Introduction
Hello everyone, today we will be discussing the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which aims to deliver services and supports to the Australian population, specifically people with diagnosed disabilities under the NDIS criteria (NDIS, 2024). The scheme aims to promote autonomy and independence by maintaining social inclusion for all. In this Presentation, we will reflect on both positive as well as negative aspects regarding the scheme.
Speaker 2: Negative Argument
While the scheme has improved the quality of lives, certain limitations remains concern (Hewitt, 2018).54,800 people did not receive proper support using the scheme from the government. As per Hummell et al. (2025), the scheme is often criticized due to the bureaucracy and complexity, which further hinders the ultimate goal of delivering personalized care support. Henriques-Gomes (2020) confirmed that the scheme was literally confusing due to the delayed operations.
Speaker 3: Affirmative Argument
Aside from challenges, the scheme has evolved its support services for the sake of the Australian cohort with disabilities. It not only focuses on providing person-centred care, but also empowers vulnerable patients to gain control over their lives (NDIS, 2019). It also created many employment opportunities based on social inclusion while reducing the rate of poverty.
The NDIS in Australia has further improved the satisfaction level of patients by improving health outcomes. The report of AIHW confirmed that patients expressed their satisfaction and gratitude for this scheme. In 2023, approximately 610,500 people participated actively in the scheme, and 43% of them were under 30 years old (AIHW, 2024). Therefore, it reveals that it actually helps people to gain positive experiences.
The scheme further reforms its structure based on the accessibility available to individual people. It further clears the path from the aspect of the block funding of the system towards service providers (NDIS, 2021). The older system focused on allocating money to them, but with new evolved system provides an amount directly to the participants rather than focusing on service providers. 79% of participants further confirmed that the scheme helped them significantly (AIHW, 2024a). The ultimate aim of the scheme is to allow individuals to gain more control. Therefore, it can be affirmed that the scheme is specifically tailored to patients’ needs.
The other notable benefit of NDIS happens to be the concept of early intervention strategies, according to which it is intended to assist an individual at the earliest stage possible so that the effect of disability can be minimized in the long-term. This proactive strategy recognizes the fact that the early receipt of services can lead to drastic positive development and subsequent independence. In accordance with the NDIS (2024), early intervention services are particularly helpful in cases of children with developmental delays because it can help lower the requirement of intensive services in the future. This helps in not only helping the people and the families but it also saves the government in the long run as the complications that could have been brought about by avoidable problems are reduced (Hayes et al., 2018).
Ability to innovate in disability services is promoted through the NDIS too. With participants making choices and controls in the distribution of funds given them, providers of services find it attractive to compete through high quality of services, easy accesses and innovations. Such change in power relations results in more responsiveness to the actual needs and needs diversity of participants. Consequently, an increased uptake of community-based assistance, assistive technology, and specialized remedial interventions that improve daily life, and integration emerged (NDIS, 2021). The flex model gives participants more power in choosing which providers would suit best their personal objectives, which would facilitate better satisfaction and other more significant outcomes (Carey & Dickinson, 2017).
Moreover, the NDIS leads to the increased interaction of different sectors, including healthcare, education and employment. This comprehensive and combined model enables the participants to avail a broader support related to their stage of life and objectives. As an example, the youth with disabilities who have undergone the school transition program towards higher education or employment are more supported leading to independence and less dependency on the system.
Lastly, the NDIS is of crucial importance in the way disability is perceived in the society. The scheme aids wider cultural change by building awareness, visibility and acceptance to underline inclusion and dignity. This cultural transformation plays a key role in the fact that the concept of a person with a disability is no longer perceived through a deficit perspective and can be regarded as a strong personality with rights and dreams like any other person.
Speaker 4: Conclusion
Although such positive sides of the NDIS cannot be ignored, it is important to pay attention to the boundaries and unintended effects of the scheme. Despite the strengths of the framework, the areas of deficiencies revealed concern a disparate group of people and areas of service. Based on the above aspect of speaker three about highlighting the positive aspects, I argue that the entire approach can be problematic too. The scheme only relied on people below 65 years, therefore the older population can be affected by the negative situations, revealing unequal accessibilities (Dreyfus et al., 2023). Besides that, I want to raise my concern about the impact of the scheme on the disability workplace. Due to individual finding systems, it might lead to the fragmentation of the workforce. both positive and negative debates have highlighted the importance of??
prioritized by the system??
in order to fulfill the needs of the overall Australian population.??
References
AIHW. (2024a, April 4). NDIS participants choice and control – Personal and community support. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.[Accessed on: 7/7/25] Retrieved From: https://www.aihw.gov.au/australias-disability-strategy/outcomes/personal-and-community-support/ndis-participants-choice-and-control
AIHW. (2024b, April 23). People with disability in Australia, Specialist disability support services. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [Accessed on: 7/7/25] Retrieved From: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/disability/people-with-disability-in-australia/contents/social-support/specialist-disability-support-services
Carey, G., & Dickinson, H. (2017). A longitudinal study of the implementation experiences of the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme: investigating transformative policy change. BMC Health Services Research, 17(1), 570. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12913-017-2522-7
Dreyfus, S., Nolan, A., & Randle, M. (2023). Challenges to accessing behaviour support services for people with intellectual disability before and after the NDIS. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 49(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3109/13668250.2023.2289682
Hayes, L., Brophy, L., Harvey, C., Tellez, J. J., Herrman, H., & Killackey, E. (2018). Enabling choice, recovery and participation: evidence-based early intervention support for psychosocial disability in the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Australasian Psychiatry, 26(6), 578-585. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1039856218759407
Henriques-Gomes, L. (2020, January 20). National disability insurance scheme confusing and causing some to miss out on support, review finds. The Guardian. [Accessed on: 7/7/25] Retrieved From: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/20/national-disability-insurance-scheme-confusing-and-causing-some-to-miss-out-on-support-review-finds
Hewitt, J. (2018, August 21). CEDA – The challenges and opportunities of the NDIS. Kentico. [Accessed on: 7/7/25] Retrieved From: https://www.ceda.com.au/NewsAndResources/Opinion/Health-Ageing/The-challenges-and-opportunities-of-the-NDIS
Hummell, E., Foster, M., Burns, K., & Rimmer, S. H. (2025). Policy shifts and drifts: From intention to implementation of Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme. Australian Journal of Public Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8500.12689
NDIS. (2019, September 24). Reasonable and necessary supports | NDIS. Ndis.gov.au. [Accessed on: 7/7/25] Retrieved From: https://www.ndis.gov.au/understanding/supports-funded-ndis/reasonable-and-necessary-supports
NDIS. (2021). New survey results show how the NDIS is improving the lives of Australians | NDIS. Www.ndis.gov.au. [Accessed on: 7/7/25] Retrieved From: https://www.ndis.gov.au/news/7231-new-survey-results-show-how-ndis-improving-lives-australians
NDIS. (2024). National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).[Accessed on: 7/7/25] Retrieved From: https://www.ndis.gov.au/
