Personal and community support
Outcome: People with disability have access to a range of supports to assist them to live independently and engage in their communities.
Why is this outcome area important?
Personal and community supports are fundamental to improving overall outcomes for people with disability. It is important for people with disability to be able to live independently and be involved in community activities such as education, work, training, recreation, cultural life and neighbourhood activities (Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031).
Personal and community supports can include specialist disability services (for example, the NDIS), mainstream services, informal carers, carer supports services and assistive technology.
Most people with disability who need assistance do so through informal supports, with 76% receiving support through informal carers such as partners, children, or parents (ABS 2024). It is integral that carers are given appropriate and high quality supports in their role should they need it. In 2022, 38% of carers reported receiving assistance in the last 6 months, with 66% of primary carers reporting being satisfied with the quality of assistance they received, down from 71% in 2018 (ABS 2024).
What are the policy priorities?
- Availability of support: Making sure people with disability have access to and receive the support services they need.
- People with complex, high needs are supported: Providing services that support those people with disability who have complex high needs.
- Informal and carer supports: Providing enough services and alternative care arrangements to give carers of people with disability the support they need.
- Availability of assistive technology: Improving access to assistive technologies and aids for people with disability.
Measures
For the 4 policy priorities under this outcome area, data are available for 4 system measures and 3 population measures (Table 5.1). One measure has updated historical data since the 2nd annual report and 5 measures have updated post-baseline data reported for the first time.
All 7 measures have updated post-baseline data in this report, where:
- one showed improving
- 2 showed no change
- 4 showed regress.
For future measures requiring development, see Future measures.
Policy priority | Measure | Baseline time point | Baseline value | Latest time point | Latest value | Change since baseline(c) | Progress status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Availability of support | Proportion of people with disability (aged 15–64, and 65 and over) who are satisfied with the quality of assistance received from formal service providers (system measure) | 2018 | 79.2% aged 15–64 84.1% aged 65 and over | 2022 | 79.6% aged 15–64 85.7% aged 65 and over | 0.5 pp aged 15–64 1.6 pp aged 65 and over | No change |
Availability of support | Proportion of people with disability who had their needs fully met(a) (population measure) | 2018 | 72.2% | 2022 | 62.1% | -10.1 pp | Regress |
People with complex, high needs are supported | Proportion of NDIS participants aged 15–64 who responded ’Yes’ to ‘Has the NDIS helped you have more choice and control over your life?’ after two years in the scheme (system measure) | 2021–22 Q2 | 75.4% | 2023–24 Q4 | 78.4% | 3.0 pp | Improving |
Informal and carer supports | Proportion of carers who are satisfied with the range of services available to assist in caring role (system measure) | 2018 | 49.9% | 2022 | 45.5% | -4.4 pp | Regress |
Informal and carer supports | Proportion of informal carers of people with disability who report no unmet need for respite care* (population measure) | 2018 | 86.2% | 2022 | 86.2% | 0 pp | No change |
Availability of assistive technology | Proportion of NDIS participants who received assistive technology supports (system measure) | 2021–22 Q2 | 48.9% | 2023–24 Q4 | 45.2% | -3.5 pp | Regress |
Availability of assistive technology | Proportion of people with disability who do not need additional aids(b) (population measure) | 2018 | 94.1% | 2022 | 91.3% | -2.7 pp | Regress |
*Measure where wording has been revised to reflect available data more accurately or clarify the measure’s intent. See relevant measure section below for more information (See Appendix B: List of measures).
n.a. – not available; pp – percentage points
- This measure will be replaced in the future by ‘Proportion of people who report that they can access mainstream support services when they need them’.
- This measure will be replaced in the future by ‘Proportion of people with disability who can access the assistive technology they need’.
- n.a. indicates that there has not been an additional data point post-baseline to enable an assessment of progress.
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2024) Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings, ABS website, accessed 12 July 2024.
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