Community organisations affected by the territory’s transition to the National Disability Insurance Scheme are set to receive $20,000 grants to reform.
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The ACT will become the first jurisdiction in Australia to accept all eligible people into the National Disability Insurance Scheme from July 1.
ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher and Disability Minister Joy Burch announced in April about 500 jobs would move to the private sector in the overhaul of disability services, as the government withdraws from services in accommodation support, therapy services and early childhood intervention programs from the end of this year.
As many as 40 service providers are expected to receive the reform grant funding packages, which has been developed with funding from the Commonwealth Government’s National Sector Development Fund.
Government-provided services will move to private providers by 2017, giving participants the ability to choose the services they need using NDIS funding.
The government believes the changes will see an almost doubling of the ACT disability sector workforce, peaking at $342 million in spending by 2019-20.
“The NDIS is one of the biggest reforms undertaken in Australia, and these packages will help organisations develop the skills and resources to adapt to the new environment," Ms Burch said.
“These packages are being tailored to suit each individual organisation as they make the transition to the NDIS.”
The funding packages will be delivered by the government, assisted by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Third Horizon Consulting Partners and RSM Bird Cameron.
Ms Burch urged all community organisations to complete an organisational readiness toolkit before applying for the funding.
The Abbott Government is yet to approve the ACT’s transition schedule for the NDIS roll out over the two-year trial period.
Ms Burch said under the proposed schedule, adults will transition to the NDIS from oldest to youngest by 2016 while children below school age, and babies born after July 1, would transition within the first six months.
School leavers will transition to the NDIS at the end of the school year 2014, in time to have their packages ready when they leave school.
Technical Aid to the Disabled ACT will become one of the first recipients of the transitional funding.
The not-for-profit organisation specialises in creating or modifying equipment for people with a disability.
TADACT executive director Graham Waite said his organisation would work with contractors to assist with costing and pricing options and marketing to participants in NDIS coverage.
"What we have to do is find the best way of getting the message across to people who will become participants, so they know what we do in making and modifying equipment for people with disabilities," Mr Waite said.
"If there is a supplier available to produce a particular item, we recommend people use them but then we have a team of volunteers who make or modify things for unique solutions."
Mr Waite said the funding would be vital to his organisation's transition.
"We’d gone through a process of analysing how ready we were to move forward to the NDIS and those two areas were the ones we identified as being the most important to us going forward," he said.
