Australian Tertiary Education Network on Disability (ATEND) Response to the NDIS National Workforce Plan 2021-2025
Summary
ATEND believes the NDIS National Workforce Plan should be focussed on increasing the representation of people with disability in the NDIS workforce, not just in NDIA but in all agencies that work with and represent people with disability. It is time to shift expectations and change the rhetoric from people with disability being only consumers of service to people with disability being actively involved in the provision of service from a perspective enhanced by their lived experience. Consumers as providers.
This will improve employment outcomes for people with disability and will enhance the quality of the NDIS workforce by harnessing the untapped potential of lived experience. While some initiatives exist to support the employment of people with disability, there does not appear to be a strategy with a specific focus on the lived experience workforce within the NDIS or affiliated agencies.
ATEND recommends that the NDIA develop, publish, and implement a strategy to grow the lived experience workforce, co-designed by people with disability and peak bodies. The strategy would ideally include measures to match opportunities to the capabilities of prospective employees, encouraging people with disability to aspire to roles at all levels—including managerial, technical and leadership roles.
Purpose
In 2020, ATEND members made a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme commenting on the Inquiry into NDIS Planning, Supported Independent Living, and General Issues around the implementation and performance of the NDIS. Subsequently, ATEND members provided evidence to the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS Workforce at a public hearing.
The key advice provided in the submission and following evidence was as follows:
- There is opportunity for the NDIA to open itself to students from both vocational and higher education for placements, Work Integrated Learning internships and graduate roles
Need for Training Support Workers in Education Providers
There is need for training of support workers who attend education providers to ensure their actions and intentions are consistent with independent learning.
That the NDIS is missing an articulated education strategy that embeds the idea of lifelong learning at the core of the scheme and encourages or provides credible pathways for people with disability to learn and grow in a professional context.
The current review of the NDIS National Workforce Plan 2021-2025 demonstrates the NDIA’s commitment to building a responsive and capable workforce that supports NDIS participants to meet their needs and achieve their goals. This paper provides clear feedback on the Plan, to build a system that acknowledges the value of the lived experience of people with disability and capitalises on this to enhance all NDIS supports provided to participants.
Background
The Australian Tertiary Education Network on Disability (ATEND) is the professional organisation for Disability Practitioners in the Higher Education and Vocational Training sectors in Australia. Our membership comprises individuals who are primarily employed as Disability Practitioners in the tertiary education and training sector (Members are from Universities, TAFE, NDCO Officers, Private training institutions and the like). The key role of Disability Practitioners is to enhance tertiary education opportunities and access for people with disability and to drive change so that people with disability have equitable opportunity to access, participate in and reach their goals in tertiary education and graduate employment. ATEND members are practitioners who work with the nearly two hundred thousand students living with disability participating in tertiary education.
Issues
ATEND notes that the Senate Select Committee provided specific advice in their 2020 report pertaining to the role of people with disability in the co-design of training programs, and in all levels of employment within the NDIS workforce. The below table details specific recommendations which we believe have not been fully addressed within the NDIS National Workforce Plan 2021-2025.
| Recommendation from 2020 Senate Select | ATEND Issue/ Concern relating to the NDIS National Workforce Plan 2021-2025 |
|---|---|
| 4.6.93. The committee recommends that the Australian Government review options to develop a national registration and accreditation scheme for disability support workers, as the product of a co-design process with relevant appropriate people. This should include developing national benchmarks for skills, qualifications and competencies which reflect the diversity of people with disability, and which are co-designed by appropriate industry bodies, people with disability and representative organisations, support workers and unions, and other key stakeholders. | It is unclear from the NDIS National Workforce Plan 2021-2025, how people with lived experience of disability will be included in the co-design of national training packages. A workforce which can respond to the diverse needs of people with disability is only possible through purposeful consultation with, and inclusion of, people with disability. The Plan needs to specify the measure to be taken to achieve this |
| 7.7.52. The committee recommends that the National Disability Insurance Agency develop, publish, and implement a peer workforce |
Recommendations
Strategy Development
8.7.56. The committee recommends that the National Disability Insurance Agency develop, publish, and implement an education strategy for participants, co-designed by people with disability, peak bodies, and training providers.
At the same time, there is little mention within the NDIS National Workforce Plan 2021-2025 of how people with disability will be encouraged to join the workforce. ATEND recommends that the NDIA and NDIS providers are leaders in the field of inclusion of people with disability into the workforce. ATEND recommends that the Plan stipulate this explicitly.
- 7.60. The committee recommends that the National Disability Insurance Agency consider expanding its existing graduate program to include graduates of Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs. The Plan needs to explicitly demonstrate an intention to capitalise on the opportunities to link more strongly with universities, TAFE, and the VET sector, to capitalise on the tremendous talent pool of students with disability studying, or who have graduated, at a tertiary level.
Recommendations
Please consider the following actionable recommendations to incorporate into the NDIS National Workforce Plan 2021-2025 which will enable movement on these issues:
- We recommend the NDIA develop, publish, and implement a strategy to grow the lived experience workforce,
co-designed by people with disability and peak bodies.
- ATEND recommends that the sector be committed to employees’ full utilisation of skills, developed through
relevant and timely training opportunities.
