The NDIS is all about providing the resources for people with disabilities to take charge of their lives. And for many of us, one of life’s key ingredients is work.
It’s almost expected, in modern Australian culture, to complain about our jobs, but having a job is enormously beneficial: it expands our social network and increases our community connections, it gives us greater financial independence, it improves our health, well-being and gives us a stronger sense of identity and self-worth.
Given these benefits, it’s no surprise that the NDIS has always placed a real emphasis on supporting participants to find and maintain meaningful employment.
But good intentions alone aren’t enough, you need a plan, and that’s exactly what the NDIS Participant Employment Strategy is.
The strategy is available on the NDIS website, but because it’s pretty detailed, we thought we’d provide a super-concise summary of it here for your interest.
Prepare yourself for bullet-points a-plenty!
OK, the plan’s Vision is for NDIS participants to have the same chances and opportunities to work as other Australians. In order for those opportunities to be taken, people need
- Confidence
- Skills
- Support
The plan’s Goal is for 30% of NDIS participants to be in paid work by June 2023.
To reach that goal, the plan is guided by the following collection of beliefs, known as Principles for Change. These are:
- NDIS participants deserve to work in jobs they are free to choose, in workplaces that are inclusive, equal and accessible
- employment enhances participant’s lives
- given support, most people with disability want to, and can, work
- It’s important to consider the whole person
- Everyone has different needs and goals, some people might need technology or equipment to help them get a job, for instance, or others might need more training
- The participant belongs at the centre of any decisions that affect their life
- Working together with other employment services is a positive
- Participants should be able to find support in their local area.
These Principles for Change pave the way for the strategy’s Five Key Focus Areas, which are:
- Always include employment goals in NDIS plans.
- Give NDIS participants choice and control over the way they reach their employment goals. This is called the employment pathway
- Make it easier for NDIS participants to find work and reach their employment goals.
- Help employers feel confident about employing NDIS participants.
- Lead the way by giving NDIS participants the chance to work with the NDIA.
So that’s it in a nutshell pretty much.
To wrap it up, here’s what is intended to be in place by June 2022
- NDIS participants who want to work to have the support they need to plan their employment pathway
- People talk about employment goals in every NDIS planning meeting
- NDIS participants to get the support they need when they leave school, change jobs, and retire
- Everyone understands how important social skills are for NDIS participants with employment goals
- NDIS participants receive all the information they need about the supports they can use to help them reach their employment goals
- More NDIS providers offer the supports people need to reach their employment goals
- NDIS participants find employment in a wide range of businesses, jobs and roles
- NDIS participants have better experiences across the board, in government and business roles.
To summarise: basically, what the NDIS Participant Employment Strategy does is point everyone’s everyday actions and decisions in the same clear direction.
This is the really important thing to remember.
Meaningful change takes time, and it happens bit by bit, through the hundreds of small, conscious choices and decisions that we all make, day by day: participants, plan managers, employers and providers – we’re all in this together, and that’s what the NDIS Participant Employment Strategy is all about.
NDSP 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.
