Imagining and planning for
the future under the NDIS
Full report
May 2013
Valmae Rose
Agreement Id 2-2U8X1U Schedule Id 2-2U8X1X/
Imagining and Planning for your Future under the NDIS
Full Report May 2013
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Imagining and Planning for your Future under the NDIS
Full Report May 2013
Contents
Key issues that emerged...................................................................................................................... 5
Target audience ................................................................................................................................ 5
Key NDIS concept ............................................................................................................................. 5
Features of high quality engagement............................................................................................ 6
Trust in the system ........................................................................................................................... 6
Role of social media ......................................................................................................................... 7
Opportunities to leverage social capital........................................................................................ 7
Our understanding of how individual capacity can be strengthened ....................................... 8
Recommendations................................................................................................................................ 9
Accessible information..................................................................................................................... 9
Opportunities for stakeholders to actively influence .................................................................. 9
Training workshops .......................................................................................................................... 9
Support of existing networks ........................................................................................................ 11
Transparency ................................................................................................................................... 11
Mobilising existing social capital .................................................................................................. 12
Research ........................................................................................................................................... 12
Prototyping...................................................................................................................................... 12
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Imagining and Planning for your Future under the NDIS
Full Report May 2013
Project overview
This project focused on the development and delivery of twenty-five workshops
across Australia, targeting people with disability, families and support workers.
The two-day workshops provided an update on the NDIS and explored it as a living
system; which people not only belong to, but can actively influence and navigate to
get the best possible outcomes.
The project as a whole sought to
better understand what it would take
to build stakeholder capacity to
embrace, navigate, and get good
outcomes from the NDIS.
The workshops were tailored to suit
the audience and context, whether
personal,
organisational,
or
community.
In an effort to respond to significant demand, particularly from regional and remote
Australia, ultimately, a total of 35 workshops were delivered to 552 people, within
budget, across Australia, ten more than required.
Feedback from every workshop indicates that regular information updates and
interactive workshops to consider the implications and plan for the future – at
individual, family and organisational levels, are called for on an ongoing basis.
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Imagining and Planning for your Future under the NDIS
Full Report May 2013
Key issues that emerged
…target audience
While the target audience for the workshops was primarily people with disability,
families, carers and support workers, the largest group of participants at most
workshops were service managers, indicating a persisting high level of need for
information and discussion by this group.
While the experience was new to some, having a diverse mix of people with
disabilities, family members, carers, service staff and management was a strength.
The opportunity for people to hear perspectives and stories from other stakeholder
groups allowed people to feel a sense of unity and alignment in moving forward.
Having other stakeholders in the mix of participants e.g. Medicare Local staff, school
transition officers, homelessness service providers, greatly enhanced the quality of
discussion and reach of engagement.
…key NDIS concept
While for the most part there appeared to be a shared understanding and alignment
with the core concepts and values of the NDIS, this was not always the case.
The two notable exceptions that emerged were:
1. The need to further contextualise and reframe social and economic
participation for people who are highly marginalised, remote, and/or have
highly complex support needs.
Issues associated with increasing vulnerability as an unintended consequence
of introducing market forces also need to be further explored.
2. The need to further explore and understand the concepts of social and
economic participation (and contribution), and the concept of individual choice
and control as it relates to Indigenous people and the services that support
them.
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Imagining and Planning for your Future under the NDIS
Full Report May 2013
…features of high quality engagement
An important learning that emerged while coordinating and delivering the 35
workshops across Australia was that people are becoming more discerning about
what constitutes good engagement.
There is a high level of dissatisfaction from people in rural and remote areas who are
expected to travel to regional centres or miss out on engagement opportunities.
The additional workshops delivered were arranged in response to people
(particularly families and carers) who called to express such perspectives. People
also reported an appreciation of:

The level of transparency and honesty in what was presented.

The willingness to admit when we didn’t know something.

Good listening and connection with the audience.

The opportunity to hear each other’s story.

The opportunity to think through and discuss the actual and potential
implications.

The length of the workshop; with enough time allocated to present information
and then time to process and consider the implications at an individual and/or
organisational level.
…trust in the system
While engaging with the various stakeholder groups around the NDIS since its
inception, there has been a noticeable increase in the level of trust.
Such indications are not consistent across State and Territory boundaries but do
include:


The level of tolerance for our inability to provide comprehensive process
information, or specific implications for existing arrangements has grown
dramatically, which we observed as an indication of developing trust.
The degree to which people acknowledge their own role and potential for
influence within the system has also increased and at times this was notable
within mixed groups who felt comfortable expressing their own perspectives
on key issues which lead to shared understanding.

The degree to which people indicated a desire to influence and contribute to
the design of the NDIS in a constructive way increased as people were
exposed to the different methods in which this can happen – for example the
growing understanding of the ‘living system’.

