The Federal Government’s NDIS Participant Employment Strategy 2019-2020 seeks to increase the rate of participants in paid employment from 24% to 30%, approximately 36,000 people, by mid-2023.
This goal is wholeheartedly supported by National Disability Services (NDS), the peak representative body for disability service providers, along with other representative bodies within the disability sector.
However, NDS disagrees with the views of some advocate groups who have called for the closure of Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs) – organisations that provide supported employment, calling them ‘sheltered workshops’. Disability Enterprises are not ‘sheltered workshops’ – an emotional and offensive reference specifically used to conjure images of 19th century conditions.
Disability Enterprises provide meaningful work for around 20,000 supported employees, the majority of whom have severe or profound disability. No employee with disability is forced to work in a Disability Enterprise, all have chosen to do so.
Continue reading the NDS Press Release on Supported Employment.
