The uncertainty and anxiety for organisations in the sector is due to a huge change - after receiving government funding for decades, they will have to bid for clients in a competitive market.

Each person with a disability who is assessed and accepted by the National Disability Insurance Scheme will receive funding for services they and their carers can decide how to use.

The scheme is supported by both sides of politics because it will fundamentally change lives.

The ACT is unique is that the scheme is being rolled out as a territory-wide “trial site” - the terminology favoured by the Abbott government - as opposed to other jurisdictions where a small region is being offered the scheme.

The scheme began in the ACT last month but trials were already underway in other regions, such as the Hunter Valley.

In Canberra, sessions are being held to explain to those with disabilities and their families what lies ahead for them and the range of services they can use.

The ACT government is withdrawing block funding from organisations as their clients become eligible for funding under the new scheme.

Smaller organisations could disappear or merge, particularly as larger organisations cherry-pick the more profitable services.

Simon Viereck, acting executive officer of the Mental Health Community Coalition ACT, says organisations need to show their point of difference, to survive in the competitive market.

“We think there will be organisations who will not make it, who will go out of business, and probably the smaller ones are more at risk,” he says.

“There will be impacts for organisations, no doubt, and the likelihood is that not every organisation will be able to continue to exist.

“We have seen already over the last number of months a number of mergers, both of smaller and larger organisations, to set themselves up to be strong organisations in the market," Mr Viereck said.

“I think a key attribute is going to be organisations being able to show their point of difference, to show why they're different and why a customer should come to them for a service.

“There will be real challenges and, of course, our market is open to other players to come in. We would imagine that organisations from New South Wales and surrounding areas will also try to come in and offer services in the ACT.

“That in itself is not a bad thing providing that we get a broad range of quality services offered.”

Susan Helyar, director of the ACT Council of Social Service, is enthusiastic about the new scheme but worries about the viability of some organisations in the sector.

“Both small and large organisations will struggle … it's going to be a really bumpy road for a little while whilst the market matures and grows,” she says.

“ACT government funding to organisations will wind back as the people they are working with become eligible for entry to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, so for some organisations that's gradual and for some of them it can be quite swift.

“Over the next two years there’s going to be big challenges for organisations to be able to clearly articulate their service offer for people living with disability and the people who care for them.

“The critical thing will be, as people have reduced cash flow or changes or more uneven cash flow, it will be difficult for them to sustain their service offer in the market," Ms Helyar says.

“Pricing is critical in this, we’re really concerned prices reflect a decent wage for the people who work in services and also reflect what's affordable for people who are in receipt of NDIS packages.

“That’s a really difficult balancing act and so that's going to be one of the really critical challenges for organisations.”

Ms Helyar says the experience at the other sites suggests specialist organisations do quite well but those with organisational costs that cannot find a niche in the market struggle.

“However the uncertainty and the shake-up of the market is not a reason to slow down or not support the roll-out of the NDIS,” she says.

“We need to be prepared to watch what’s happening, to modify what we’re doing and to respond to problems if they emerge but certainly we would want to make sure any criticism of the roll-out is around trying to make it work well, not trying to say we shouldn’t do it.”

A federal parliamentary committee recently tabled its first report card on the roll-out of the disability scheme .

It did not have a chance to review progress in the ACT, where the scheme began on July 1, but took evidence at the Barwon, Hunter, Tasmanian and South Australian trial sites.

The report confirms that service providers face a significant challenge in transitioning from a block-funded system to one based on a fee for service.

“The committee received evidence from service providers across the trial sites expressing their concern with the impact of this transition on their financial viability,” the report says.

“The committee is aware that one of the major challenges in successfully moving to full scheme will be to create and sustain a competitive service provider market.

“Some service providers may amalgamate, many new providers may come into the market and some may leave the market altogether.

“The ability of service providers to remain viable will depend in part on their own efforts to market their services, identify demand, receive information and communicate with participants and their carers.”

OAK Tasmania chief executive officer John Paton told the committee the viability of a range of providers would be called into question.

“Service providers need to now get their act into gear and come up with viability issues, we can talk about mergers, alliances and whatever needs to happen …” he said.

Ralph Doedens, of Supported Tenancy Accommodation and Respite Tasmania said block-funding was paid up front and covered all the beds and houses provided by a service, regardless of whether there is a three-month vacancy.

Dale Eastley, of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Tasmania, told the committee two-thirds of the group’s staff would have to be substantially retrained because they had never worked in a commercial environment.

Daniel English of Guide Dogs Australia fears the fee-for-service model will encourage for-profits organisations to cherry-pick.

“They will take the services that are the cheapest to provide and yield the highest returns … these for-profits can actually run a loss leader, price us out of the market and yet long term the benefits for participants will be significantly less,” he said.

His concerns are echoed by ACT Deafness Resource Centre chief executive Peter Halsey.

“I don’t think they’ve taken into account the needs of the deaf and hearing-impaired community. We’ve been the Johnny-come-lately of the disability sector,” he says.

