Submission No 212
INQUIRY INTO IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME AND THE PROVISION OF DISABILITY SERVICES IN NEW SOUTH WALES
Name: Mr Ben Ryan Date Received: 8 August 2018
Portfolio Committee 2
Inquiry into Privatisation of Group Homes
This letter may be posted with my name only – no address or contact information please.
I have a sibling with Autism and very challenging behaviour.
*The privatisation of our state’s disability sector has changed the face of care in NSW.
Provision of care for our most vulnerable has now become a business rather than a service.
Everything done is equated in time, staffing, kilometres etc and it all boils down to dollars and cents.
Providers are looking to cut costs in every area available which hardly fits the picture of care and compassion.
*Why does the NSW Government play no role in the care of disabled people any longer? Historically, the hardest to manage people that NGOs couldn’t accommodate ended up in the care of the state. Now if they fail in a private system there is nowhere appropriate left for them to go.
*Why are small groups being squeezed out of group home provision?
Why can’t a group of experienced, professional people set up a few, or even just one group home (or take one over at the end of 2 years) if that is what the residents want?
It’s supposed to be about choice and control but that seems to be just words. There is no choice and no control when there is just one big provider for the whole area. Perhaps it will end up like a Coles/Woolworths duopoly with only a couple of providers for the whole state.
That is not a healthy scenario for our vulnerable people.
Why do huge (greedy??) companies end up running everything?
Why are you letting them?
Sincerely,
Ben Ryan