The region is one of three in Queensland to get earlier access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) rollout.

From this November, existing clients of state disability services in the region will have access to the NDIS, and other eligible people will begin to enter the scheme from January 2018.

Assistant Minister for Social and Disability Services Jane Prentice and Capricornia MP Michelle Landry visited disability support service Home Assist this morning to discuss the rollout with providers and participants.

The Productivity Commission reports the NDIS is the largest social reform since Medicare, and will require around 70,000 additional disability support care workers (or around one in five new jobs created in Australia over the transition period).

The Morning Bulletin reported in January that once the NDIS was introduced, the number of people with disabilities receiving funding in Rockhampton was expected to grow to 4900 (about 96%).

This was according to disability support service Choice Passion Life CEO Rhys Kennedy, who forecast the workforce would initially grow to about 650-800 employees. He said once fully rolled out the NDIS would create 1500-1800 jobs in the region.

Ms Prentice and Ms Landry today dismissed criticisms from NSW front-line workers that the NDIS was being rushed at the expense of quality, with claims the process of writing individual plans for people’s care was condensed from weeks down to hours, as reported by the ABC in June.

Source: The Morning Bulletin