Keeping the NDIS sustainable and on track
There are many different ways to continue supporting the scheme well into the future. But there needs to be real and meaningful collaboration to get there, writes InLife's chief executive David Clarke.
When it comes to disability services, the need for nuance should never be underrated. People have different bodies, differing levels of cognitive function and myriad ways of seeing and experiencing the world.
In the face of increasing costs (expected NDIS spend of $23.2 billion this year, growing to more than $30 billion by 2024-25), it can become all too easy to lose sight of the individuals affected. Particularly as the government grapples to find a way forward in the face of criticism over its independent assessments.
What we really need is a clear and sophisticated approach to the NDIS that keeps clients front and centre, while considering the scheme’s sustainability.
We are all invested in the success of the NDIS and it has, so far, brought so much to so many. I have seen people blossom after moving away from residential aged care into their own fully accessible home and heard parents of children with disability describe how the scheme has “allowed them room to breathe” for the first time in their child’s life.
But the NDIS does need to be sustainable so that it can continue to benefit individuals and families well into the future.
One of the driving forces behind the scheme, John Walsh, described in a Disability Services Consulting podcast how: “The fact that the cost is escalating is the major obstacle that the Government will use to turn that opportunity off.”
He advised ministers “to take time to understand what the scheme is meant to do as opposed to how it was implemented”.
I would also say that it is time that the government looked at getting those with disability, their advocates and service providers more involved in the discussion about the Scheme’s future. And this process needs to be genuine and transparent.
As the founder of a disability service provider, I would say there are many different models and processes that could support the scheme’s sustainability going forward.
Some elements of the current reforms are really positive, particularly the shift to more flexible plan budgets, which will hopefully put more choice and control in the hands of NDIS participants.
An open dialogue with stakeholders would surely deliver many others. For example, pricing could be linked to provider quality. This could be paid as a supplement, rather than out of personal budgets, to avoid penalising participants for choosing a quality provider. Or a different pricing model could be introduced for shared independent living, such as funding management and administration costs independently of the direct supports, to enable a more targeted discussion about the costs of quality service provision in that setting.
There is no single answer as to how we make the NDIS sustainable going forward, but when we are talking about the future of the scheme there needs to be collaboration. And this should involve all those in the sector, rather than a top-down process driven from corporate HQ in Canberra and Geelong.