The degree to which people were willing to see the NDIS as a work in
progress.
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Imagining and Planning for your Future under the NDIS
Full Report May 2013
…role of social media
An unexpected learning was that some people (people with disability/family/carers)
are already using social media very effectively both as a source of information and to
support others to be well informed.
One participant sent out a question to her
network while the face-to-face conversation was
taking place.
A dozen or more people were then able to
contribute in real time and this was very
powerful.
It is important to note however access to
internet is not a reality for many people with
disabilities due to economic constraint.
…opportunities to leverage social capital
It was evident in coordinating and delivering the workshops across Australia that in
every community there is significant, untapped social capital that could be mobilised
to maximise NDIS readiness. Examples included but were not limited to:

Strong relationships between people with disability/families/carers and local
councils, with many community development/liaison people ready and highly
motivated to support implementation of the NDIS.

School transition officers with deep experience in responding flexibly to need,
and linking people with opportunities to build social and economic
participation.

Strong relationships between individuals, services, and the tertiary education
sector which provide an opportunity for influencing curriculum and supporting
student placements in the disability sector.

A significant pool of volunteers who contribute their time to be of service to
their local community.

Unfortunately there was little evidence of strong relationship with the
corporate sector and this is potentially an area that needs attention and
investment and potentially permission (via relationship management) to
commence.
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Imagining and Planning for your Future under the NDIS
Full Report May 2013
…our understanding of how individual capacity can be strengthened
Individual capacity relates not just to being empowered to access and participate in
the system. It is also about:

The skills, information, and confidence to make well-informed decisions and
navigate the system effectively, not only at the point of entry to the system but
over time as circumstances change.

A worldview where the disability service system is seen as a living system
which has structural components, people, processes, rules, relationships etc.,
many of which are visible and able to be influenced by citizens. The NDIS
system design process has been a good example of this to date.

A level of resilience or willingness to face the challenges that will inevitably
emerge as (the attached case study explores some of the variables that
impact on this over time)

Opportunity for reciprocity, i.e. the opportunity to contribute or add value to a
community can be just as, if not more effective than the opportunity to receive
a service

The ability and perceived opportunity to influence future circumstances

The importance of context when considering individual capacity. Confidence
and skill in navigating one part of the system may not transfer readily to less
familiar parts of the system.
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Imagining and Planning for your Future under the NDIS
Full Report May 2013
Recommendations
…accessible information
Additional materials need to be developed and distributed to support people with
varying literacy levels (including no literacy), and people from culturally and
linguistically diverse backgrounds.
These materials need to be developed and distributed with due regard to the
recommendations re contextualisation needed for Indigenous people, highly
marginalised people, and people with complex needs. It is worth noting that
materials alone for these groups may not be sufficient, that dialogue and local
contextualisation may also be required.
Examples include:

Plain English fact sheets in multiple languages, including Auslan.

Picture versions of fact sheets.

Talking heads reading out the fact sheets and rules.

Storyboard (using Indigenous artwork) depictions of key concepts (e.g.
individual choice and control, assessment, system navigation, having a say,
raising issues & concerns), and processes (e.g. becoming a participant, being
assessed, asking for review, becoming a discerning customer).
…opportunities for stakeholders to actively influence
Timely, clear information is important but is not enough. People need to continue to
have access to opportunities to influence system design (including the operational
aspects) in order to influence outcomes for individuals and families, and outcomes
for our society as a whole.
…training workshops
Both expert technical input and peer support need to be features of the ongoing
training and support provided to build capacity over time. These workshops should
be conducted as close to where people live and work as possible, including rural and
remote locations.
While not all elements of the NDIS will lend themselves to input from stakeholders,
training content should ideally be framed around questions rather than answers i.e.
include opportunity for people to explore and consider possibilities, rather than be
recipients of information.
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Imagining and Planning for your Future under the NDIS
Full Report May 2013
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Imagining and Planning for your Future under the NDIS
Full Report May 2013
Engagement opportunities should ideally focus on those aspects of design and
implementation that are rightly driven by stakeholder feedback and ideas e.g.
individual and family direction on the role and operation of Local Area Co-ordination,
as opposed to those elements of design driven by statutory obligations and therefore
out of the direct control of stakeholders.
…support of existing networks
Individual capacity appears to be well supported where there are strong, local,
relevant networks. These may be place based or virtual and strategies for
supporting them should vary accordingly.
…transparency
Importance of continued transparency of system learning and performance,
specifically with regard to:

Performance of the launch sites.

Evaluation of the launch site (and the research questions that are driving the
evaluation).

What is working well and what needs further work.

Supports catalogue and pricing list.

Research activities, their findings, and the implications for policy, practice and
the individual/family experience.

State and Territory based implementation plans that make transition issues
and strategies visible to the people they will impact upon.
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Imagining and Planning for your Future under the NDIS
Full Report May 2013
…mobilising existing social capital
Investment and attention on building relationships with:

the corporate sector

schools

medicare locals

regional social and economic development councils

local communities of practice

local government

universities and TAFE
Strategies to mobilise volunteers who have already demonstrated the desire to be of
service, and live locally with potential time to commit (either into the paid disability
workforce and/or into informal circles of support for individuals)
…research
A theoretical framework for understanding and explaining the concept and practice of
individual capacity building will be an important platform for further investment and
resource development in this area.
…prototyping
Further engagement of the several hundred participants of this PDF project, in the
development and prototyping of individual capacity building strategies, across a
range of metro, rural and remote settings, is highly recommended.
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