DEA's response to the 'next steps in supported employment' consultation

This submission is a response to the next steps in supported employment consultation. It sets out starting principles and the premises that underpin the solutions and recommendations. 

The principles for reform include:

• The rights and choices of all people with disability must be paramount and ableist systems must not be sustained.
• No person with disability should be left worse off by reform.
• Rejection of immediate closure of all Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs) as it would not be beneficial and instead lead to unemployment, social dislocation and other negative consequences.
• ADEs must not be allowed to continue in their current model, with minimal flows of supported employees into open employment.

The submission then details how these principles can be applied in practice to build an Australia where everyone has a chance to live a life of their own choosing. This section is divided into ten chapters, each looking at different aspects of reform. No aspect of reform can be looked at in isolation, because only full systems reform will both address its ableist underpinnings and ensure that no person with disability is left behind. 

Ten key recommendations to achieve this full systems reform are put forward including:

• A wage offset model should be implemented as part of a transition to the full eradication of subminimum wages by 2034.
• Supported decision-making to be embedded in all systems, for people who require it (including those with intellectual disability).
• Institute an outcome fund and targeted support to assist ADEs to become (tightly-defined) disability social enterprises.
• Government to lead the development of a national strategy for self-employment and micro-enterprise for and co-designed by people with disability.