Current until 1 July 1998. This paper has been prepared by the AIHW in its role as a member of the Disability Services Working Group, established by the Steering Committee of the Review of Commonwealth/State service provision. The paper informed the calculations of effectiveness indicators for the report of the Steering Committee in early 1997 and should be read in conjunction with Chapter 8 of that report. This paper is published for the interest of those readers of the larger report who may wish to understand more details of the calculations of the effectiveness indicators for disability services. It should be understood that further work occurred during finalisation of the Steering Committee (referred to in this paper as ‘the final report’) and that report should be followed if there are any differences in the numbers.