Simon Duffy's talk in Sydney on how to avoid the pitfalls of implementing self-directed support and its relevance to the design of NDIS and Disability Care Australia.

1. an international perspective on self-directed
support
Dr Simon Duffy ￭ The Centre for Welfare Reform ￭ 25th June 2013 ￭
Sydney
Avoiding the complexities

2. Two things to remember:
a) the goal is citizenship
b) the way is citizenship

5. • always improves outcomes
• always increases demands
• sometimes reduces costs
• design is very important
40 plus years of self-directed support

6. We’re not standing
on giants’ shoulders

8. systems struggle to give up control

10. note for system designer
avoid fixing the details too
tightly
allow lots of experimentation
a system with lots of local
variations is more likely to
throw up valuable lessons for
the future.

11. Control first,
plan second - if at all

14. “It’s my life, my human rights”

15. note for system designer
avoid trapping people in plans
avoid ‘person centred planning’
craze
focus on giving people real
control, flexibility and the
ability to make immediate
changes to their own plans

16. It’s people’s money,
not government money

17. the government money fallacy...
...money can’t always be theirs

20. note for system designer
avoid treating money as a gift
or privilege - which can be just
taken away or defined from
‘above’
avoid obscuring entitlements and
complex assessment systems
create a robust legal framework
of rights and responsibilities

21. It’s not markets
it’s community

25. note for system designer
don’t means-test love and
community
don’t restrict money to services
let people use their money
flexibly and pool it with their
other resources

26. If it moves
individualise it

29. note for system designer
don’t stop providers from
innovating
don’t encourage negative
stereotypes
at their best providers are
community organisations and can
play a number of useful roles

30. Only connect:
What you need is there

31. O’Brien’s five basic tasks of support

33. note for system designer
don’t make community difficult
don’t punish communities for
inclusion
ensure there are positive
incentives for communities to
invest in inclusion

34. Not brokerage
but social work

37. note for system designer
avoid institutionalising
‘brokers’
avoid new professional roles &
structures, instead open up
existing framework of supports
look beyond the ‘professional
world’ for good support s

38. Peer Power:
the best money can’t buy

41. The Help and Connect Model

42. note for system designer
avoid the ‘bias to
professionals’
respect people with disabilities
and their families
build in peer support at every
point

43. Control control
to keep people safe

44. We don’t know enough about abuse; but we do
know institutions increase the risk of it and
having relationships reduces the risk of it.

46. note for system designer
avoid the ‘ever-plausible
regulation’
focus on who controls the budget
get control as close as possible
to the person and focus on real
outcomes - not ‘process
controls’

47. Be the best
that you can be

50. note for system designer
don’t join in the ‘blame game’
don’t close off roles and
systems
it is the unconcious constraint
we place upon ourselves which
causes most of the damage - “We
do what we don’t believe in -
because the system says that’s
what we’re meant to do.”

51. We remain free to be
the best that we can
be and to do the
right thing.

52. the goal is citizenship
so, be a citizen

53. Lots of free resources on all these topics and more:
@simonjduffy and @cforwr - follow
www.centreforwelfarereform.org.uk - subscribe
like The Centre for Welfare Reform on Facebook