The NDIS will profoundly affect the disability sector and its workforces. Expectations among current and future users of the NDIS are for different, more flexible services. Service providers are beginning to modify or develop their supports, while new care services are expected to enter local provider markets. Issues of up-skilling, re-training and motivating the workforce will become increasingly important, as will shortages of skilled workers. In this section we present quantitative and qualitative evaluation evidence on evaluation questions that relate to the theme of the disability sector and its workforce. Specifically, this chapter asks what has been the impact of the NDIS on the disability sector and its workforce. The chapter also considers the birth of a new workforce within the disability sector – the NDIA workforce. The chapter details the experiences faced by NDIA staff in rolling out the NDIS.
3.2.1 The supply and diversity of disability supports – Evidence from large scale surveys
The survey of disability support providers offers additional evidence on the supply and diversity of disability supports.
Figure 3.1 (and Appendix Table A3.1) shows the proportion of organisations providing certain types of disability support. In wave one the most common service offered by disability providers was community access (60 per cent of providers), followed by personal support (55 per cent). They remain the two most prevalent services provided by disability organisation in wave 2 (provided by 57 per cent and 51 per cent of organisations). Disability employment services were the least commonly provided service in both waves 1 (16 per cent) and wave 2 (12 per cent).
Figure 3.1 Disability Support Provider: Types of disability support currently provided by disability support providers
The evaluation finds that with the exception of therapeutic services, the proportion of disability service providers providing each type of disability support has declined between wave 1 and 2. The largest declines occurred for advocacy, information and alternative forms of communication and early intervention services.
Figure 3.2 (and Appendix Table A3.1SE) shows the proportion of self-employed providers delivering certain types of disability support. In wave 1, the most commonly services provider by self-employed disability support providers were therapeutic services (79 per cent) and early intervention (70 per cent). These remained the two most prevalent services provided in wave 2 (76 per cent and 45 per cent respectively).
Figure 3.2 Disability Support Provider: Types of disability support currently provided by self-employed disability support providers
Accommodation support, community access, respite and employment were the services least commonly provided by self-employed disability support providers in both waves 1 and wave 2 (all less than 5 per cent).
The proportion of self-employed disability support providers delivering early intervention and advocacy, information and alternative forms of communication services declined substantially between wave 1 and 2. Little changes was noted in the other types of disability service provision.
Appendix Table A3.2a documents the average number of services provided by disability support providers in wave 1 and 2. The proportion of organisations providing one to three types of disability services has increased from wave 1 and 2, while the proportion providing more than three types has decreased overtime. This trend is similar for the self-employed disability support providers (Appendix Table A3.2a SE).
Overall, there was a decline in the average number of services provided by both organisation and self-employed providers (from 3.5 in wave 1 to 3.1 in wave 2 for organisations and 2.1 to 1.8 for self-employed).
The quantitative data suggests that most of the planning to adapt to the new demand coming from the NDIS occurred in wave 1 for disability service providers, while the reverse was true for self-employed providers. In wave 1, 34 per cent of all disability service providers reported that they were planning to expand their range of supports in anticipation of the NDIS roll-out (Appendix Table A3.3). This decreased to 27 per cent of organisations in wave 2.
Eighty-three per cent of self-employed providers at wave 1 and 78.9 per cent at wave 2 (Appendix Table A3.3 SE) did not have plans to change the range of disability supports they provided.
The survey of disability support provider’s traces possible differences in the way quality of supports are monitored (Appendix Table A3.4). Managers or supervisors were the most common way in which the quality of supports were monitored in both waves 1 and 2 (84 per cent and 85 per cent respectively). The use of surveys of service users, external auditing, and inspectors from another part of the organisation to monitor the quality of services decreased over time.
