As our news feeds fill with articles about NDIS “budget blow-outs”, Rebecca Falkingham explains why it’s important to hear the scheme’s human stories.
This is the second instalment in a three-part series of Hireup’s interview with National Disability Insurance Agency, CEO, Rebecca Falkingham. Read part one here.
As I sit down to write a story about my conversation with the head of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Rebecca Falkingham, another timely interview pops up on the radio.
An ABC journalist is grilling NDIS minster, Bill Shorten. She opens the interview with the well-worn “news” narrative about how much the scheme costs. Shorten asks her why she didn’t start by asking about how many people it’s helped or the ways in which it’s radically improved their lives.
It’s this human-first approach that struck me when I first heard Rebecca Falkingham speak after being appointed CEO of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), which runs the NDIS. She said she would never use “deficit language” to describe the scheme. Now, five months on from starting in the role - and having had a chance to look under the hood - I ask her if anything’s changed.
In short, no. She says the human story of the NDIS is getting lost amid the financial one. Despite this, she believes the general public remains firmly behind the scheme.
“Australians are so proud of this scheme. And they have a deep affection for the scheme, not dissimilar to how they view Medicare. Everyone has a story about someone who's been a participant, or a family member of a participant, who has been able to to either transform their lives or to live differently, or to achieve different goals’, she said.
Falkingham says it's important to put as much weight on human outcomes as on budgetary figures, “because the numbers tell us such a small part of the story”.
She refers to the latest NDIS Participant Outcomes report which surveys how people on the scheme feel it has impacted their lives.
“Seventy-eight percent of participants, aged 15 or over, who've been on the NDIS for five years, [say they’re now] able to choose how to spend their spare time. That’s something we all take for granted,” she said.
“So for kids with disability to actually feel they've got choice - these are the stories that we've got to do a much better job of getting out because they might seem small to the general public, but they are such game changers for young people's lives.”
Falkingham also cites the Carer’s Outcomes survey that found 81 percent of carers say the NDIS has helped them better care for their family member with disability. That’s up from a baseline of just 27 percent when the survey began in 2016.
“When you position that against public discourse, it’s just wild to me,” Falkingham said. “Most public or social services would never see those kinds of results.”
The fact remains, however, that the NDIS is costing more than initially forecast. With more than 570,000 participants at last count, I ask if this is because of the sheer number of people on the scheme.
“What do people think that number should be, is the really interesting question, ” she replies.
Fair point. The NDIA chief says one of the key problems facing the scheme is that critical “tier two” supports are missing. [Read our explainer on tiered supports here].
“Our scheme is built on the strongest possible foundation at tier two. And for a whole range of reasons, as we've seen over the journey in the last 10 years, that hasn't eventuated,” she said. “You can point to why [this is], but we've got to get back there. We've got to really build it up so that people are getting the right supports in the right place.”
Falkingham said the Agency is already thinking about how it can facilitate this. It would involve working with other agencies - like the Department of Social Services - to build better support capacity across all of Australia’s public systems.
“We're really keen to have a different conversation about how we make the tier one, two and three discussion much more seamless. And when you talk about [NDIS] financial affordability longer term, for me, tier two is what unlocks that.”
It’s a point being made repeatedly by Bill Shorten and the scheme’s architect, Bruce Bonyhady. In a speech shortly after becoming minister last year, Shorten said the scheme had become “the only lifeboat in the ocean” for people with disability. Bonyhady called it “the only oasis in the desert”. Both say the scheme wasn’t designed to be either of these things.
This issue is likely to be a major theme of the independent NDIS review, which was launched in October and is being co-chaired by Bonyhady.
Its remit includes evaluating the “design, operations and sustainability of the NDIS”. The minister says it “will have people with disability at its heart” and has called on them to share their ideas and stories.
This is something the scheme’s CEO would like to hear more of in the public domain, especially in light of the ongoing media narrative around NDIS sustainability.
“We need participants to be out there talking about the scheme as opposed to bureaucrats and politicians,” Falkingham said, “because I think people feel that connection when they actually hear directly from someone whose life's been changed.”
In the third and final instalment of Hireup’s conversation with Rebecca Falkingham, the NDIS chief discusses the roll out of new tech, workforce issues and what part of the planning process NDIA chair Kurt Fearnley says is “offensive”.
Briana Blackett
Briana Blackett is a journalist and advocate for her two children with disability. After more than 20 years in TV news, she now works for Hireup as part of its Communications and Advocacy team.