“I think our future is going to be in doubt.

“Unless we continue to be funded by the government to provide support in the way we currently do with hearing impairment in the ACT, then we will go belly-up.”

He also fears larger organisations will cherry-pick the more profitable services.

“I think that will happen, they will come in and take over and there’s nothing the small organisation can do,” he says.

Halsey says his service has not yet been contacted by people who have received funding from the scheme.

However he fears the ACT government will reduce funding for the centre. “Hopefully we can talk them out of it.”

He says deafness and hearing impairment is often not treated seriously.

“One in six Australians are hearing-impaired according to an Access Economics reports so that means about 60,000 Canberrans although many may only have mild impairment and they manage,” he says.

SHOUT - Self Help Organisations United Together - has been around for about 30 years. President Daryl Smeaton says it does not provide direct services to people living with a disability.

“We provide services to the little self-help groups that get by on the smell of an oily rag normally,” he says.

“We recently surveyed all of our members and there doesn’t appear to be any concern from them in terms of the services they buy from us.”

The SHOUT team is running a self-help and wellbeing expo on September 3.

Frank Fogliati has worked in the disability sector nearly all his professional life and wears various hats.

He is principal of Black Mountain School and has voluntary roles as board director of Technical Aid to the Disabled ACT and as national treasurer to the Australian Special Education Principals Association.

He believes the disability scheme signifies the coming of age of Australia’s response to building a better future for people living with a disability.

“However what is essential in this changeover period is that we lose nothing,” he says.

“There are many existing agencies and community groups that have a wealth of corporate knowledge and experience and have demonstrated long-term commitment and success, so we need this to continue.”

He points out that TADACT offers tailor-made products and services for people with a disability.

“You won’t find an equivalent on eBay or a department store - it’s a unique service clearly proving that one enabling mobility device does not fit all,” he says.

“Generic solutions rarely work for people with a disability, that’s why TADACT exists.

“Nobody working in the disability sector would want this organisation, and others like it, to cease operation.

“If they did cease to operate, it creates a void, which could either be left unfilled or worse still taken up by a fly-by-night organisation lacking long-term commitment. “

It’s therefore essential that as a whole community we closely monitor the credibility, commitment, and delivery of outcomes from every new organisation that enters the NDIS landscape.”

Although Technical Aid for the Disabled ACT has been going for 35 years, it faces an uncertain future.

Executive director Graham Waite says the organisation has funding for the current financial year.

“We understand that there will be some funding that will support us to some level in the following financial year,” he says. “In the immediate future it’s business as usual whilst the NDIS settles down

“With time we are hopeful we will be able to negotiate some continuing funding from governments that allows us to exist and organise our volunteers.”

The organisation makes and modifies equipment for the disabled.“We customise things, we make things that aren’t necessarily available,” he says.

“We’re in the aids and equipment business and that is a relatively small component of what the NDIS is all about.”

He says people receiving funding under the NDIS might see their highest priority as achieving independence.

“Initially they will tend to use the available money relate on those things that relate to their highest priorities and aid and equipment may not be up in their highest priorities,” he says.

“So I’m anticipating a time lag between the start of the NDIS and when we will start to see specific items that are being requested that we would provide.

“I believe we will struggle a little but that one way or another we will find a way of surviving.

“We will continue to negotiate with governments to sustain some government funding to enable us to exist.”

A close watch is being kept on the introduction of the NDIS into the ACT by Stephen Fox, ACT manager at National Disability Services.

He says the mood of organisations in the sector is a mixture of confidence and anxiety.

“It's very early days yet and indeed none of the changes will have begun to bite as yet because it does take some time for participants to be processed through into the NDIS,” he says.

“Organisations have been given their normal funding which is being decreased on a quarterly basis.”

The introduction of the insurance scheme prompted National Disability Services to conduct a survey of its members.

“Overall that is showing up a reasonable amount of confidence,” Fox says.

“For small organisations, those below 50 full-time employees, there is a 62 per cent [positive] response to what we call the killer question which is; 'Did you meet your objectives in the last six months and do you believe you’re likely to meet them in the next six months.' ”

Another survey showed 25 per cent of very small organisations had considered mergers and formal partnerships in the past 12 months.

“For the micro-organisations, that's clearly something they’re going to have to look at quite seriously,” Fox says.

“They may well find there are niches but they may not also - what we don't know we don't know at this stage.”

A significant challenge for organisations in the disability sector will be to deal with the transition in financing.

“They have to manage the uncertainty of the change to payment in arrears,” he says.

“It is uncertain because there are some unknowns such as the extent to which the scaling down of the block funding will be matched by the scaling up of people moving into the NDIS.”

His organisation is convening a national employment conference next month.

“Employment is the most critical dimension for improved outcomes for people with disability,” he says.

“Employment provides the most dramatic means by which people are able to establish their place in the community and not be isolated by the disability.”