Latest / Sarah Knows Support Workers / NDIS Changes 2026 Explained: Support Workers, Funding Cuts & The Future of Care
Transcript
- 0:00Another interview that I have. I'm only doing the lazy
- 0:02interviews and Sarah and I are together today, not so much as
- 0:07part of the like, our focus tonight is NDIS, but Sarah is
- 0:12another empowered woman, so I can fit her into two categories
- 0:15here. So welcome, Sarah, would you
- 0:17like to share with everybody, you know, for those one, maybe
- 0:21two people that don't know anything about you?
- 0:24All right. So my name is Sarah and I am the
- 0:27Co founder of Sushi Machi. I have a podcast myself, myself
- 0:30and I've been running the support worker store for two
- 0:34years now and I create a lot of content in the sector about
- 0:37support workers and the challenges and the do's and the
- 0:40don'ts and all the in between. And I, we get to have a bit of
- 0:43fun, Jackie, because when we're podcast host, we get to
- 0:46interview some really amazing people doing amazing stuff in
- 0:48the sector. So it's kind of cool that we get
- 0:51to reach new people and explain what's happening and who's doing
- 0:55what. And Chef is like, even though
- 0:57there's some really crappy stuff that happens, it's some really
- 0:59good things that are happening to.
- 1:01Yeah, I love that. I think that given and we are
- 1:04here to discuss last week last Wednesday, but what I love about
- 1:08what you just said is the amazing people that are doing
- 1:12amazing things and if imagine and it will never happen.
- 1:17Imagine if mainstream media picked that up like that would
- 1:21just be incredible it. Blows my mind to all these
- 1:24people out there. And the coolest thing when you
- 1:27get to interview these people is that they're just everyday
- 1:30people doing something that might have annoyed them or got a
- 1:34little bit frustrated and thought, I'll just build that.
- 1:36I'll just do that. I can see an area that I can do,
- 1:39and this is my nation. This is what I do really good.
- 1:41So it's kind of cool that when we get to display it and show
- 1:44that side of the story, because we do, we care really well.
- 1:48We don't promote ourselves very well in care.
- 1:50That's what I feel that we like is missing.
- 1:53And that's because we're always that person first before us, the
- 1:56person that we serve before us comes before us.
- 1:59And we're so focused on that. And it's a good way.
- 2:02Don't get me wrong, that's really good.
- 2:03That's what we want people to put, you know, personally and be
- 2:06the first there. But we also don't highlight what
- 2:10it takes to get there. Yeah.
- 2:11And it takes a lot, yeah. I've found that too, but they've
- 2:15got some of the best stories, like some of the things that you
- 2:18hear and the success stories behind it, like that stuff.
- 2:20I thoroughly enjoy hearing and being able to share those
- 2:24stories. Yeah.
- 2:25And that that was part of why I developed or started.
- 2:29I saw empowered women positive impact and my book as well to
- 2:34tie in with empowered Women because I've got 12 empowered
- 2:37women in that book and a couple are in the disability sector.
- 2:40But then it took a life of its own.
- 2:42It's like we're getting interested in other countries.
- 2:46But I will bring us back to today's topic, which is the
- 2:49announcements that were made last Wednesday.
- 2:52I'm going to try to keep to proposed changes and plans.
- 2:58I think that we need to just bring down the fear and anxiety
- 3:04as much as we can. This.
- 3:05Is what we have to emphasize the wording that he used because
- 3:08it's nothing set in stone just yet in the feelers into the
- 3:13market to figure out whether it sits or not and how the market
- 3:16will respond to it. And prior to even him talking,
- 3:20there's been six months of fear mongering in the NDIS.
- 3:23This was all the calculated. I I feel like it's quite
- 3:25calculated, yeah. And one of the things that I do
- 3:29want to draw to the, the listeners, the audience, is that
- 3:34we've been looking at all of this since 20/22/23.
- 3:39And not a lot, like there has been some changes, not a lot has
- 3:44happened. I'm not saying it won't, but
- 3:46then I can't, I can't say that. But one of the things that I'd
- 3:51like to say is that I've watched this and when we get a big
- 3:54announcement, everybody goes, oh, what does that mean for me?
- 3:58Right. Like we get, we get sill just
- 4:01for one example. But I've noticed that the actual
- 4:04changes they implement, such as funding in funding in plans
- 4:09being cut by a third, like that's been going on for 18
- 4:13months and there wasn't anything much said about that.
- 4:16Every plan, every plan by far had a cut and then to the point
- 4:20that as a service provider you'd be looking, how can I make this
- 4:24work for this individual? Because they're used to coming
- 4:28to service 5 days and now they can't.
- 4:30They used to having a one to one, they used to being in
- 4:32community and now they can't get what they used to have.
- 4:36So having you justified that as a surface it, it's a massive
- 4:39effect. It, we knew that these cuts were
- 4:41coming because we can even tell by our support worker market as
- 4:44well because their hours have changed dramatically.
- 4:47And then we got providers cutting hours as well.
- 4:51The support workers get cut 80 has a ripple effect already.
- 4:53And that it probably would explain why the turn rate at the
- 4:56moment, I think it's like 50% of support workers are turning out,
- 4:59not coming in. You're losing more support
- 5:01workers and then coming into the sector.
- 5:02Yeah, yeah. So that brings us to just
- 5:05reading my notes, one of the things that that the minister
- 5:09spoke about, which was that cut for social and community.
- 5:13Now I know that's a bit of an area of yours that you're very
- 5:16familiar with. So would you like to just talk
- 5:18to that a little bit, see how much we can just reassure people
- 5:21a smidgen. We can't reassure you 100%.
- 5:24We can, but there I feel like history repeats itself and I
- 5:29feel like this is a part we don't talk enough about.
- 5:31Remember at one point in the 80s and early 90s, institutions were
- 5:36closed down and from the closing down of these introductions,
- 5:39people were supported into community.
- 5:41But also some when I say supported into community,
- 5:44community living, community spaces, community opportunities,
- 5:48whether that was our neighborhood house, our pubs,
- 5:50our football clubs, This idea of coming back to community, it's
- 5:55just it's not an old one. It's actually, sorry, it's an
- 5:57old one, not a new one. It's nothing that hasn't been
- 6:00done. And prior to the NDIS, as a
- 6:03support worker, I was always taught, mentored and guided that
- 6:07our aim was to get people back into community, regardless
- 6:11whether it had to do with their funds or not.
- 6:13The aim is to have community living.
- 6:15So prior to the NDIS, part of my role was to get back people into
- 6:20community, whether it was going to the local gym by themselves,
- 6:22whether it was catching the train by themselves, whether it
- 6:25was going into a neighborhood house independently as possible.
- 6:29So we like the funds is like, I think it was 200 million that
- 6:33they're going to put back into community.
