Confusion, cost blowouts and unintended consequences
The National Disability Insurance Scheme rests on utopian assumptions and redundant ambition. Kenneth Wiltshire in The Australian yesterday:
The very foundations of the NDIS are extremely shaky since it is based on the erroneous assumption that direct funding can be given to people with disabilities who will then be able to devise their own plans, seek and compare service providers who might deliver their plans, and enter into contracts with the government. This capability is simply not an option for very many disabled people, especially those with mental disabilities … The NDIS is also a slap in the face for charities and not-for-profits that had been more than capable of delivering services to disabled people with love, care and compassion for almost two centuries in Australia … As for advice, the irony is that after decoupling clients from their former not-for-profit providers, the governments have now created hundreds of jobs in the public services to attempt to provide such advice, which used to be part of the normal service of the not-for-profits.
Full of confidence, NDIS website:
The NDIS provides people with individualised support and the flexibility to manage their supports to help them achieve their goals and enjoy an ordinary life. The NDIS replaces a disability system that was unfair and inefficient with a new, national system that is world-leading, equitable and sustainable.
Staffing at the National Disability Insurance Agency. The Australian, January 8:
The NDIA has more than 2000 full-time equivalent staff, including a large internal communications team, and another 1037 contractors working inside the agency. The agency spent more than $180 million on consultancies and contractors in (2016-17) …
Get used to headlines such as this. The Australian, April 27:
Surge in kids, lack of data raise fears of NDIS cost blowout
What about the volunteers? Guardian Australia, December 8 last year:
Volunteering groups are warning the disability sector could lose thousands of volunteers due to funding uncertainty under the national disability insurance scheme … Volunteers are wrongly assuming the NDIS is all-encompassing, and that their help is no longer needed in the sector … (The Productivity Commission) warned that volunteer organisations were finding it difficult to work out how to provide support to people with a disability under the NDIS.
Number of FAQs for providers, NDIS website:
64
There was apprehension when the national rollout of the NDIS began. The Conversation, July 11, 2016:
One of the basic tenets of the NDIS is that users gain control by having the funding effectively follow the person rather than the service provider. This essentially means disability service providers have to spend more money on marketing and administration in order to meet the challenge … Most disability services providers … do not have the capital to meet (the challenges of the NDIS) … Less efficient (perhaps predominantly smaller) operations will likely struggle to survive … If these smaller, community-based organisations close their doors, we will see the loss of significant assets and experienced staff from the sector. Market economists may shrug their shoulders and say this is … the nature of change, but … it is the user who faces the real risk associated with this important policy implementation.