State of NDIS Readiness Report
24 October 2012 at 10:01 am
Workforce development has emerged as a key pressure point for disability organisations in a national poll on its readiness for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
The report called 'Progress for Providers' was conducted by Not for Profit peak body, National Disability Services.
NDS says the results provide the first comprehensive national snapshot of the state of readiness of disability service providers for the individualised funding and service delivery envisaged under the NDIS.
Between August 2011 and June 2012, over 500 disability service organisations completed the poll.
The report says:
- many providers are finding areas relating to workforce development especially difficult;
- smaller organisations are challenged across all areas of change, with the exception of 'community focus' and 'improving lives';
- the costing of services, contracts and accounting for individual service responses are concerns, perhaps reflecting an underlying requirement for IT systems and infrastructure to support individualised service responses.
NDS says the results are already informing NDS's sector development work and discussions with government, and complement earlier work to articulate the attributes or capabilities relevant to reorienting services.
“The Progress for Providers poll provides a snapshot based on organisational self-assessments. As a resource it is primarily designed to facilitate conversation and action planning within organisations,” NDS CEO, Dr Ken Baker said.
“However, the results should also contribute to the evidence required to direct large scale investment in preparing the sector.”
This year's Federal Budget made provision for $122.6 m over four years to prepare the disability sector for the NDIS, with a focus on the launch locations.
“Some areas of sector capacity – such as workforce development – require a significant lead-time to deliver results, suggesting that planning and investment should begin as soon as possible,” Dr Baker said.
“What is required overall is a national industry-endorsed approach to change management, incorporating robust strategy tools and resources that enable providers to undertake detailed and comprehensive analysis of pressure points and areas of strength and to respond to those pressure points.”
The full state based and national reports are available to NDS members at www.nds.org.au.