- 6:35Fantastic. I think it's a really awesome
- 6:37thing to push people to, you know, where you live is where
- 6:40you want to commute, you know, be around and the and create
- 6:43those friendship groups within your own community and not
- 6:46outsource that type of stuff and not have a support worker that
- 6:49is paid to be your friend, actual friends that you can
- 6:52create within community. Fantastic.
- 6:54All four. But the only like thing that I
- 6:56would love to see, and I think I need a little a bit more
- 6:59understanding is how to get somebody back into community and
- 7:03transition from support work without.
- 7:05That's a space I'm really like wanting to be more to know.
- 7:08But The thing is, the information's not out yet.
- 7:11We don't know. But if we have the mindset and
- 7:14have that positivity, like, Oh yeah, that means that the people
- 7:17that we provide care for are doing activities within their
- 7:20community and creating friendships and opportunities in
- 7:23the community for them. I don't see that as a bad thing.
- 7:25No, I agree. Yeah, I think that it's, I think
- 7:29the way the Internet is now, I'm going to show my age here.
- 7:32But you know, before we had these things, mobile phones and
- 7:36before we had the Internet like we do now, we met people in
- 7:41person. We you know, when my kids were
- 7:44little, we did the school fate and very heavily involved in
- 7:48that. Like I was part of the committee
- 7:50and everybody came together. We even bought 2 schools
- 7:53together and we had, we had things that people that were in
- 7:58wheelchairs could still access and people that, you know,
- 8:02because we had those people, sorry, those children and adults
- 8:07in the community, the, the children in the school that
- 8:10were, that were in wheelchairs, they just accessed the same
- 8:13things. It was accessibility.
- 8:16Would that be real? Like it was just a part of it.
- 8:19And that's what we want. We want people back into
- 8:22community. We want that back because it
- 8:24serves a person's health and well-being.
- 8:26And we know that people that are more happier live longer and
- 8:30they do more and then more engaged.
- 8:32But also as support workers, providers, How good does that
- 8:36feel when you get to support somebody back into community?
- 8:39How good does that feel when you get to see somebody actually
- 8:42achieving their NDIS goal? How good does it feel for that
- 8:46individual to say, yeah, against all odds, I have now been as
- 8:50independent as possibly can. I can catch the bus, I can go to
- 8:53the movies independent. I can do things that I couldn't
- 8:56do a couple of years ago, a couple of months ago, and I can
- 8:59do now. Those type of feelings.
- 9:01What was the point of an NDIS goal if you never achieved them
- 9:04well? Yes.
- 9:04And I'm just listening to you with that like you're making
- 9:08some amazing points. And I'm just wondering, do you
- 9:11think, and this wasn't a planned question, but do you think and
- 9:19and guys, we only planned the question.
- 9:20So we try and stay on some form of trash.
- 9:22But yeah, outside of that it was like, let's have a discussion.
- 9:26Yeah. I'm just wondering, do you think
- 9:28that because before the NDI, yes, there was a lot of
- 9:31community orientated stuff which you spoke to, but and thank you.
- 9:35But do you think that in a way by giving a person 1 to 1
- 9:39funding for social and community actually created a bit of a
- 9:43dependency and a little bit of lack of the need for community?
- 9:48Just a thought. Yeah.
- 9:49But I think The thing is when it happens with the NDIS, it grew
- 9:54so quickly and so rapidly and it just felt like it exploded and
- 9:58no provider had enough support workers to provide support to
- 10:03people. And when there's not enough,
- 10:05you're, you're getting new people in as support workers.
- 10:09They haven't got the mentoring that I had.
- 10:11Like to be honest with you, 17 years ago, I had fantastic
- 10:14mentors that have been doing it for years.
- 10:16They've been doing it for decades and they understood key
- 10:19cues and how to support people and how to re engage community
- 10:23that they knew off by heart. It blew up so quickly, the
- 10:26support worker space that there was no mentoring.
- 10:30There was no opportunity to support.
- 10:32It became very kind of kind of like hospitalized like it was
- 10:36really kind of like strict and like to the point that we didn't
- 10:39see dignity of risk and we didn't entertain any of that.
- 10:43It just became really kind of stuffy.
- 10:46I can't quite describe it with words, but I find now it for
- 10:51support workers. They just, I don't have the
- 10:53training that I had to be fair, they were put into courses like
- 10:58now you have to wait for somebody to have a plan in their
- 11:00plan to have training for something that I got naturally
- 11:04from provider anyway. That is a huge difference.
- 11:07The support workers are just not as trained as they used to be.
- 11:11And that's none like it's, it's a multiple effect, like it's a
- 11:15bit of an everybody effect. But not having support workers
- 11:19trained, I believe is the reason why that notion of supporting
- 11:23somebody into community. There's that.
- 11:25But there's also the other factor of, well, if I put them
- 11:27into community, I lose as participant.
- 11:30Now what do I, if I lose that participant into community, I've
- 11:34got the support worker that's part time.
- 11:36Where am I going to put them? I still have to pay the support
- 11:38worker under the Shads award. And do you think that that has
- 11:42been contributed to a lot of people going independent?
- 11:47Yeah. How good's the flexibility when
- 11:49you're independent and if you already the, if you already know
- 11:53what you're doing as an independent, just say you're I
- 11:55so we're going down this past season.
- 11:57Independents are like people that have been up providers of,
- 11:59you know, work their way up before they went to independent,
- 12:02not straight independent straight away.
- 12:03That's a debate for another time.
- 12:05But if they've done it and they've done it really well,
- 12:08then they get to pick their own hours.
- 12:10They get to work with people that they want to.
- 12:12They're not dictated by a provider when they're available,
- 12:15they're working with that person.
- 12:17And to be honest, the people that we said love that personal
- 12:20feeling of yeah, this is, it doesn't feel like I'm talking to
- 12:23provider of someone corporate. I'm talking to a real person.
- 12:26They understand me, they get it. They've got flexibility in their
- 12:29roster with somebody from a provider might not because they
- 12:32have Sally in the morning, Frank in the afternoon and Albert at
- 12:35night. It's not the same.
- 12:36I think for the opportunity for independent work is because the
- 12:41market wanted it to have people that we serve wanted it because
- 12:45they want the feeling of knowing somebody quite personal because
- 12:48some of the tasks that they were doing are quite personal.
- 12:51But also our support workers want the flexibility and
- 12:53opportunity to earn more money as well and do what they do
- 12:57well. Big effect.
- 12:59Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of moving parts a
- 13:01lot of people don't understand. And if you haven't been involved
- 13:04in the NDIS, and this is what I've been commenting on
- 13:08politicians posts and I've been going come talk to somebody
- 13:12that's seen all avenues of it. Like, you know, I'll put my hand
- 13:15up. You can come and ask me
- 13:16questions because I've been there.
- 13:19I've been the support worker, I've managed the support worker
- 13:22team in a registered provider. And I was very much on mentoring
- 13:26people and checking in on your staff and meeting all the
- 13:30participants and doing all those things.
