• employment services to help people to secure and maintain stable employment
• disability services to help people with disability, and their carers, to participate in society
• aged care services to help elderly people to stay living at home
• child protection services to assist vulnerable children
• homelessness services to provide people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness with
support and accommodation
• family support services
• community support services for people with mental health issues
• relationship counselling
• respite services for carers
• emergency relief in times of crisis
• support services for refugees and asylum-seekers.
Reforms to Australia’s welfare system in recent years have aimed to introduce a more individualised
and person-centred approach to the provision of welfare services. The National Disability Insurance
Scheme is one example of how this approach has been adopted in the disability sector (see Box 1.1.2).
Box 1.1.2: The changing face of the disability sector
The disability sector in Australia has undergone significant change in recent years. In
particular, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 established the National Disability
Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to assist people who have a significant and permanent disability
and who need assistance with everyday activities (NDIA 2014a). This includes people whose
disability is attributed to intellectual, cognitive, neurological, sensory, or physical impairment,
or a psychiatric condition.
The NDIS is a fundamental social reform and profoundly changes how services are provided
to people with disability in Australia (NDIA 2014b). Unlike arrangements under the National
Disability Agreement, which provide funding to providers for supports based on available
places in a set number of programs, the NDIS is intended to provide more choice and control,
and deliver a life-long, individualised-funding approach to support. Each individual seeking
access to the Scheme is assessed according to a common set of criteria. Those who are
deemed eligible participate in an individualised planning process to set out the reasonable
and necessary supports they need to enable them to achieve their goals, and then receive
an individualised package of funding to purchase the supports set out in the plan. The
National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), an independent statutory agency whose role is
to implement the NDIS, sets the value for funded supports in participant packages, and limits
the price a provider may charge to that value (NDIA 2014c).
Because of the magnitude of the change, the NDIS is being introduced in stages from July 2013
(NDIA 2014d). Trial sites in selected areas will be followed by a progressive roll-out of the full
Scheme from July 2016 (except in Western Australia). The Western Australian Government has
not yet agreed to full roll-out. Rather, the state is running a concurrent trial based on its ‘My Way’
program. The two models will be evaluated at the end of two years.
FEATURE ARTICLE
Australia’s welfare 2015 7
Welfare services and data linkage
The AIHW collects and reports information on many of the welfare service sectors referenced in this
report, including, for example, child protection and homelessness services.
The AIHW’s welfare services reporting responsibilities result in sector-specific data and information
that governments and the community can use to discuss, debate and make policy decisions on
welfare-related matters.
Although sector-specific data are of great value, they provide only limited insights into the
multifaceted interactions Australians may have with a range of welfare services within or across
welfare services sectors, and with other government services. The AIHW can increase the
information value of sector-specific data collections through a process called data integration (also
known as data linkage or record linkage). Data linkage can provide a more comprehensive story
about individual service use (while fully protecting privacy), and facilitate better understanding of
complex interactions among welfare services and other sectors (see Box 1.1.3).
About Australia’s welfare 2015
The level of welfare support a person receives from government or other organisations varies
considerably depending on the life stage they are in, their level of disadvantage, and the complex
interactions among these factors. Most Australians have a dynamic interaction with the welfare
system—as noted previously, they may ‘dip in’ and ‘dip out’ if and when circumstances and needs
arise. Accordingly, Australia’s welfare 2015 examines welfare principally through a life-course approach,
starting at childhood, then moving through youth to working age and the later years of growing
older. These life stages, or periods of major life transitions, reflect common community perceptions
of the life course. Other chapters cover welfare spending and the welfare work