NDIS annual payout gives ability to manage the future

BREE Fitzpatrick is a small businesswoman with a difference: the only enterprise in her home is keeping her son Connor in care.

Bree and Connor Fitzpatrick at home in Cameron Park in NSW. ‘I want people that will motivate him to be a ­regular kid’. Picture: David Moir

BREE Fitzpatrick has turned herself into a small businesswoman with a difference: the only enterprise in her home is keeping her son Connor in care.

Ms Fitzpatrick is one of just 2 per cent of people who manage for themselves a significant annual payout from the national disability insurance scheme.

To add to the ­complexity, she employs her own staff to help care for 16-year-old Connor.

Connor was born with a rare genetic condition, epidermolysis bullosa — “likened to living with third-degree burns” — and underwent a tracheotomy before he turned three.

Before the NDIS ever rolled out in her region, Ms Fitzpatrick, from Cameron Park in the Hunter region of NSW, attended every workshop and decided she wanted complete control over how and where the money was spent.

Like others, Connor receives annual amounts for certain categories such as personal care, for his $7000-a-month bandage needs and other supplies.

Where the money is spent to buy those items or pay for staff is up to the family. Clients are given a Visa debit card with $10,000 at a time to purchase the things signed off on in their plan.

“Connor’s condition means we are always making big decisions about something so I thought, Why not about his carers, too?” Ms Fitzpatrick said.

“We had no support until three years ago when (the state government’s Ageing, Disability and Home Care unit) coughed up six hours of nursing support per week, which was rolled over into our NDIS plan.

“But now we are funded for more hours and assistants, so I put the call out for people we know.”

The NDIS agency requires people to have at least a Certificate III in disability services and experience working in the sector, but it is relaxing its view as the need for the workforce to grow dramatically is now well established.

Ms Fitzpatrick still employs registered nurses and assistants in nursing from an agency, but has hired four other staff directly, paying their wages and contributing to their four different super accounts.

“It’s a complete mess, but it is manageable,” she said.

As talks continue behind closed doors about how to make the ­Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Award more flexible for people navigating the NDIS, Ms Fitzpatrick is keeping her eye on Connor’s future.

“I just want people around him that will motivate him to be a ­regular kid,” she said.