- 13:32And then I left and did support coordination and then I went out
- 13:36on my own and my, I always had my company, but, and my focus
- 13:41was, was helping people to not need me even as a support
- 13:44worker. But then I kind of fell into the
- 13:47compliance part part. Of it that kind of helps with
- 13:50registration coming up. Yeah, yeah.
- 13:53Definitely it's, it's interesting what was said about
- 13:57registration, What's coming up with registration?
- 13:59Can you dive a little bit more? Because for a lot of people it's
- 14:02kind of scary, like there's a lot of independence going.
- 14:05Do I need to register? There's a lot of businesses.
- 14:07Do I register now or do I wait for them to tell me to register?
- 14:11There's a lot of mixed messages out there.
- 14:13Is there anything that could clear up?
- 14:14Yeah, I'll give it a go. I'll give it a go.
- 14:16So one of the things that people when if you've known me for a
- 14:20while, one of the things I've always said is let's take a wait
- 14:23and see approach. But while we're doing wait and
- 14:25see, we prepare. So one of my biggest things is
- 14:30around compliance and understanding how audits work.
- 14:33I've done some education in that learnings.
- 14:35And so the biggest thing is that yes, Regis mandatory
- 14:40registration has been spoken about since 2023, right.
- 14:43The the biggest thing is I do think it is going to come in
- 14:47some form exactly when I don't know.
- 14:51But what I would highly recommend that people do as an
- 14:56independent or even a small provider that's not registered
- 15:00is having your documents, policies and procedures in
- 15:04place. And by in place, I mean it's not
- 15:07just having them, it's actually using them.
- 15:10It's completing certain forms and and while someone watching
- 15:14this might go, I don't need that.
- 15:16I'm not an independent. I don't need it like I hear that
- 15:19100 times over you do. Why do you need it?
- 15:23For a couple of reasons. There's the India's code of
- 15:26conduct and let's just forget about registration for a moment.
- 15:31You are providing a service to a vulnerable person.
- 15:34You need to understand what are their goals that that are
- 15:38pertaining to your services. How are you going to help them
- 15:41achieve those goals? Because if they don't achieve
- 15:42keep those goals that don't keep their NDIS funding, like it's
- 15:46just that simple. Now, how do you do that safely?
- 15:50How do you prevent an incident? How do you show evidence that
- 15:54you've actually done this work? Right now, all of this can tie
- 15:57into showing that you're not committing fraud because, you
- 16:00know, you're not like, yeah, unless you are.
- 16:03But how do you show evidence, right?
- 16:05Like you know, showing evidence that you would attended a shift
- 16:10is possibly a timesheet signed if you don't use F.
- 16:13It's your care notes that leading to how you're helping
- 16:17the person with their goals. IE you took Mary shopping.
- 16:21OK great. What was the purpose of taking
- 16:23Mary shopping? So she could get the food for
- 16:25dinner. Did you do the shopping?
- 16:27Did Mary do the shopping? Did you do it together?
- 16:29You're building capacity. Maybe one of her goals is to be
- 16:33able to cook her meal by herself and to get her there.
- 16:37There's a few steps along the way.
- 16:38It's going to take time. That's a benchmark, like if you
- 16:41want to do a really good job by somebody and any job that you
- 16:44want to do in this will do it really well.
- 16:46But I wouldn't put that as a benchmark of wanting to do well
- 16:50for that person. But you're right, there isn't
- 16:52like there's that element of breaking down an activity
- 16:54because we need to be able to tell support coordinators what
- 16:58we're doing, Plan managers understand what we're doing then
- 17:01and they're even the families just to give them that
- 17:03reassurance of what happened today.
- 17:05Because if like you said, if it's a community that's like
- 17:08$70.23, 3 an hour of an NDIS package taken to go out at
- 17:14$70.23 worth it. Yes, exactly.
- 17:17And then there's the compliance part of it that the, if the
- 17:20payment integrity team come knocking on your door even as an
- 17:24unregistered provider, which they can do, they are doing,
- 17:28then they're going to say well why are we giving you $700.00
- 17:32this week? Like show me why we should pay
- 17:35you with federal funding that seven, that $700.00 or that
- 17:39$1000 or whatever it is. And part of that is, well,
- 17:42here's the timesheet to show ID show up.
- 17:44Here's the case notes or care notes or whatever language you
- 17:47want to use for those that we worked on Mary's goal of
- 17:50becoming independent. And part of that was shopping.
- 17:54OK, what else did you do? How did you keep her safe?
- 17:57So they're not going to ask me that.
- 17:58They're simply going to say, where's her risk assessment?
- 18:01Now, if let's pretend, let's take the worst case scenario of
- 18:05what the minister has said and personal care is now high risk
- 18:11and and registration thing. If you were to apply for
- 18:15registration today, which I would say, have you got the
- 18:19money? Why do you want to do it?
- 18:20Like like I'd have that conversation.
- 18:22I'm not going to say yes, I'm not going to say no.
- 18:24We're just going to break it down.
- 18:25And then you as a business owner decide.
- 18:27But if you go to audit today and you haven't been doing care
- 18:30plans, you haven't got shift notes or key notes, whatever,
- 18:34you haven't got time sheets, you haven't got policies, you
- 18:37haven't got any of that in place.
- 18:39And auditors going to to go, well, what have you been doing
- 18:41for the last two years with Mary?
- 18:43And you're going to probably not not get the you're probably
- 18:46going to have a lot of nonconformities or non
- 18:48compliances. And some auditors are really
- 18:51honest and say, withdraw your application because the
- 18:55Commission and who are sexual application are going to base it
- 18:58on what the auditor says and ask you the some similar questions.
- 19:03They might even ask you for evidence that even though the
- 19:06auditor's seen it, they may ask you for further.
- 19:08So it's not just as simple as going and getting your
- 19:12documents, policies and procedures from someone just for
- 19:15registration. It's about how are you providing
- 19:18safe services to the people today and we call that best
- 19:22practice. So Jackie, can I just buy a
- 19:25registration on a Facebook group I've seen and be OK?
- 19:28Well, technically, yes, you could.
- 19:30My caution with that would be you're still probably going to
- 19:34have to go through an audit and an assessment as the new owner.
- 19:39So Sarah, honestly, if you don't know what those policies and
- 19:42procedures say, if they don't represent how you personally
- 19:46would run the business and you haven't changed them and you're
- 19:49questioned and you're audited, you may have wasted your money.
- 19:52So it might have been a lot more money than what you could get
- 19:56away with it. For so if I was a independent
- 19:59looking at all like to build this, can I just check GPT if
- 20:02Jackie like and get it done that way or should I go to and spend
- 20:07a bit more time and detail on it to ensure?
- 20:10Sure that when it does arise and when you know the if.
- 20:14I am viable well, once again, technically sure I've tested
- 20:18chat GTP and it can come up with some good things.
