Federal Government to unlock workforce innovation for NDIS participants and providers

Federal Government to unlock workforce innovation for NDIS participants and providers

The Turnbull Government announced the creation of a $5 million fund to identify innovative ways of building and managing the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) workforce.

The newly developed Innovative Workforce Fund (IWF) will be run by the National Disability Services (NDS), with $1 million allocated towards researching and developing different workforce models which can be applied to the disability sector, with the remaining $4 million available for innovative workforce related projects over the next two years.

“The NDIS puts the power in the hands of the participants, who now have choice and control over the support they receive and how it is delivered,” Minister for Social Services, the Hon. Christian Porter said in a joint press release to announce the fund.

“That’s a significant shift for service providers, and it’s crucial we support the sector and the workforce through the change to this more competitive, individualised market.”

The IWF is a key component of the NDSI Sector Development Fund and is the next important step in supporting the disability sector during the transition to the full scheme.

“As providers organise and deploy their workers in new ways, this IWF will equip them with good practice and bright ideas that have been proven to work in other industries,” the Minister said. “With the disability support workforce expected to substantially increase by full scheme in 2020, supporting an efficient and innovative workforce that can meet the needs of NDIS participants will be the key to the scheme’s success.”

Assistant Minister for Disability Services, Jane Prentice said applications for funding would be sought from a broad range of industries to identify solutions that could be applied to the disability sector.

“Businesses will continue to do their own workforce recruitment and planning,” she said. “The fund will support them by showcasing new models and exchanging best practice methods across the broader service industry.”

“The NDS has a solid capacity for research that can be applied to the disability sector and the IWF will result in a more effective way of delivering disability services.”

As the disability sector continues to transform, adopting a more commercial business approach the need to learn for disability service providers to learn strategies such as brand-building, organisational growth and revenue generating strategies has never been more pressing.

Akolade’s NDIS Business Transformation Strategy Forum, being held at the Radisson Blu, Sydney on the 29^th November to 1^st December 2016 brings together leaders in the field to showcase successful and translatable strategies in a 2-day conference designed to provide disability service providers with the tools they need to succeed in a changing marketplace.

For further information about Akolade’s NDIS BusinessTransformation Forum, please visit our website.

And if you are interested in applying to the IWF, please send an email to innovativeworkforce@nds.org.au.

Mike Cullen has recently returned to Akolade after a period as the conference producer for one of Australia's leading economic think tanks. Mike began working in the conference industry in 2007 after looking for a career change from the high pressured world of inbound customer service. Mike has worked for some of the most well-known conference and media companies in the B2B space and in his spare time is working on his first novel in a planned Epic Fantasy trilogy.

Mike’s most recently published story, Seeds of Eden, is featured in the Sproutlings Anthology released in March 2016. Mike is also editing the Anthology – Community: Tales of the LGBTI scheduled for release in June 2017.