The Community Services Directorate has called on the business community to pitch ideas on how to expand the disability services workforce as the current workforce struggles to keep pace with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

More people from all walks of life are needed to meet the demand created by the self-service insurance scheme but the executive director of strategy, participation and early intervention Maureen Sheehan said the $1.27 million procurement would also aim to grow the number of people with disabilities in the workforce.

"Its overarching aim is to attract more workers generally to the whole community to working in the disability area," Ms Sheehan said.

"With the NDIS we actually need to substantially increase the size of the workforce to deliver services because across the whole country, funding is going to double and because people who've needed a service haven't had a service and therefore we need more workers to help deliver the services.

"We don't have enough people working in the disability area and we've got a whole lot of people who we think would be really suitable to work there, including people with a disability, so we're looking for solutions to come from the business sector or the community sector."

Ms Sheehan said when the NDIS began in 2014, there was about $170 million of services for people with a disability.

"By the time we get into full scheme in 2019 there will be $340 million going into disability services so that just gives you a feel for the dimension of the demand for workforce," she said.

ACT Council of Social Service director Susan Helyar said one of the aims of the National Disability Strategy, of which the National Disability Insurance Scheme forms one part, was to get more people with disabilities into work.

She said it was one of the most substantial investments in workforce development in Canberra for some time.

"One of the places where there is growth in the labour market is in the services sector and we need to be able to ensure that people living with disabilities as well as older people, younger people coming into the workforce and people coming in from Aboriginal and other culturally diverse backgrounds get maximum access to working in this sector, because we know having a diverse workforce improves the experience of people accessing services but it also, over time, reduces deprivation and exclusion for the groups that have found it hard to find work," Ms Helyer said.

Ms Sheehan said the pitches could take the form of training or even social enterprises.

One social entrepreneur who knows exactly how hard it is for people with disabilities to get a foot in the door is 18-year-old Sam Agyemang, who has autism.

He runs laundry business Donkey Wash from his Evatt home and counts the Canberra Raiders among his clients.

"The stats are not great, the job rate is very low for people with Sam's level of disability," Sam's mum Kate said.

"Sam likes water a lot, he likes watching it and he loves washing. He has never missed a load."

The tender closes in January with the project expected to start in late March.