- ATEND recommends that people with lived experience of disability be included in the process of designing
training packages and defining levels of competencies required for workers in the NDIA and the wider disability
sector. In this way the NDIS National Workforce Plan 2021-2025 will appropriately respond to the needs of
people with disability.
ATEND looks forward to your consideration of the issues raised, and the opportunity to collaborate on them. We welcome discussion with The Committee regarding this submission.
Respectfully,
Cathy Easte President, Australian Tertiary Education Network on Disability 3 | P a g e
Priority Action: Improve community
understanding of the benefits of working in the care and support sector and strengthen entry pathways for suitable workers to enter the sector
- Promote opportunities in the care and support sector
Issue/ Thought/ Concern ATEND recommends that the sector be committed to employees’ full utilisation of skills, developed through relevant and timely training opportunities.
- Develop a simple and accessible online tool for job seekers to self-assess their suitability for new roles based on values, attributes, skills, and experience
ATEND proposes that the online tool for job seekers to self-assess their suitability for roles be linked to RPL and further training in relevant industry training packages. In this way, workers can see clear pathways aligned to upskilling.
- Improve effectiveness of jobs boards to match job seekers to vacancies in the sector
The inclusion of ’Interpreters“ in the “Other” occupations (which include drivers, gardeners, and cleaners. etc) is not reflective of the need or the professional status of the occupation. In fact, interpreters are key professionals in ensuring that people with disability are fully included in planning. This would be acknowledged through an independent occupation category for interpreters.
- Leverage employment programs to ensure suitable job seekers can find work in the sector
There is considerable merit in the NDIA working with universities and vocational education providers during graduate recruitment processes, to welcome people with disability to apply for graduate roles. However, this should not take the form of a ‘specialist’ round for students with disability.
Finally, an education strategy for participants, co-designed by people with disability, peak bodies and training providers would accurately include measures to clarify the training requirements of roles, encourage academic success, and support the transition of people with disability from education to employment.
- Better connect NDIS and care and support providers to employment and taining providers and workers
Priority 2: Train and support the NDIS workforce
- Develop micro-credentials and update nationally recognised training to improve the quality of supports and enhance career pathways
ATEND is encouraged by the NDIS National Workforce Plan’s commitment to improving education and training opportunities across the entire workforce. However, in line with the recent recommendation by the Senate Select Committee, we believe that the NDIA and other disability service providers should be challenged through the Plan to provide more opportunities for students with disability to undertake work experience placements as part of their tertiary training. There is an untapped potential to engage with and upskill a workforce which possesses both professional qualifications and lived experience of disability.
Disability support work is complex, sensitive, and highly skilled. It is imperative that the workforce possess the qualifications, skills, and expertise to deliver safe, quality supports. The workforce requires a keen understanding of disability and its manifestations, and critical intangible skills such as the capacity to treat people with dignity, espect, and compassion. Specific skills are also needed to support
- People with a range of disability types, and people from all
demographic cohorts.
It is our suggestion that a representative from ATEND could be included on the Industry Reference Committee (IRC), which addresses the current and future competencies and skill requirements for new workers entering the sector and existing staff needing to upskill in the vocational education and training (VET) sector. In this way, ATEND could add their unique insight and expertise of the tertiary education and training sector to ensuring that competency standards fully capture the diversity of people with disability. ATEND is committed to supporting people with disability to consider and succeed in tertiary education pathways, which are all-too-often disregarded as a valid goal for a person with disability.
ATEND recommends the NDIS workforce is aware of the pathways into, and support provided in a tertiary setting. An example of resources already available to assist with developing a ‘Talking about Tertiary’ microcredential are those provided through the Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET), or the National Disability Coordination Officer (NDCO) program. Indeed, the most important thing in developing training in how to best support the needs of people with disability is to co-design IRC standards and training packages alongside people with lived experience of disability.
- Support the sector to grow the number of traineeships and student placements, working closely with education institutions and professional bodies
ATEND is pleased that the NDIA has taken positive steps to improve the representation of people with disability in agency roles. According to the NDIA’s most recent annual report, in the 2019-20 financial year 11.1 percent of NDIA employees identified as having a disability. This is well above the Public Service Average of 3.7 per cent, but below the agency’s target of 15 per cent. Quality training and education is crucial to securing meaningful employment, and there is a pressing need to improve interfaces between the NDIS and the education sector.
ATEND believes that widespread promotion of traineeship opportunities is an excellent way to incorporate into the workforce those with lived experience and technical knowledge of disability including carers, community members (especially in rural, remote, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities), NDIS participants and students with disability.
Priority 3: Reduce red tape, facilitate new service models and innovation, and provide more market information about business opportunities in the care and support sector
- Improve alignment of provider regulation and worker screening across the care and support sector
ATEND recommends that the NDIS National Workforce Plan 2021- 2025 stipulates that providers become leaders at employing and retaining people with disability. It is crucial that disability services are provided by a workforce which understands the complexities of disability, only available through lived experience. With this aim, it is important for the NDIA to set the benchmark for employing and supporting the career development of high numbers of people with disability, to encourage good practice across the NDIS workforce.