National Disability Services of the Disability Sector Report 2016 The concerns raised in this report are not the NDIS as a destination or the imperative to improve employment outcomes for people with disability, but about how we get there – and whether the path we are on is the best route to the destination. Contents The of Play – Page 3 The local story: Northern Territory – Page 5 The state of the operating environment for disability services – Page 6 The local story: Western Australia – Page 16 The of the NDIS – Page 17 The local story: South Australia – Page 20 The story: Tasmania – Page 21 The state of the broader policy environment – Page 22 The state of disability employment – Page 23 The local story: Australian Capital Territory – Page 26 The local story: Queensland – Page 27 The state of the workforce – Page 28 The local story: Victoria – Page 32 Toward a future state – Page 33 The local story: New South Wales – Page 35 NDIS transition arrangements – Page 36 trial Trial trial Trial trial
believes that the clients they turn away will receive no service at all and 43% believe that other providers will only partially meet their needs. Finding: Despite most providers reporting an increase in the range and scope of their services, 38% were unable to keep up with demand. Although more than half of organisations have increased the scale and/or range of services provided in the last year, 60% reported comfort with keeping up with demand. 38% stated they were unable to meet demand. Of organisations unable to meet demand, 10% reported that clients went without any service, over a third said the needs of clients were only partially met by other organisations and 14% stated clients’ needs had to be met (at least in part) by family or other supporters. Clients are exercising choice More than half (58%) of organisations providing services under the NDIS have had one or more clients leave them to go to an alternate provider. At this stage most clients appear to be moving to other existing not-for-profit providers (38%). There is also movement to new not-for-profit providers, sole practitioners (13%) and other providers (8%). Graph: NDIS participants changing their provider: Where did they go? Reasons for moving service provider are varied. Some clients moved because a provider could not offer the desired service. Many reported that clients are leaving because they want a different kind of service or they chose to follow a particular frontline worker. Practical reasons like services being located closer to their home were also reported. Some report competitors using targeted advertising and special offers to attract clients. The sector is responding to pricing levels and seeking alternate sources of income Seventy per cent of organisations currently providing therapy services provided more service hours than the previous year. In contrast only 28%of providers operating a supported employment enterprise increased services. 31% increased interpretation/translation services and 42%increased in-home care. 10% of those providing assistive technology provided less services. Fifteen per cent of services providing advocacy services for individual clients, 10% providing behavioural support and 13% providing respite services plan to either reduce or stop providing these services in the next year.