- 20:21Mind you then I start arguing with it and I not not human, but
- 20:25I go but hold on, what about this and what about that chat
- 20:28GTP? So I just want to break it down
- 20:31a little further. The way I operate is sure I I
- 20:35have the bundles, the documents, policies and procedures.
- 20:38Some of them I could add additional ones too.
- 20:41So there's your basic one that you could do for best practice
- 20:44now, not registration, but when you get them, they're templated
- 20:48just to help you know what is ideal.
- 20:52But what you do is you go through it.
- 20:54So and, and this is what consultants don't do unless
- 20:58they're really 100% working with your you for your business.
- 21:03And that takes a lot of work. The one way is that if you're
- 21:07using chat GTP, do you really know what you're asking?
- 21:10And do you know that what you get is actually correct?
- 21:13And how does it represent your business, your unique business?
- 21:17Because Sarah, you and I could both go out there and open up a
- 21:21support worker business and Chat GTP or consult in it.
- 21:25But we don't really know whether what we've got is right.
- 21:28It might pass an audit. But here's the thing, that's a
- 21:32paper audit. It's not if you're working with
- 21:35someone now, your audit isn't a paper audit.
- 21:37Your audit is demonstrating you know what you're doing, you're
- 21:42keeping people safe and you're meeting that level of compliance
- 21:47that the Commission want you to. So sure, you could check GTP it,
- 21:51but you're not going to know what you're not necessarily
- 21:54going to know. You've got it right.
- 21:56And sure, you could buy a business that's already
- 21:59registered, but you still have to personalize all of this.
- 22:03You're going to have to do some work.
- 22:04Or you could pay the money. Start afresh.
- 22:08If you want to go with a consultant, go with a
- 22:10consultant. Ask around.
- 22:11If you want to work with me, you can work with me, but ask around
- 22:14and see what you're getting for your money.
- 22:16Just just ask the questions. Few support workers that would
- 22:20be listening to this and thinking about whether I go
- 22:22business, whether I do keep doing an independent and see
- 22:26where where the registration lies.
- 22:28A few of them sometimes going to be scared by the auditing
- 22:32process with it. Can you rest assured that for
- 22:36some people that auditing isn't really a bad thing, It's
- 22:39actually a good thing that it gives you a benchmark and
- 22:42something that we all work towards for providing really
- 22:45good quality care for the people that we serve?
- 22:46Yeah, I love that question, auditing because you want to
- 22:49pass it, especially to get registration, right.
- 22:52But a good auditor is going to say, all right, so when looking
- 22:57at what you are doing, well, we're looking at what do you
- 23:00understand about providing personal care or what do you
- 23:04understand about providing social and community care and
- 23:07think safety and duty of care. So duty of care to yourself as
- 23:12the service provider or business, duty of care to the
- 23:16participant, duty of care to the community.
- 23:19Because if you're taking someone out in community and they get
- 23:22triggered, what are you going to do, right?
- 23:25Like, so it's understanding all of these things.
- 23:28And a lot of what auditors are looking for is that incident,
- 23:33minimizing opportunity for incidents, which is where your
- 23:36risk assessment comes in. Like it's when you understand
- 23:40and then the feedback that you get, if you can look at it as
- 23:44not a criticism and not a failure because you often get
- 23:47time to rectify certain things. Now you can't go back if you
- 23:52only got your your documents and that and you only did things for
- 23:56today because you're going to go for audit, but you've been
- 23:59working with someone for 12 months or two years.
- 24:01You can't go back. I don't recommend backdating
- 24:04anything ever. I've I've heard of it done.
- 24:07I've seen it done. It's it's a big no, no.
- 24:10You got to be honest, right. And sometimes what happens is
- 24:13you might be better off just getting a whole new AB Oh,
- 24:15sorry, an ABN and just starting afresh.
- 24:18But that's a discussion. It's not a just discuss it with
- 24:22somebody. I very, very carefully.
- 24:24Yeah, but the biggest thing is, is think about risk.
- 24:29So when the order to give you some feedback where maybe you
- 24:32could improve, go see it as an opportunity.
- 24:35Oh, wow, I never looked at it that way.
- 24:37I didn't understand that. OK, now I'm going to learn.
- 24:40Now I know it, right? You only know what you know, and
- 24:44you don't know what you don't know.
- 24:45I've got a question. Sorry, Yeah.
- 24:47So. He was talking about 90% of
- 24:51providers being registered and 10% not.
- 24:54How does that but like Hannah? When when I heard.
- 24:57That I was like, Hannah, how's that going to look like?
- 25:00How do you get into like there's probably a few people going how
- 25:02do I become the 10%? Yeah, I, I.
- 25:06I don't know from the minister's perspective, I just know when I
- 25:10think about what the task force did in 2023-2024 that Bill
- 25:15Shorten put that together, Natalie Wade LED LED that and I
- 25:20do have that that report and then I broke it down for those
- 25:26of us that needed it broken down.
- 25:29And so I would think that that 10% would be cleaners and
- 25:36gardeners. I just, if we go by what Natalie
- 25:40Wade had put down, then I, I think it's and any stores, but
- 25:45ironically I have heard that Bunnings is an NDIS registered
- 25:50provider. So I don't think Coles and
- 25:53Woolworths are yet, but, you know, there's still time.
- 26:00There is still time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 26:02I, I thought that that was interesting.
- 26:04And not to be mean, but I, I couldn't kind of take him 100%
- 26:10serious that he understands the NDIS the way you and I do.
- 26:13Because when he said that plan managers were pushing for plan
- 26:17reviews, I'm like, wow, I didn't know plan managers changed their
- 26:20role. Like, so he's his error.
- 26:23Was it? That's a support coordinator.
- 26:25But Sarah, where do you think the support coordinators and
- 26:28virtually plan managers are going to sit because he did
- 26:30discuss that one in that. It's weird about all that
- 26:35because they were talking about plan management getting a cap by
- 26:38like 30%. So at the moment if you're using
- 26:40a plan manager, it's like $140.00 a month that you're
- 26:43spending. You cut that, it's like $98.
- 26:47I haven't heard any of them be up in arms about losing.
- 26:51What is it like 50 bucks? They don't get a lot as it is
- 26:54per plan anyway. One part of me is like, oh,
- 26:57that's quite interesting that they're not complaining about
- 27:01that. But then when I look about it,
- 27:03there's three big players in plan management.
- 27:05So I was like, well, is this the way to reduce the amount of plan
- 27:11managers in our sector? Because a bigger guy can, you
- 27:14know, outstand this storm or the small one may not because that
- 27:18is a lot. And for for a small provider to
- 27:21lose down to $98 a month, you got 20 people, it's not the same
- 27:25income anymore. It's a massive drop.
- 27:28And with plan management, there is a lot to do with it.
- 27:31And I sat with a lot of plan managers at a previous role and
- 27:34you would hear how many times they had to send it back because
- 27:39it was wrong. The workarounds and the work
- 27:42around it is not that easy and simple.
