Submission 589
To the Committee Secretary,
I am a final year social work student who has been working as a support worker since 2023.
My experience has left me to deeply reflect on my various observations had while supporting
participants and how the new proposed legislation will severely impact participants, their
families and their communities. Protecting the longevity of the National Disability Insurance
Scheme (NDIS) is important and should be taken seriously, however, concerns are raised for
the many other elements within the proposed reform that will have a negative impact on
participants.
The proposed legislation suggests a reduction to social; civic and community participation
supports. Being a front-line worker, I can say that the participants I have worked with would
be severely impacted if this legislation was to be approved. The opportunity to access the
community in a safe, supported and inclusive way allows participants to build capacity in
social support skills, improves mental health moods and creates a sense of community. I have
witnessed and spoke to participants who have told me that they look forward to going out
once a week for a few hours and that sitting in their room all alone is not good for their
mental health. Some participants on the NDIS do not have family who can take them out to
go shopping or have a cup of coffee etc. Some participants do not have a car, licence to take
themselves out, so having community access in place allows them to be able to connect with
the world around them. For participants who do have a supportive family, it would unrealistic
and unfair to now shift the responsibility on family members to pick up the slack of the NDIS
and start taking their family members out. Most families must work and in the current
financial crisis we are facing as a nation, this would have a significant impact on families,
communities and the economy if individuals were expected to stop working to take over the
Submission 589
social support and community participation roles to ensure their families members are not
being further disadvantaged. Where does this responsibility go if community participation
reductions were to be implemented? The issue will not disappear, it will simply be placed
onto the families who are already trying to make ends meet. Looking at this on a larger scale,
that then impacts the community and community service organisations who are already at
capacity with limited funding trying to assist families facing crisis. The cut to the NDIS support
will only increase the crisis community organisations are facing.
The propose to increase reliance on standardised support needs assessment is worrying. As
an emerging social worker, this change will have a severely negative impact on the micro,
messo and macro elements of a participant and any future participants who need this
support. You cannot expect participants to fit a niche tick and flick assessment. There are
multiple layers to everyone’s needs, disability and there are socio-economic factors that need
to be considered. You must begin to understand a person’s entire worldview before making a
judgement on what type of support they may benefit from receiving. Considering things like
an individual’s self, their childhood implications, mental health, community support, family
connections, cultural background and potential trauma history are all critical to getting it
right when conducting assessments. Implementing a standard assessment report poses a risk
of missing out all crucial information that makes up a participant and their needs. For
example, it is very harmful to assess two individuals who on paper may seem like their
disabilities are the same. One participant may have a supportive family, stable housing and
access to transport while the other participant could have a history of homelessness, family
violence, mental health challenges and no informal supports. That difference right there
cannot be picked up on if the NDIS goes ahead with lumping participants into the same
support brackets based off a paper documented diagnosis.
Submission 589
While it may help with more consistency across the board, I whole heartly believe that the
NDIS will be doing participants a huge dis-service by wrongfully creating support plans that
do not fit their needs, resulting in a decrease of capacity building. This will impact the greater
community once it begins to impact tax-paying families who have no choice but to step into
these unpaid caring roles to ensure their family members are still looked after. Reflecting on
this proposed bill from a holistic perspective, I believe these changes will have a negative
impact on families, communities and organisations who will be left to pay the price. This is
not a person-centred approach.