The NDIS has released some data surrounding the outcomes experienced by NDIS Participants, families and carers. Questions have been asked on different topics, including: daily living, choice and control, social, community and civic participation, learning and employment.
The reports generated from the surveys allow us to see how the NDIS is progressing over time and where there are still areas to improve, with the aim of making things fairer and more equitable for everyone.
There are of course some results returned that aren’t all that positive, and while we need to be conscious of what can be done to improve the areas that need work, we’re here to focus on what is positive, so let’s get started…
Essentially the questions and outcomes were split into groups or cohorts that at the end of the day, makes the outcome data a little easier to understand:
- from birth to starting school
- school age to 14 years old
- 15 to 24 years old
- 25 years old and over
- Peripheral outcomes for families / carers or participants
Now, with that behind us, let’s take a simplified look at the actual results from the NDIS data, one cohort at a time …
From Birth to Starting School
Participants in this age bracket’s biggest improvements are around use of specialist services and social and community participation, reflected in the statistic that 11 per cent of children over 3 felt more welcome when taking part in community and social activities.
The impact of this outcome moving forward is potentially enormous, ideally building a foundation of absolute acceptance in the community both socially, but as this cohort age, also as an active member of the broader community in every other way too.
The NDIS also suggests that children in this cohort have seen significant improvement in “eight indicators”, and per your correspondent here at NDSP Plan Managers, there are 18 total indicators, which is a pretty great average to see “significant improvement” in. That’s more than half of all indicators and don’t include areas with “some improvement”.
School Age to 14 Years old
This group of Participants are shown to be becoming more independent over the past 3 years, with more of them taking part in daily social and community activities with an increase of 9% in this category over that timeframe.
Including improvements in the categories for daily living and lifelong learning, this age group has seen significant improvement in five key indicators – another great leap forward for the cohort as a whole and the impact NDIS has on their lives.
Once again, we can draw huge future benefit from this result for these participants, with greater life skills and more community inclusion options while building a more accessible future for employment and much more.
15 to 24 years old
With the biggest improvements across the board, this cohort of participants has been reported to have accessed the most benefits from the NDIS,with significant improvements reflected in a massive TWENTY- NINE (29) indicators! The most notable again for this group is involvement in social and community groups where they’ve seen an increase of 14% over 3 years.
At this point, we’re starting to see a trend and again the benefits now and into the future could be everything from employment opportunities to access to sporting teams, community activity groups and building new relationships outside of their existing circles of support.
Aged 25 and over
This is another cohort of participants seeing great benefits from the NDIS with significant improvements in 23 indicators!
Here’s where we see things change a little: this cohort see benefits with their overall health and wellbeing. Previous research revealed a disparity between the health of people with disability and those without, which thankfully it appears via this data is being addressed and progress is being made.
More great areas of improvement for this group include relationships and social, community and civic participation with more participants in this group spending their time engaging in activities that interest them. Thinking broadly, we can consider this to mean that there is a bigger number and a wider variety of accessible activity options available than ever before.
Some of these results could be put down to an increase in providers creating supports that work and can be accessed by a participant’s plan funds.
Families and Carers of Participants
The data reveals that there have been improved outcomes for families/carers of NDIS participants too, the importance of which cannot be overstated.
Families and carers of participants from birth to age 14 who are working 15 hours or more in a paid job has increased every year, up by 6% over three years to 85%. This means families and care givers have more access to supports that create time for work, which builds further income and most importantly an opportunity for families and carers to enjoy their own interests or simply more rewarding and meaningful employment.
Perhaps one of the biggest outcomes is saved to last with families and carers of participants aged 15-24 believing their family member with disability is getting the support they need. This indicator has seen an increase of 29 per cent over 3 years. Let’s read that again – “getting the support they need.” What a huge thing to be able to say for those who care for our participants, after all, it really is what the NDIS and those of us offering support as part of it, are all about.
These findings should be accompanied by a mention that the PDFs summarising the NDIS data outcomes available from the NDIS site are a little difficult to pull actual results from, so unless you’re pretty detail oriented, it might not be worth looking at, but here’s a link in case you find them useful: https://data.ndis.gov.au/reports-and-analyses/outcomes-and-goals/participant-outcomes-report
NDSP Plan Managers is a NDIS registered provider specialising in NDIS Plan Management. If you are a NDIS Participant looking for the right Plan Manager, CLICK HERE to get in touch with our friendly team today.
