NDIS: A call to stop dragging us and it through the mud

An opinion piece by Jane Morrell, CEO and founder of Carer Solutions. 

Disclaimer: This piece was written before the latest NDIS Amendment Bill was passed in Parliament. We will continue to monitor the ongoing process, what it means, and share updates in the next e-news edition.

The NDIS is the greatest nation building scheme we’ll experience in our lifetime. Since its inception in 2013, millions of Australians have benefitted from the biggest social reform since Medicare.

Far too often, the idea of ‘benefitting’ in the context of social services, attracts cynicism. This paired with the constant negative headlines surrounding budget, fraud and negligence, is doing the NDIS no favours.

Let’s be clear, the safeguarding of vulnerable people should always remain a priority, with appropriate action taken against any persons guilty of negligence or misconduct. And I welcome the government taking a firm stance on this issue.

However, on the contrary, this narrative has gone too far. We are starting to witness how this level of fearmongering is having the reverse affect for our disability community. Daily, we’re being told ‘all that is wrong’ with the NDIS, but where is the coverage on ‘all that is right?

Today, over 646,000 Australians with a NDIS plan can benefit from a better quality of life. This includes – better health outcomes, the opportunity to participate in their community, employment, education…the list goes on. These are “ordinary things” that can be monumental to someone’s confidence and general well-being, but also things that so many of us take for granted every day.

The care and support economy accounts for 15% of Australia’s workforce and is Australia’s largest employer. Yet, we are still facing a disability support worker shortage crisis, with around 128,000 more workers needed.

We must be doing more to attract people into the workforce, instead of putting potential prospects off. Our workforce is filled with passionate people, dedicated to providing better outcomes for the people they support, and so it is critical that we don’t allow the mainstream narrative to tar everyone with the same brush.

Pre-NDIS, I met countless families who were frustrated and exhausted by the lack of significant options when it came to their supports. To ease the burden, I created Carer Solutions in 2011 – the only service in Australia that enables individuals with disability to directly employ people that they already know and trust as their support workers.

Another example of an NDIS provider achieving great outcomes for Participants through an innovative model is Hireup, a technology platform that connects people with disability to support workers who meet their needs and share their interests. Since its inception in 2015, Hireup has facilitated over 128,000 unique connections, and driven measurable improvements in their clients’ quality of life.

Jordan O’Reilly, co-founder and Executive Director of Hireup agrees that there’s no doubt the NDIS has faced some significant challenges. ‘We support the government’s efforts to bring more oversight and protections into the NDIS – we think it is critical for a safe and sustainable scheme.’ Jordan says.

Following the Independent Review, this will be the most critical time in the history of Australia’s largest social reform scheme. A time of additional scrutiny and whilst so much is still yet to play out, as a sector we must unite and brace for the only certainty and constant – change.

In doing so, we need to be commended and celebrated for all that many of us have created, in a bid to benefit the lives of Australians living with disability. Continually painting the sector in a negative light does nothing for the sustainability of a scheme that fully relies on providers committed to honouring and operating in the spirit of all that it stands for.