- 27:45The amount that they send back for people to correct is quite
- 27:48high. So all that time like I, I
- 27:51remember thinking, God, is it even worth being a player
- 27:53manager? Because the amount that they've
- 27:55sent back this one, this one person in particular, I was
- 27:57like, they keep sending it back like that.
- 28:00They have by far 100 and was $140.00 for that for the month.
- 28:04Go on like you know in hours and admins spent chasing this one
- 28:08thing. I think a bigger provider can
- 28:10get away with it. I don't.
- 28:12Not sure about the small ones yet, but yet they've been quiet
- 28:15which I thought was odd. Yeah, I think, I think they're
- 28:18processing because I remember when the allied health got their
- 28:22cut and it was like petition and we're fighting and it was such,
- 28:26so loud. And guess what?
- 28:28It didn't work. It didn't didn't make any
- 28:29difference. And and I've had a lot of people
- 28:32that have come to me and say, Jackie, we sign our petition
- 28:34about we've got to bring these changes and they can't do it
- 28:37without us. And I'm like con on a minute,
- 28:39like, let's face reality. And for all the people, all the
- 28:43independents or support workers in particular that say they will
- 28:47never bring the thing in because they can't do without us.
- 28:51I, I hate to burst your bubble, but they can.
- 28:54So if all of you left tomorrow, OK, that would be a little bit
- 28:58of a problem. But I work with providers how
- 29:01they can expand quite rapidly. And if you leave, I'm getting a
- 29:06bit animated. If you leave, that's your
- 29:08choice. And what are you going to do for
- 29:10job? Yeah, I got told there's always
- 29:12another support worker. OK, I get it.
- 29:15Like, yeah, and I got it doesn't sound very human that saying a
- 29:20statement like that. But there's other people out
- 29:23there looking for opportunities for to work and love working in
- 29:27the support worker field as a profession.
- 29:30And it might not be straight away, but eventually we all get
- 29:33replaced because someone's looking.
- 29:35Yeah. So, so for the support workers
- 29:38and the sole traders out there right now that are thinking that
- 29:42they won't bring this in, look, they've been trying to bring it
- 29:45in for years. So I can understand that
- 29:47skepticism. I can understand, yeah,
- 29:49whatever, which is why I say to people watch, like be prepared,
- 29:54be prepared for registration from the 1st of July or from
- 29:58tomorrow or from whatever. You, if you're running your
- 30:00business properly under best practice strategy right now,
- 30:04then guess what, it's not that expensive.
- 30:06All you have to do is go through like maybe have someone like
- 30:10myself just go through and check everything.
- 30:12So do a gap analysis and then prepare for audit and then do
- 30:17your application, which most of it you could do yourself.
- 30:20But once again, if you need someone to sit with you, I know
- 30:23quite a few people that are not after doing it for you, they
- 30:26will do it with you, which is the best gift to yourself.
- 30:30It might be time consuming so really the cost is some time.
- 30:33Maybe a gap analysis or a coaching session or a brief
- 30:37consulting session and then your audit.
- 30:40It's not going to be $35,000 or something like that.
- 30:43Unless you suddenly expanded from a sole trader to a company,
- 30:47then it's a whole other discussion.
- 30:48It's being prepared and I think we should all be prepared
- 30:51because there was also the talk of kicking 160,000 people off
- 30:56the NDIS. And then I started to do some of
- 30:59the maths like oh goodness, like, you know, some people do
- 31:02move away from the NDIS and support stop for support
- 31:05workers. That can be quite a like if you
- 31:08think about it, might want one person a week, give or take.
- 31:11Let's just just, yeah, figure here, one person that you
- 31:14provide might be $300 a week. If you get 2, maybe 6-3, maybe
- 31:18900. Yeah, let me give a bit of a
- 31:20like a estimation here. You can you lose some of the
- 31:24people that you're providing care to, that means you're
- 31:26losing a bit of your income as well.
- 31:28So it's also having, I think strategies in place that you
- 31:32know, if and like even with plans being cut at current that
- 31:35no one's talking about we, I know we discussed this before,
- 31:37but we need to have plans in place that if people are going
- 31:41to leave, if I'm an independent and someone's going to leave, I
- 31:44need to be able to put myself in a position that I can pick up
- 31:47more work or work for a provider.
- 31:49And there's nothing wrong with working for a registered
- 31:51provider too. If you're an independent or a
- 31:53few people I don't think you know inside dies a little
- 31:56because the flexibility isn't there, but the protection is.
- 31:59Yeah, yeah, 100%. And just on those, those figures
- 32:03too that I've seen in the media that it costs like, you know,
- 32:07they go, oh, it's on average $62,000 per person, which I
- 32:11mean, I'm sure like me, you've seen some massive plans and
- 32:15you've seen some short like. Small plans.
- 32:17Some really depressing ones. Yeah, yeah.
- 32:20I have it, I, I quest like and people are going that's a lot of
- 32:24money. And I said, well, let me break
- 32:25it down for you because 10 hours, sorry, 20 hours of
- 32:29support work a week, which for some people is not enough.
- 32:32Like you know, that's helping them get out of bed.
- 32:34It's only three hours in a day. If we added it to 21, that total
- 32:40over 52 weeks is $72,000. Now we haven't even added on the
- 32:44plan manager. We haven't added on allied
- 32:46health. And then if they get a support
- 32:49coordinator on top of that, we haven't added in that.
- 32:52So that would be actually smaller services like it's not a
- 32:58lot. Yeah, but then I look at when I
- 33:00see those hours and I try to think, I think, God, that's
- 33:04might be somebody trying to get out of bed to go to work.
- 33:06Like just because somebody has a disability doesn't mean that
- 33:10their care is just providing like through like shopping or,
- 33:15you know, getting to appointments that actually might
- 33:17be getting somebody out to get to work as well.
- 33:19And they can contribute to the community as well.
- 33:22So it's, it's a bigger problem in that in that sense, when we
- 33:27need to justify it. And so one part of my like, my
- 33:30thinking was how did, how do they know the exact #160,000?
- 33:35Where do they? Pull that number from and how
- 33:38did he decide 600 was and then and then I didn't mean to cut
- 33:42you off, but then my brain went to.
- 33:44So let's say we get to 6000 people, right?
- 33:47What happens when someone else needs to be on the scheme?
- 33:51Here we go, not sorry, we're capped.
- 33:53I don't know like. Is it like my thinking is, do we
- 33:55move people from NDIS to aged care a lot quicker than what we
- 33:59previous had? Yeah.
- 34:01Because then the funding is different.
- 34:03Yes. Yeah.
- 34:04So I was like, what? I was like, oh, because there's
- 34:06people that are past the age of 65 getting NDIS funding when
- 34:10they could hypothetically get under aged care.
