working Group (DPRWG) agreed to ‘develop a nationally consistent framework for advocacy that covers individual and system wide advocacy, common definitions and desired outcomes and data issues’.
4. This framework is subject to the provisions of the National Disability Agreement (NDA) and the Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal Financial Relations and should be read in conjunction with those Agreements and subsidiary schedules.
5. People with disability often face barriers and attitudes that impede their ability to participate in society resulting in poorer life outcomes. Disability advocacy provides people with disability the opportunity to participate in decisions that impact their lives to ensure their rights are promoted and protected.
6. The implementation of the National Disability Advocacy Framework will be guided by the principles and priorities of Commonwealth, State and Territory Disability Services legislation, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the National Disability Strategy. The Framework complements these mechanisms by providing a structure that governments will work within to enable and support people with disability to safeguard their rights and overcome barriers.
7. The target group of the framework are people with disability. The framework is underpinned by a person centred approach whereby policies and programs are designed to respond to individual needs and aspirations. Consideration of the role of families and carers will be taken into account. However, the needs and aspirations of the person with a disability are paramount.
8. The Framework recognises and acknowledges that people with disability can experience additional disadvantage including, but not limited to gender, age, education, sexuality, geographic location, ethnicity and cultural background. Recognition of the diversity of experiences and the need to improve outcomes for individuals with a disability experiencing multiple disadvantage underpins the Framework.