The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is one of Australia’s most ambitious public policy initiatives.
Critical to the sustainability of the NDIS, is a workforce of sufficient size to meet demand, and which has the appropriate skills, qualifications and expertise to deliver safe, quality supports to participants.
It is estimated that the NDIS workforce will need to grow by an additional 83 000 full time equivalent staff to support participants at the scheme’s projected peak. However, attracting and retaining a suitably skilled, qualified workforce continues to prove a significant challenge, with the sector increasingly seen as overworked, underpaid, undervalued and poorly trained.
On 9 December 2020, the committee tabled an interim report for this inquiry. Aware that the Australian Government was, at the time, developing a national workforce plan for the NDIS, the report examined the range of issues facing the NDIS workforce, made 14 recommendations on how such matters should be addressed and outlined what the content, scope and focus of the forthcoming NDIS workforce plan should be.
The committee welcomed the release of the NDIS National Workforce Plan: 2021-2025 (Workforce Plan; the Plan) in June 2021, along with other measures identified by the Australian Government in response to the committee’s interim report. However, evidence provided to this inquiry has demonstrated that ambitious action is needed to adequately address issues within the NDIS workforce and to safeguard the availability of safe and quality supports for NDIS participants into the future.
This second and final report for this inquiry makes eight recommendations to further address such matters. The recommendations relate to:
increasing NDIS workforce data collection
consulting NDIS workers and other key stakeholders in all NDIS pricing review processes
improving employment opportunities for people with disability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within the workforce
addressing the funding and resourcing implications of new training and upskilling initiatives
increasing student placement opportunities within the workforce
developing clear and measurable outcomes for the initiatives in the NDIS National Workforce Plan 2021-2025; and
developing a comprehensive consultation strategy for the implementation of measures under the Workforce Plan.
Workforce conditions
Outside of training measures, working conditions remain largely unaddressed in the Workforce Plan. The committee acknowledges that the impacts of an increasingly casualised, contract‑based workforce are not well understood, and considers that more information is required to understand these impacts. The Australian Government should ensure that data collected about the NDIS workforce includes data about new employment models, including platform-based services.
Further, the committee remains concerned that the current NDIS price guide and the Cost Model for disability support workers may not reflect the value and complexity of disability support work. The Australian Government should ensure that NDIS workers are specifically consulted throughout all regular pricing review processes.
Thin markets
Whilst the challenge posed by thin markets was not a core focus of this inquiry, it was a consistent theme in evidence. The committee is concerned that significant thin markets remain this far into the life of the scheme. Workforce planning for the NDIS must address thin market issues through more detailed, measurable strategies and outcomes, including specific measures to address allied health maldistribution and increasing the representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the NDIS workforce.
Employment opportunities for people with disability
The committee welcomes government initiatives to increase employment opportunities of people with disability. However, the Workforce Plan lacks targeted measures to specifically increase the number of workers with lived experience of disability within the NDIS workforce.
The committee encourages the Australian Government to develop, through co‑design, further initiatives which increase and improve employment opportunities for people with disability in the NDIS workforce.
Education, training and professional development
The committee welcomes initiatives in the Workforce Plan aimed at training and supporting the NDIS workforce and reminds the government to engage appropriately with the higher and further education sector throughout the implementation of these measures. The Australian Government should also consider the funding and resource implications of any new training and upskilling initiatives for the NDIS workforce.
In addition, the Australian Government, through co-design and strong partnerships with NDIS service providers, universities, TAFEs and other training institutions, should develop and implement a robust strategy to increase and improve student placement opportunities in the NDIS workforce, in recognition of the significant role that such traineeships have in future workforce development.
Workforce Planning
The committee recognises the Workforce Plan as an important document setting out the government's vision for growing both the NDIS and the broader care and support workforce. The committee is pleased that a number of the initiatives in the Workforce Plan have received widespread support from the sector.
However, it is disappointing that key approaches to workforce planning identified in the committee's interim report do not appear to have been adopted in this plan – in particular, clarification of Commonwealth responsibilities for NDIS market stewardship.
Further, noting the persistence of concerns about the lack of reliable data about the NDIS workforce raised in evidence, the committee maintains that there needs to be a carefully designed and implemented data strategy to complement workforce planning.
The Australian Government should also prioritise developing and publishing:
clear and measurable outcomes for each of the initiatives under the Workforce Plan; and
a comprehensive consultation strategy for the implementation of measures under the Plan.
Conclusion
The committee thanks everyone who participated in the inquiry by lodging submissions, providing testimony or expressing views via correspondence.
The committee will continue to monitor the implementation of the Workforce Plan and other matters related to the NDIS workforce and may take up particular issues in future inquiries.