Can the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) deliver on its promises and address inequality? A recent report from a University of Melbourne research team looks at exactly that. For the report, Choice, control and the NIDS, researchers spoke with and collected data from people already using the NDIS in the Victorian trial area of Barwon. The researchers found that the system is not yet working in the way people hoped it would and, in some instances, it may be making some of the inequalities faced by people with disability worse.
The NDIS is a substantial and system wide change to how people with disability, and the services they use, are funded. It was created to increase the funding for disability services and the amount of control a person has over the services they receive. But as this report found, people’s experience of using the scheme varies greatly and was affected by the wide range of their circumstances, from age through to disability type and where they lived.
The researchers
The University of Melbourne report used a research team made up of university researchers and researchers with disability. Those they interviewed for the study included people with disability and family members caring for people with disability. They focussed on the three key areas of:
- choice and control over the care people received
- whether the funding and organising of disability services was simpler and more efficient
- equal access to services.
Choice and control
- People’s circumstances greatly affected their experiences of the NDIS:
- Parents of young children had high expectations and were motivated to get full packages of services and support.
- Parents of adult children mostly found little difference in the levels of support their children received but found the administration and hurdles much higher.
- People with cognitive disabilities found that there weren’t many changes in their everyday situations.
- People with physical disabilities had a range of views, from positive, such as more independence, to frustration as they struggled to get access to resources that they needed.
- Services and resources to help people to make choices and give them control over their care were not available to everyone.
- There were not always services available to meet people’s needs, particularly in regional areas. Some found that a large amount of their funding was being used up in paying for travel costs and if they were unable to access the service they needed they risked losing their funding altogether.
How complex the system is
- Most people accepted that the NDIS is a complex system. But many felt that:
- the views of people with disabilities, their families and carers were often overlooked in planning processes
- communication and messages were inconsistent
- people were disadvantaged if they couldn’t fully understand the system, its costs and processes
- it was difficult to understand the huge volume of information about the NDIS.
Equality
- The report shows that not enough attention is being paid to the diverse needs and circumstances of people using the NDIS.
- Income, education and where people live are affecting people’s access to services and resources.
Next steps
The report concludes by saying that some of the issues uncovered in their research can be improved through a number of operational changes but that the real concern is around equality. “Improving care planning processes or working more effectively across administrative boundaries will not help guard against the NDIS exacerbating the traditional inequalities that it was, at least in part, designed to help alleviate.”
You can read more about the study and the full report on the University of Melbourne Pursuit website.