My name’s Rebecca, I am part of Allaus Disability Services. We provide employment assistance to NDIS participants from ages 15-65 years.
We’re based in Moorebank, NSW but our service coverage extends across Greater Sydney and up and down the coast.
I wanted to ask as a new provider, what’s the most frustrating thing about NDIS employment assistance supports? Where do most providers fall short?
Hoping to build up our services to be genuinely helpful to people, so any feedback helps.
Thank you !
Hi and welcome to the group.
I think for a couple of my participants, their frustration was in trying to get support to find suitable employment near their homes. Some of them live up to an hour away from the CBD but still in suburbs and the only jobs agencies seem to be able to find them are located in the CBD. It can make travelling independently a bit of a task each day.
Hey Rebecca, welcome!
It’s great to see a provider actively making an effort to improve their services.
Hopefully the community will chime in here and give you some great responses.
Thanks for the warm welcome 
And thank you for the insight! I’d have to agree from the other side that the employment providers I’ve had experience with tended to partner/reach out to the larger urban companies because (I would guess) they had more capacity to accommodate any needed adjustments.
We’ve focused more on local networking, thankfully, so hopefully our assistance can hit closer to home, as it were.
One of the biggest issues with NDIS employment assistance is that it can feel pretty basic. A lot of it is just resume building, job applications, and interview prep, but not much focus on what actually works for the person. Helping someone apply for jobs is one thing, but actually guiding them toward roles that suit their skills, interests and needs is a whole different level of support.
Another big gap is the relationship that providers have with employers. A lot of providers say they offer support, but if they don’t have solid relationships with employers, participants just end up going through the motions without landing real job opportunities.
Another thing is the drop off in support once someone actually gets a job. Plenty of people need help settling in, handling workplace adjustments and keeping their role long term, but that kind of ongoing support is usually non-existant. At least with the employment agencies I’ve been involved with in the past.
If you focus on those areas you’ll already be ahead of a lot of providers out there.
Hi @AllausDisability1 & welcome! This is a great question. I’m sure this is something your organisation does already, but something that comes to mind from my experiences is paying attention to the different access needs of individuals rather than placing them into opportunities that have aspects in conflict with their disability access needs. I hope this helps!
Sara
Welcome to the group Rebecca 
Hi Michael!
Thank you for your feedback! What you say makes a lot of sense – the basics of job support aren’t going to be enough if the roles you’re trying for don’t suit you or your needs.
To your second point, we’re building up from a recruitment industry background where relationships with employers are a high priority, so that will (hopefully) translate well across industries.
Ongoing employment support is something we are developing as we get more feedback from our participants. I agree that a lot of providers seem to only support the Finding A Job part, and ignore the Keeping A Job part, which is way more important for long-term outcomes.
Thanks again Michael
Hi Sara
Thank you for the welcome! I can see how frustrating that would be for everyone involved if someone was plonked into a job that conflicted with their access needs. It seems like a major oversight on the provider’s part – aren’t providers required to do proper needs analysis of their clients when they first intake them? You would think that people’s needs would be a major part of the decision making for where to put them.
Thanks for the insight!
Thankyou Megan!
Do you have any frustrations about employment assistance you want to get off your chest? I am all ears! 
Hi Rebecca. Welcome to the forum.
My younger brother has had some NDIS employment assistance years ago and he got a little work out of it. I’d say just ensure like the others have said that you have a good relationship with the employers that you’re partnered with and ensure there’s the post placement support in place.