Abstract:Voice has become an important yet ambivalent tool for the recognition of disability. The transformative potential of voice is dependent on a political commitment to listening to disabled people. To focus on listening redirects accountability for social change from disabled people to the ableist norms, institutions and practices that structure which voices can be heard in policy debates. In this paper, I use disability theory on voice and political theory on listening to examine policy documents for the Nationa… Show more
“…Greater accountability, and greater choice and control, is an aspect of the NDIS that garners popular support from people with disability, advocates of the scheme and service providers alike (Thill, ). Many service providers consider a focus on shared accountability for overall positive life impacts to be welcome: If we're dropping somebody off at home after spending the day with them and they've had a really great day and they've achieved and they're feeling great and mum and dad are saying thank you to us and saying ‘ You've done a great job.…”
We explore personalized funding schemes and associated changes for accountability within new welfare governance reforms. Using the case of the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme as hybrid institution, requiring mixed accountability arrangements, we examine the implications for broader discussions of accountability in personalized welfare arrangements. Methods used were semistructured interviews with government actors and disability service providers in Australia. In describing how accountability structures emerge, we argue that the way that layers fit together during implementation are often imperfect because of the conditions under which they arise. As a result, critical gaps can emerge in layered systems, which can put end users at risk. We demonstrate that theories on accountability in new public governance welfare reforms must also be informed by context and history informed qualitative analysis of case studies.
“…Greater accountability, and greater choice and control, is an aspect of the NDIS that garners popular support from people with disability, advocates of the scheme and service providers alike (Thill, ). Many service providers consider a focus on shared accountability for overall positive life impacts to be welcome: If we're dropping somebody off at home after spending the day with them and they've had a really great day and they've achieved and they're feeling great and mum and dad are saying thank you to us and saying ‘ You've done a great job.…”
We explore personalized funding schemes and associated changes for accountability within new welfare governance reforms. Using the case of the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme as hybrid institution, requiring mixed accountability arrangements, we examine the implications for broader discussions of accountability in personalized welfare arrangements. Methods used were semistructured interviews with government actors and disability service providers in Australia. In describing how accountability structures emerge, we argue that the way that layers fit together during implementation are often imperfect because of the conditions under which they arise. As a result, critical gaps can emerge in layered systems, which can put end users at risk. We demonstrate that theories on accountability in new public governance welfare reforms must also be informed by context and history informed qualitative analysis of case studies.
“…Aboriginal organisations emphasised that Aboriginal difference and lack of capacity in the NDIS are linked to historical institutional processes including the Stolen Generations, institutional racism and experiences of culturally unsafe services, highlighting how colonisation has produced multiple disadvantages for Aboriginal people. Innovatively, these organisations tackled decontextualisation of Aboriginal people through the sphere of disability, a space where the government is traditionally open to consultation with advocacy groups (Thill ). By leveraging disability policy to garner attention for Aboriginal people with disability, Aboriginal organisations actively combat wider governmental discourses of Aboriginality.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The formation of the NDIS was based in activism by people with disability and consultations by governmental bodies (Thill ). In 2013, the NDIS Act came into effect, with Scheme trial sites in five States and Territories ahead of a full national roll‐out from 2016 onwards (Buckmaster & Clark ).…”
Despite an increased focus in recent years on Aboriginal people with disability within disability studies and advocacy, limited attention has been paid to Aboriginal people in Australian disability services policy. This article examines the consultation with Aboriginal organisations for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), a new disability policy personalising care through individual service funding packages. The article interrogates how, and to what extent, the government has sought and incorporated the views of Aboriginal people with disability into NDIS policy. Using thematic content analysis, governmental NDIS-related documents are compared with Aboriginal organisation submissions and public hearing transcripts, to identify tensions in perspectives regarding Aboriginal peoples' participation in the NDIS. The article concludes that governmental responsiveness to Aboriginal organisations in the NDIS operates from predetermined constructions of Aboriginality and disability.
“…However, like the experience of personalization across the United Kingdom, the role of neoliberalism in reshaping disability support services has been criticized. As Thill () observes, concerns have been raised that disabled people are more likely to be offered limited opportunities for consumer choice, rather than rights to participation and voice through the NDIS. In addition, the scheme is seen by some as a means to privatize services, by undercutting public and not‐for‐profit sectors, and threaten the quality of services (Kirkwood, ).…”
Section: The Global Growth Of Personalized Social Care and Challengesmentioning
In April 2014, the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 (SDS Act) was implemented in Scotland. This marked a major shift in how social care is delivered and organized for both users and professionals across the country. Whilst it emerged through the personalization agenda-which has dominated international social care systems over recent years-self-directed support (SDS) represented a significant shift in thinking for service provision in Scotland. In this article, we review the initial stages of policy implementation. Drawing on two Freedom of Information requests from 2015 and 2016 and a series of interviews with local authority practitioners, we argue that, to date, SDS has yet to produce radical transformative change. We explore the reasons behind this through four key themes. First, we highlight the challenges of promoting the principles of co-production in policy and suggest that, in reality, this has been compromised through SDS implementation. Second, we suggest that SDS has been caught up in a policy overload and ultimately overshadowed by new legislation for health and social care integration. In looking at the impact of this relationship, our third theme questions the role of new partnership working. Lastly, we argue that the timing of SDS in a period of acute austerity in social care has resulted in disabled people being offered limited choice rather than increased opportunities for independent living. KEYWORDS independent living, personalization, Scotland, self-directed support, social careThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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