Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, , 2:48:11 to 2:53:51
Senators question the department on the Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) and the necessity of human oversight in automated decision-making processes to ensure consistency and subjectivity.
Topics: Health, Social services
Speakers: Mr Blair Comley, Senator Penny Allman-Payne, Ms Sonja Stewart
Thanks very much, Chair. Um just coming back to the integrated assessment tool. Um we've heard through our aged care inquiries and statements made by the minister. Um that the idea of the integrated assessment tool was to bring consistency. Um to decision making. Um assessor performance, which is actually critical to this whole process. So why have no human override at the back end of the IAT when the Ombudsman themselves have said that it's not objective at the other end?
The Secretary addressed this in his letter to the Ombudsman, and we um the reason why they silence on our end is we're just looking for the reference in the letter,
so just excuse us why the paraphrase what I said in the in the response the Ombudsman We we acknowledge um that well assessment assessors have a significant input on the input side. So they answer up to one minimum of a hundred and twenty five. Questions up to 340 questions. One of the things that we wouldn't agree with the characterisation of the Ombudsman is that he describes the department having a view that we think this is a logical and binary process, that that's that's not our view. We do agree that there is a degree of subjectivity in the application of assessment judgment when they are considering the inputs to the IAT. That is inevitable to some degree. What the IAT is trying to do is provide a structure to the assessment of people to ensure a greater level of consistency. But I think we would all acknowledge that there will be some variation between the assessors. Also some variation, the way in which elder people with similar needs may present or provide information to assessors on the way through. So we are relying on that expert judgment. We're also relying on the fact that when the assessment delegate is deciding whether to make a agree with the assessment, they will take into account based on their judgment, information that is not just in the questions that feed into the algorithm, but in the free form text, which would inform their view about whether the inputs to the algorithm are actually giving the right outcome for that individual. And that is something I think that has been difficult to communicate at times that the role of the freeform text, but it is critical in terms of providing additional information to the assessment delegate which would inform their view of whether the inputs are right. Can I just make one other point? Sorry, Senator Ullman Payne. The other thing that now that the government has allowed an escalation pathway, we are relying on those assessment delegates to form a view about whether this would be appropriate to escalate through that pathway because they would form a view that they think the holistic assessment does not accurately reflect the needs of that individual, and of course they would also be taking into account the freeform text when they're making that assessment. So we certainly think assessors, professional and clinical judgment are very, very important. What we as a department and the way the policy has been enacted, we are cautious about a system that has unfettered discretion that doesn't have some boundaries around it because our experience under home care packages lead to very, very significant deviations from the criteria set for home care packages in the order of uh 25 to 50 per cent of times the the assessment was overridden and and with significant variation between assessment organisations. Sorry, Senator, I'm I'm sorry to interrupt you. I just wanted to put that on the record.
I just want to be clear. The free form text plays no role in the algorithm though, does it?
No, it was again this is the free form text doesn't enter into the calculation of the algorithm, but the free form text is available to the assessor to then um check in their own mind whether the inputs that are going to the algorithm are accurately reflecting the needs of the participant. That was the system prior to the introduction of the escalation pathway. After the escalation pathway boarding to product, it's also the free form text that would be part of the things that would inform the assessor as to whether they would trigger the escalation