General Considerations on Implementation of Individualised Funding
The availability of Individualised Funding is essential to the empowerment of the disability community.
This paper offers a great analysis of the benefits of self-managed funds. It analyses the considerations to be made when implementing Individualised Funding. It notes the need for a collaborative effort between a range of people including people living with disability, their families, their supporters, service providers, local community organisations, and of course Government staff.
Considerations covered in this paper include:
- Shared values - personal authority, interdependence, capacity building
- Strategy - clearly described pathway to a set of tangible goals with explicit and coherent reference to the values and vision
- Systems - identify the systems necessary for the safe and successful introduction of Individualised Funding
- Structure - formal organisational arrangements showing how accountabilities are managed
- Skills - what people know and how they successfully apply it
- Staff - integral to the success of Individualised Funding is the recruitment and retention of good staff
- Style (cultural fit) - the behaviour of those involved must consistently reflect the stated value
As this paper argues:
“… the successful implementation of Individualised Funding requires a coalition of effort, where the voices and endeavours from a range of places -people living with disability, their families, their supporters, service providers, local community organisations, and of course Government staff – work together to create a collective momentum. We succeed or fail together.”
15/11/2018
Ten years on from this paper originally being published, as we move further into the roll out of the NDIS, JFA Purple Orange maintains that collective leadership and collective courage is vital for creating a framework for Individualised Funding that gives people the genuine means to build authentic lives of personal authority and social inclusion.