Closing market gaps in the NDIS: how can you help?
In our first post of 2019, Ellie Malbon (@Ellie_Malbon) requests input from local providers of disability services to ensure market readiness.
The NDIS is undoubtedly the biggest challenge and opportunity the disability sector has faced in many years. As well as changing how people with a disability access services and support, the NDIS having a huge impact on the disability sector itself.
Take 5-10 minutes to fill in the survey.
Thankfully, increasingly, people from government, the service sector and not-for-profits are paying attention to NDIS provider and overall ‘market’ readiness. Information about NDIS markets at the local level is essential for helping to support disability care markets to grow and succeed.
The work is supported by Department of Social Services and National Disability Services, and spans four universities which are University of New South Wales, University of Western Australia, Melbourne University and Swinbourne University.
In order to succeed, the NDIS needs accurate knowledge about local support services. Providers can help out by filling a short survey.
The research will help to paint a detailed picture of the disability service market in three case study areas - ACT region, Goldfields, Western Australia and northeast Melbourne, Victoria - identifying market gaps and thin markets. This survey is the first stage of the research and will be followed by interviews and workshops with selected service providers and government representatives to identify ways to support NDIS market readiness at the local level.
As Gordon Duff, General Manager of Sector Development and Research, National Disability Services, has said:
“This research addresses important and as yet little explored issues relating to the stewardship or oversight of public sector markets for specialist disability service provision.
As implementation of the NDIS gathers pace, understanding what the full range of stakeholders do to ensure that ‘the right services are in the right place and time and for the right price’, is critical to our collective understanding of how disability markets evolve, are effective and equitable.
The research takes a practical approach and will develop new methods to support NDS members to understand the opportunities to providing the full range of services to people living with disability”
The survey takes just 5-10 minutes and it’s important for significant providers to take part because, otherwise we can’t identify gaps in service provision. Similarly, we don’t want to identify a gap in the market that is actually occupied.
Want to take part?
Take 5-10 minutes to fill in the survey. Your participation is vital – the quality of the study’s results and its impact on future advocacy efforts rely on us getting responses from as many organisations as possible.
Give frank and honest responses to all questions. The survey is completely confidential, and only aggregate data will be used in reports and papers.
Send this article to any relevant organisations in your area, and ask them to complete the survey in the same way.