- 34:13Yeah, Yeah, I looked at it as well.
- 34:18Like if I go back in time, because I, you know, I can
- 34:22reflect now. Back in the heyday, they used to
- 34:24rate people out of the system out of five.
- 34:26And the funding was according to where you sat on your level.
- 34:31And I recall when like Level 1 was somebody that never needed
- 34:35services. It's just not.
- 34:37I have person here and there and that used to be like doing like
- 34:41$6000 a year. Then the next person was around
- 34:44like the 12:14 and then why we built itself up.
- 34:48I sort of wonder are they bringing something like that in
- 34:50because it's if you sit on the lower end of the scale, you
- 34:54don't need as much support. And that, that would almost fit
- 34:57in with the ICANN assessment, which is what the minister
- 35:01referred to as that standardised one.
- 35:04That's all about the capacity. I, I look without getting, you
- 35:09know, shot down by the, the, the listeners and viewers.
- 35:12I actually think that's a really good concept because it's about
- 35:17supporting you. So if you need a lot of support
- 35:20because you have very little capacity, OK, that that's valid.
- 35:24But if you don't, if you have a high capacity and there's just
- 35:29maybe those occasions like people with autism and ADHD and
- 35:35acquired brain injury, and there's just some days where
- 35:38it's just too hard and you need that because then your capacity
- 35:42is diminished on those those tough times, then that's a fair
- 35:47assessment. Like, I know it could go
- 35:50anywhere, like, yeah, like how it could look, but I was just
- 35:54curious about have they already like, put it like a sticky note
- 35:59on certain files? I went right.
- 36:01This person, Yeah. A part of 160 like I just I
- 36:05found that there's got to be more things at play than we're
- 36:08aware of. And we, we've, what we're, we're
- 36:11learning with AI right now and who's not spending their plans
- 36:15and why. Oh yes, now that's a good one as
- 36:18well. Like you could just imagine them
- 36:20sitting there going, Oh yeah, that's, they're definitely in
- 36:23the one. You know, it's a one out of 100,
- 36:25the number. And then when I was doing
- 36:28support coordination, I came across about 5 people who had a
- 36:33plan. It was like a two year plan, had
- 36:35spent nothing on it. Local area coordinator gave gave
- 36:41the company I was working for the these plans and then my boss
- 36:44gave them to me and I rang up and I said, so you've got an
- 36:47NDIS plan. Do I?
- 36:49And I went, yes, like it's this and this is what it looks like.
- 36:53And I went, Oh yeah, we didn't know what to do with that.
- 36:56Yeah. Because no one had connected
- 36:58them with the support coordinator to understand what
- 37:02it all meant. Now we.
- 37:04So then I said to her, Well, I can come out and see you face to
- 37:09face and sit with you and just break it down or what it means.
- 37:12And she goes, can you e-mail it to me like what it all means?
- 37:15And I went, OK, is there a reason you want it via e-mail?
- 37:19And she said, yes, I don't like people.
- 37:21Oh, well, that's a fairpoint. So I said, but this will involve
- 37:26people, so why don't I e-mail to you what it could look like?
- 37:30You get back in touch and if you prepared to meet some people, we
- 37:33could do that. Now, this took six months to
- 37:36actually get to meet people and like to the next level, but that
- 37:41had been and we were pushing because if she didn't start it,
- 37:46she would have like she would have been taken off the scheme.
- 37:49Yeah. And and it was all.
- 37:50And what it came down to is not that she didn't need it.
- 37:54It's just her fear and judgement, her trauma.
- 37:59And also then nobody explained it, didn't understand it, didn't
- 38:04know. What's a plan manager?
- 38:05Where do I find them? Why do I need a support like
- 38:09what does it? What does core support mean?
- 38:11Like who does that cover? It is so confusing even
- 38:14explaining quarterly. Funding and the rollover whether
- 38:17it happens and they're talking about taking the roll out over
- 38:20out yeah so at now for providers it's really quite can be quite
- 38:24difficult because you you're not just the only provider providing
- 38:28support to this person. So it's kind of like a game who
- 38:31can get it into pace quicker, so I can guarantee who can eye
- 38:34batch this real quickly so I can actually, you know, sign it off
- 38:37and actually get paid for the support before the other.
- 38:40Priority gets in. Yeah, yeah.
- 38:42And the thing too that they haven't even discussed self
- 38:48managed participants in it. Yes, there was no mention of it.
- 38:52And I was like sitting there waiting manage participants and
- 38:56without being nasty, if we want to tap broad on the shoulder,
- 39:00it's across the scheme. It's not just the providers, it
- 39:04is not just the unregistered providers.
- 39:07And just because you have your NDIS registration doesn't make
- 39:10you a good provider. Like that's not the tick of
- 39:12approval. And so if you're a participant
- 39:16or a nominee listening to this, you know, check people out, like
- 39:21watch for it, keep an eye on the funding like you would your bank
- 39:26balance. Yeah, do do that.
- 39:28Because at the end of the day, if you're not approving
- 39:31invoices, people can put whatever they want on that
- 39:35invoice. And unless someone goes, that's
- 39:37a bit strange that they usually do 2 hours and now they're
- 39:40suddenly done 4. If nobody's doing that, you just
- 39:44want two hours of support. And they can be, it's a kilo
- 39:47from kilometers as well. Like, yeah, they travelled 700
- 39:50kilometers, didn't they? You know, I cross it.
- 39:54It's almost like, but as we getting like systems are getting
- 39:58smarter too, you'd be really silly to play with it because
- 40:01yeah, we'll get caught. It's not a matter of if, it's a
- 40:03matter of when. Absolutely.
- 40:04And that comes back to what we were talking about before about
- 40:07that evidence, you know, because anybody can write anything in a,
- 40:11in a shift note or a can note, anyone can put anything on a
- 40:15plan. But I I can tell you right now,
- 40:18I can tell when it's been made-up and when it's actually
- 40:22true. Like I've, I've read some care
- 40:25plans. And I mean, you didn't ask the
- 40:27participant any of this. Yeah, you know, you didn't
- 40:29confirm any of this. I mean, yes, I did.
- 40:31I mean, no, you didn't because that's not what you're case
- 40:34noting, you know, so sure, give it a go if you really want to.
- 40:38But it's, you know, you will, as Sarah said, you will get caught
- 40:41out. But I think the biggest thing is
- 40:44in all of this is that many of us said have been around since
- 40:47day one or the even the planning stages have gone.
- 40:51That's nice that we're not commenting like, I mean, sure, I
- 40:55did the breakdown and I did that live that's on my YouTube
- 40:58channel. But we're not focused on this
- 41:00being a bad thing. We're not focused on this being
- 41:03a good thing. We see good and we see
- 41:06challenges in all of it. But aware that it needs to
- 41:10change, like something needs to give somewhere along the line.
- 41:14And this is one of the things that have to give to.
