Perspectives of the National Disability Insurance Scheme: participants’ knowledge and expectations of the scheme

Abstract

Limited research investigates future participants' perspectives of the National Disability Insurance Scheme-Australia's first national attempt towards self-directed disability service provision. To identify future participants' perspectives, seventy people with disability in SouthEast Queensland participated in an interview which collected both quantitative and qualitative data. Over half the participants demonstrated having little to no knowledge of the NDIS. Participants' expected that: (i) they would make decisions around organising and paying support and (ii) that their current service provider would provide the support. Participants also indicated that training around budgeting and hiring would be essential to ensure their successfully engagement with the NDIS. The findings are timely and provide a first-hand account of how people with disability intend to engage with self-directed support programs. Findings also imply that targeted information dissemination and participant training and support are necessary to ensure their successful participation within self-directed programs.

Personalisation schemes in social care: are they growing social and health inequalities?

“…Our review revealed disproportionate benefits and difficulties for some groups accessing the scheme [29, 36, 37, 73, 74]. For example, the trial evaluation and other reports found that ‘vulnerable groups’ are less likely to receive funded supports than other NDIS participants with similar needs [50].…”

“…However, the people most able to self-manage are likely to be advantaged in other ways, and theory tells us, are more likely to be upper or middle class users [48, 49]. Concerningly, research on people with intellectual disabilities in the scheme found that up to 40% of participants believe they require further training to fulfil the administrative tasks of the NDIS, including looking after money, working on computers, finding the right service for the right price, talking and writing, planning time, making choices and being heard ([36]:795).…”

“…With regard to personalisation schemes, our findings suggest that such approaches have the potential to entrench existing inequalities. We found evidence of inequitable access occurring along the lines of gender [50], education [50] remoteness and rurality (Carey, [43, 50, 73, 74]), socio-economic position [29] and disability type [36, 50]. As presented in the findings, there are structural aspects of the delivery systems of personalisation schemes that favour users who have good literacy, speak English, hold low levels of trauma, trust systems, haves the time to manage their own funding and to research the choices available, or have a trusted person to do this for them, and so on.…”

Accessing the NDIS: signing deaf people’s experiences

“…Researchers have contributed to the knowledge around how the scheme functions by focusing on specific disability groups and individual disabled people. Initially, the research explored participants' anticipation and expectations of the scheme, while later research reported on participants' experience of the NDIS -noting the complex intersections that are in play when diverse people with diverse disabilities attempt to engage with a new system, potentially risking further marginalisation (Lakhani, McDonald, and Zeeman 2018;Soldatic et al 2014;Thill 2015;Warr et al 2017). In 2019, as a result of consultation with signing deaf community leaders, the NDIS introduced a Hearing Pathway (NDIS, 2019) to the NDIS participant disability groupings followed by an undertaking to better understand this client group.…”

Transition to where and to what? Exploring the experiences of transitions to adulthood for young disabled people

“…Whilst there are a number of international examples of using cash based personalised support for disabled adultsnotably the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Australia (Lakhani, McDonald, and Zeeman 2018) and Personal Assistance in Sweden (Westberg 2010) -ILF Transitions is unique in its focus on providing one-off cash payments to young disabled people to facilitate changes into their next phase of life. The move to a more participatory approach on transition support also reflects wider international support in this policy arena.…”