Disability service provider capacity in focus

The capacity of disability service providers has come into sharp focus at the Disability Royal Commission.

As the disability sector grapples with workforce shortages, the Disability Royal Commission is examining what can be done to enhance the capacity of disability service providers to deliver safe and high quality services.

CEO of National Disability Services (NDS) Laurie Leigh appeared before the Royal Commission to discuss that capacity.

NDS has made a number of recommendations to government to improve the capacity of the sector to provide safe, quality and sustainable services to people with disability, including initiatives to increase recruitment, retention and the capability of the disability workforce, ensuring all workers in risk assessed roles undergo NDIS Worker Screening, and reforms to improve training and supervision for workers.  

Leigh said the Royal Commission had heard evidence of “poor practice which must be addressed”.

Speaking to Pro Bono News, Leigh said those reports were “really distressing”. 

She added that the sector is undergoing “significant change”, which began with the advent of the NDIS.

But it’s a sector under stress, experiencing workforce shortages.

Leigh said NDS supports some of the early suggestions coming out of the Royal Commission, like greater investment in training and development of the NDIS workforce.

She said allowances made by service providers for training and development often aren’t enough, thanks to “a very, very thin overhead allowance which puts training and development work in amongst all of the other things that providers need to pay for”.

“It’s essential that [greater investment] happens,” she said.

But she stressed there are a number of reasons why the sector is experiencing a workforce shortage, including wider shortages across society and a perception of disability work as being “not very glamorous”.

“People don’t have an understanding of the really fantastic impact that it can have on participants’ lives and the sense of pride and accomplishment that that can bring disability support workers,” Leigh said.

Sharing more of those positive stories could go some way to improving perceptions of working in the disability sector and encouraging more people to consider it as a career.

This would have the added benefit of giving people with disability confidence in the services that are being provided, Leigh said.

A basic level of screening through a national registration scheme or worker screening program could also help maintain a level of quality across the system, she said.

Choice and control

Another issue to come out of the Disability Royal Commission is the need to implement reforms that give people with disability greater choice and control in how they live and work with disability service providers.

NDS supports participants’ right to choice and control, and wants to see supported decision making embedded throughout the sector and appropriately funded for those who need it.

“We support reforms and more government funding to improve the availability of advocacy and self-advocacy development for people with disability. We think there should be a greater focus and increased funding for positive behaviour support and practice leadership. We support governance reforms that put people with disability at the centre of decision making,” the organisation said in a statement.

Leigh said reforms of this nature need to be balanced with prudent financial and workforce management.

“With the current financial state of the sector, off the back of chronic workforce shortages exacerbated by the pandemic, it is critical that the sector is provided with the appropriate time and support for changes to be delivered correctly,” she said.

“A skilled, capable, diverse and sustainable provider landscape is a desirable outcome for people with disability. As the recommendations from the Royal Commission are handed down, we need to be mindful of how we match the timetabling of reforms with the capacity of the sector to respond.”

She told Pro Bono News that there is “no one size fits all” option.

“It’s a very varied sector. We have some really large providers and we have some very, very, small providers. And so a sort of one size fits all for recommendations coming out of the Royal Commission, I don’t think will work,” she said.

“There’s certainly some recommendations that need to come out around governance, for example, which would work well for larger providers, but for sole traders or very, very small providers, expecting the same level of [governance models] is just not something that’s going to happen. Any recommendations around providers or the market or workers really need to take into account that scaling and variation across the sector.”

She said regardless of size, providers “need to be cognizant” of expectations around governance, reporting and culture to create a safer working environment.

Providers should also be given training, development and guidance to help them meet their responsibilities under governance requirements, she added.

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