- 41:16It's kind of like having a reset, and it's resetting of
- 41:19what good care looks like. What the aim of the NDIS at the
- 41:24very beginning was about choice and an opportunity to have
- 41:28control, but also to connect with others.
- 41:32Yep, I'm sure you were there in the Red Sea as well.
- 41:35Yep, Yep. And I got there.
- 41:36Then I remember being a new, new nurse, enrolled nurse that we
- 41:41called back in the day at Saint Vincent's Hospital many, many
- 41:45moons ago. And we, I remember being on
- 41:48night shift one time and I walked in and went, where is
- 41:50everybody? Like?
- 41:51And they said, well, we've got scallard and stuff.
- 41:53And I said, why? And they go because we're
- 41:54protesting. I said at night.
- 41:55And I went, yeah. And I said I'll stay in the
- 41:57ward, it's warmer in here, but I'm still.
- 42:00And I said, I promise I'll protest tomorrow.
- 42:02I mean, but we're all all for, you know, the ending, yes.
- 42:05Because we all know it. People have more now than
- 42:08they've ever had and we you cannot deny that there is no
- 42:12NDIS anywhere else in the world but Australia.
- 42:14Services and systems as much as like when I hear people complain
- 42:18about it and then like my, my enemies, like all back in my do
- 42:22like it was worse. So what we got now is like, it
- 42:27is good. Yeah, we want better.
- 42:29Yeah. It needs to be fixed because
- 42:31there are parts of it that don't make sense and that does rhyme.
- 42:33And it's all in the best interest of the person we serve
- 42:36because we can see that by using all these multiple different
- 42:39services, it's draining their funds for what they actually
- 42:43really need to be and where they need to be in their lives.
- 42:45Because it's a whole life approach and how we can support
- 42:49them to live the life on their terms and just be like you and I
- 42:52and have an ordinary life. Yeah, and that's what I read
- 42:55somewhere too, that I won't get this right, but this person said
- 43:01the NDIS gives me what an another person takes for
- 43:05granted. 100% do you? Remember the first lot of when
- 43:09the first NDIS plans came out and I, so back then I was on
- 43:13block, like I learnt block funding.
- 43:15So I knew that I'm the first plan that I opened and went, Oh
- 43:18my God. This person now gets to have an
- 43:22opportunity to leave their house after they finish their service.
- 43:26They get a 1:00 to 1:00 to go to the gym to work on their health
- 43:28and well-being. They never had that before.
- 43:31Beforehand it was mum and dad doing that.
- 43:33We now have an opportunity on the weekend to go hang out with
- 43:36my mates, go join the local, the FIFA footy clubs.
- 43:40I get to do things that I never got to do before.
- 43:43Now I have these opportunities all like when people first
- 43:47entered the NDIS, it's felt like their whole world's exploded
- 43:50with opportunities of things that they couldn't do beforehand
- 43:53and we took for granted. And then I see why a lot of
- 43:56people are quite fearful because I remember what it was like this
- 43:59having it, knowing that I've got this opportunity and now that it
- 44:02might be taken away from me and I might be a part of the cuts as
- 44:04well. So that's here is quite
- 44:06overwhelming for a few people. Yeah, 100%.
- 44:09And I think that there is a lot of genuine, real fear out there
- 44:14for people. I remember, you know, like a
- 44:16family member of mine, I call them auntie and uncle, like
- 44:19they're my godparents. And their younger daughter had
- 44:22Down syndrome. Carmel's crossed over now.
- 44:25But remember saying my aunt just not long ago, and I said, like,
- 44:30you just got on with the job because it wasn't NDIS.
- 44:33There was there was group activities where Carmel could go
- 44:37and she could learn to cook and she found a boyfriend and all
- 44:40these wonderful things. But for the most part, it fell
- 44:44on the family. And like any parent, you worry
- 44:48about what happens to your children when you're not around.
- 44:51And the last thing that they ever wanted was come to go into
- 44:56a group home or whatever. And they made her as independent
- 44:59as possible because they learnt around Down syndrome and they
- 45:03did what they could. But imagine how my auntie's life
- 45:09would have been, especially when my uncle was out working, what
- 45:13her life could have been like if a support worker would have been
- 45:16able to take Carmel to the the group activity or something like
- 45:20that. Well, the aim of the NDIS was to
- 45:22keep people in their homes and their families longer.
- 45:25So it was only it was the NDIS started it.
- 45:28That's how it looked. Then in between all that, the
- 45:31seal space just came about. Like it came into play a couple
- 45:36years later and absolutely exploded.
- 45:38It wasn't ever that way like before.
- 45:41Like if I think of the really beginning of the NDIS face, a
- 45:45lot of people that it was really hard to get into a service, to
- 45:49live in a house with other people.
- 45:51And if you did, you live with another 4, it wasn't a space of
- 45:55one to three and it was very selective of the houses that
- 45:59were able to run it. And, and compared to now where
- 46:04there's a lot more. Before there were like 5 big
- 46:06providers and a few for profits, but they were very small.
- 46:09They were the for profits for the majority, and the nonprofits
- 46:14were. Small guys, yeah.
- 46:18And I think too that while it has come a long way, I think we
- 46:22do need a lot more governance over sell homes.
- 46:25They they have been to some and they they have not been nice.
- 46:30And also we had to schedule the visit.
- 46:36Wasn't. Yeah.
- 46:37And, you know, like I was going with someone because we were
- 46:41building a case that they asked me to come with them and just
- 46:45be. And so we just said, look, I'm a
- 46:47family friend. They didn't know who I was.
- 46:49And I remember going in to this house and I just shook my head.
- 46:55Now, I didn't know these people and I didn't know the the woman
- 46:58that I was visiting that well. But I heard, I heard the story.
- 47:02I heard, you know, and even over a period of time of us going
- 47:06back, but you could see the decline in her and she just
- 47:10didn't want to. And she lived in a house where
- 47:13the support team were not the same culture as her.
- 47:18And she didn't like that, that culture.
- 47:21Food, like there was a lot of things that she literally
- 47:24couldn't eat wasn't, umm, discrimination, but because
- 47:28that's all I would cook. She didn't eat.
- 47:31She lost weight, all these things.
- 47:33But the scheduling of visits and things like that.
- 47:36Now I know the staff have to be safe.
- 47:38We have to know who coming and going.
- 47:40And especially when we went through covert times, like I
- 47:42understand all of that, but this supported independent living,
- 47:48which the minister has made reference to as well.
- 47:52It says it's supported independent living, not we're
- 47:56running this place and it's like a hospital or whatever.
