More than half the submissions to the recent ‘Shut Out’ report noted that aspects of disability services and programs acted as a barrier to, rather than a facilitator of, their participation in society.533 The service system is seen as chronically underfunded, under resourced and crisis driven with large unmet need. For school children, there have been reports of an inability to access relevant and ongoing support services such as occupational therapy, speech therapy or physiotherapy which has impacted on, among other things, their educational outcomes.534
This has been verified by the Productivity Commission most recently in its Report on Disability Care and Support where it says “the current disability support system is underfunded, unfair, fragmented and inefficient and gives people with disability little choice and no certainty of access to appropriate supports”.535
