Flaws of NDIS “must be fixed”

Over the next three years, the NDIS is set to support up to 460,000 Australians with disability, providing major changes for families and communities right around the country.

At House with No Steps, we are strong and passionate supporters of the NDIS. In fact, we have been backing the scheme since the very beginning of the Every Australian Counts campaign. We began our work with the NDIS when it first started in July 2013 as a trial in the Hunter region, and as recently as last month, rejoiced with thousands of Australians living with disabilities as the full scheme began rolling out across other parts of the country.

This truly is a cause for celebration by people with disability, their families and our community as a whole. However, it also reminds us of how significant the scheme really is, and reinforces just how important it is to get it right for the hundreds of thousands of Australians who will rely on it for support.

Since its commencement in 2013, the NDIS has given many people with a disability the power to live lives of their own choosing, whether that be through support with daily living, social engagement, therapy, aids, employment support or skills development. The scheme is rightly heralded as the end to inadequate disability support services and the start of long-awaited, tailored individual supports. It has even done the unthinkable – uniting all sides of parliament in a shared commitment to uphold the human rights of people with a disability.

Our on-the-ground experience with over 500 early NDIS participants has been positive. However, these successes have come at considerable cost, as we’ve grappled with implementation and design flaws that put the scheme’s long term success at risk.

Flaws such as a “one size fits all” fixed pricing model, requiring all registered providers to charge the same low price for many services based on commoditised inputs (mostly labour hours), irrespective of quality or the outcomes achieved.

Flaws such as the severe limitations on the vertical integration of services, forcing participants to use different organisations for different types of services, irrespective of their personal preferences or the inefficiencies of doing so.

Flaws like the apparent unwillingness to fund employment supports for participants. Barely one in ten scheme participants is being supported to gain and keep employment, despite this being a core economic and social justification of the NDIS.

Flaws such as a chronic shortage of affordable housing, meaning that by 2020 up to 122,000 NDIS participants may have no appropriate place to live.

These flaws must be fixed, or people with disability will miss out once again.

The good news is there’s strong commitment and goodwill still being expressed by all stakeholders – people with disability, governments, agencies and service providers – to collaborate and get things right. The bad news is that, increasingly, the rhetoric is not being matched by actions.

The recent major failure of the new NDIS portal provides a sad example. People with a disability, service providers, small businesses and individual traders have all struggled with the consequences of a failed booking and payment system. This isn’t good enough.

Right now, the NDIS we’re witnessing is very different to the one we were promised. The NDIS structure prohibits participants from purchasing value-adding services, or fewer, more expensive supports at the same total cost – even if they offer to pay for the expenses out of their own pockets!

This version of the NDIS is driving workforce casualisation, deskilling and subcontract labour models as organisations seek to fit within artificial price points by circumventing the provisions of the SCHADSI Award. This is not good for people with a disability, workers, service providers or the NDIS itself.

Our organisation cares too much about the NDIS to stand by and watch this happen.

The reality is, not all participants want a Tarago van full of different suppliers in their lives, and not all participants prioritise low prices over quality outcomes. People with disability are not a “one size fits all” group, and should not be treated as if they are. Instead, they should be allowed to choose the services and supports that work best for them, and to source them on their own terms. The more power consumers have, the better the outcomes and the lower the total costs of the scheme.

While I congratulate all sides of parliament on their commitment to the full roll out of the NDIS, I urge them to play a stronger leadership role in shaping the way the scheme works and acting urgently to resolve its problems and barriers.

With the right focus, people and frameworks in place, the NDIS will finally give Australians with a disability the support, choice and flexibility they deserve. So, let’s all get to work, and get it right.

House With No Steps Managing Director and CEO, Andrew Richardson.