- 48:00So I think that when any sealed providers out there, and I think
- 48:05this is where the independents are going to get caught out
- 48:09because independence, providing seal as a team are all going to
- 48:13have to be registered. Yeah, like, and and there are
- 48:16massive funds. This is part of the research I
- 48:18was doing in the legislation. It's massive fines if you aren't
- 48:22once it's mandated. So, but The thing is, this is
- 48:28someone's home. You're in your home, I'm in my
- 48:31home. If somebody said, you know, we
- 48:35have to scream whether your friends come over to visit or
- 48:37not. Find it so wild because I like
- 48:41and I didn't think that this was like I thought it was common
- 48:45practice. I thought it was common practice
- 48:47that people, when they live in a seal, they'd come together and
- 48:50discuss the menu for the week and doing what and what's going
- 48:53on. And you meet together and have a
- 48:55conversation like, yeah, my on Friday there's a shift swap.
- 49:00There'll be Elliot instead of Sally.
- 49:02And then actually, I feel really uncomfortable with Elliot.
- 49:05I'm female. I prefer a female support
- 49:07workout because I've got personal care and things that I
- 49:12thought I was used to that model with you when it was only 5 big
- 49:18non for profit model, 5 big non for profits.
- 49:21Looking over the accommodation space at that period of time pre
- 49:24prior to the NDIS, I bought the NDIS a model like that would
- 49:29come along with it, but it didn't and somewhere in between
- 49:32like I was like, I feel like I'm like I'm visited a few myself
- 49:36and I was like, I don't know if I'm in prison like I've never.
- 49:39I don't feel very independent and I don't feel like I have
- 49:42choice. And when you create like, I know
- 49:45I'm off topic, but when you create a, if you're a provider
- 49:48of SEAL, you need to create somebody a home so they live
- 49:50there for decades, not for tomorrow.
- 49:52And you have to provide that safety and that security for
- 49:56them. But also they have choice
- 49:58because the support workers, the house supervisors, they come and
- 50:01go. They come and go.
- 50:03The churn rate too high. If I can create a group of
- 50:06people that can live together, enjoy living together, and have
- 50:08a really big say about how they live together, them staying as a
- 50:12unit and enjoying each other's company is by far more
- 50:16important. 100% and, and it could even be the opportunity to
- 50:20build some capacity and have a quality life just because
- 50:25somebody and, and their funding is 1 to 3.
- 50:28So they're almost forced into living with other people.
- 50:32It's no different to Sarah, you and I in, in different times,
- 50:37being uni students or whatever, going and looking for
- 50:40housemates. It's the same thing in theory.
- 50:44However, we just need other people to come in and help us
- 50:47out. Yeah, get that.
- 50:50And yeah, we should get, and I don't think we're off topic
- 50:53because I think it it's all just part of it all.
- 50:56It should be the yeah, I think it should be a standard that
- 50:58people meet and talk and have an opportunity to talk about their
- 51:01supports as well and what they look like and what sits well and
- 51:05have the right to complain and advocate for themselves.
- 51:08This should be normal practice. If nobody is making a complaint
- 51:11within your service, regardless whether if you're a registered
- 51:15or non registered. If no one's making a complaint
- 51:16in your service and your service has a.
- 51:18Problem. Oh 100% same as same as I went
- 51:22to like I, I go out to company sometimes and do gap analysis
- 51:27and I go so show me your incident register and they go so
- 51:31and it's empty and I go what do you mean it's empty?
- 51:34Show me your complaints. Register, Yeah.
- 51:38And they go, well, it's empty and I go you bit.
- 51:40I get feedback all the time sometimes that I don't really
- 51:43want it. But you know, you can't grow,
- 51:47you can't know how well you're doing if you don't get feedback.
- 51:50I used to do complaints management.
- 51:53We were called CL, OS, complaint consumer liaison officers in a
- 51:57big Melbourne hospital. Technically, we were the
- 51:59complaints department because we didn't get a lot of compliments.
- 52:03Like. Because, you know, the nurses
- 52:06got those. I used to sit there and go.
- 52:09Good. Another opportunity for quality
- 52:11improvement. Yeah, I.
- 52:12Hope for somebody like I podcast with this dude a while back and
- 52:15he said to me a complaint as a gift Yeah yeah alright.
- 52:19You don't like, tell me more. I mean, cause how are you to
- 52:22know something is wrong in your service and where it's missing
- 52:26if you don't receive it and if you keep going without any
- 52:29complaints and your, your service has a problem.
- 52:32But it also means that in our sector, we're not lifting people
- 52:36up and letting them advocate what they like and what they do
- 52:39like. And somebody that is well heard
- 52:41is more willing and will stay with you because you as if I
- 52:46draw this back to seals, you can get kicked out as a provider of
- 52:48a seal house. They can vote you out and get
- 52:51another provider. That can be done.
- 52:52Yeah. And what, and just to add to
- 52:54that, what a lot of people don't realize is that there's the sale
- 52:58agreement and then there's a tenancy agreement.
- 53:01Yeah. So that can.
- 53:03So if you've rented as the provider, if you've rented the
- 53:06house, you know to fill it with these people, and then they say,
- 53:11actually we don't want you as our provider anymore, then
- 53:15technically they've signed a lease to live there.
- 53:18So you can't boot them out of the house unless you've checked
- 53:22your tenancy law in your state. And yes, they can bring in a
- 53:26different provider. Yep.
- 53:28And it can be done, and there's plenty of providers out there
- 53:31willing to take it. Yep.
- 53:32So you're best of doing best practice, best listening, and
- 53:36putting these things in play prior to that even happening.
- 53:40I love your passion for the industry, Sarah, and the value
- 53:44that you bring because you've been around for some time and
- 53:48seen the different layers of it. These are laughter lines.
- 53:56Exactly, exactly. I'm sick of this year.
- 54:00Don't tell anyone, but you know, but also the way like what one
- 54:05of the other things that I love is that you're bringing
- 54:07empowerment to the participants and their their family or their
- 54:11informal supports or whomever else, as well as the support
- 54:14workers because without the participant.
- 54:17We don't have jobs. Yeah, to be honest, we don't
- 54:20have jobs, We don't have an income.
- 54:22So we should be very cautious. I'm very aware that all of this
- 54:27comes because somebody has a disability, or else we wouldn't
- 54:31have an income, we wouldn't have a job.
- 54:32Everything would change because of that.
- 54:35And we have to acknowledge the fact that we only exist because
- 54:38of. It Yeah, yeah, I love it Well
- 54:40guys, we're gonna leave it here because honestly, Sarah and I
- 54:43can be still here in 24 hours so and and I mean like we're like
- 54:48yeah, we we're both very passionate if you haven't picked
- 54:51up that we're passionate, I'm telling you we're passionate.
- 54:53And so both Sarah and I are going to release this, this
- 54:57video. So you're going to see different
- 54:58shots, you're going to see lots of it around.
- 55:00But you know, follow both of this because between us, we, we
- 55:05kind of bring it all together. Sarah brings her strengths, I
- 55:08bring my strengths. And it is all about empowering
- 55:11people to live a quality life. So thanks for being here
- 55:13tonight. Really appreciate it.
- 55:15Enjoyed it, thank you so much. You're welcome.