NDIS partnership working? Paradoxes, contested spaces and aspirations of disability leaders, family carers and disability services

In 2022, a new Federal Labor government introduced an NDIA Act amendment and initiatives that indicate a reorientation to partnership working and integration of co-design principles. “Partnership working” reflects collaborative aspirations where parties commit to trust, shared goals and respect for diverse knowledges and experiences. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) espouses a partnership approach and rights-based values, yet the neoliberal emphasis on individual choice and marketisation within a social insurance model can privilege certain voices and produce adversarial processes and dynamics. Our focus group research with disability leaders, family carers and disability service professionals explored experiences in the NDIS planning phase with a focus on the extent to which partnership principles operated in practice. Our findings suggest embedded paradoxes; time and resources are required to build the trust and relationships central to interpersonal partnerships between individuals, carers and services but are undermined by organisational and structural factors such as workload pressures, administrative burden and adversarial practices produced in a cost containment context. Tensions in partnership working must also negotiate carers' workload and responsibilities with the autonomy of people with disability. We argue that partnership working is difficult to achieve where structural and systemic limitations and assumptions influence everyday practices. Partnership must operate from empowerment and relational, rather than transactional, principles if genuine participatory and inclusive practice is to be achieved.