Enabling Good Lives

Realizing our prospective aspiration for enhanced disability support is intricate and will necessitate a considerable duration. The intricate aspects will require thorough consideration. Employing an approach grounded in principles will ensure our trajectory towards advancing this vision remains steady. We intend to utilize the principles outlined in the Enabling Good Lives report as a compass for informing choices regarding these modifications.

Guiding Principles and Trajectory of Substantive Change

The pursuit of our future vision for disability support is intricate and will unfold over time. The intricacies involved necessitate meticulous attention. Embracing a principled strategy will assure our adherence to the path of progress outlined in the vision. We shall draw upon the principles delineated in the Enabling Good Lives report to illuminate our decision-making process concerning these transformative alterations.

These guiding principles encompass:

1. Self-Determination: Empowering disabled individuals to exercise control over their own lives.
2. Commencing Early: Allocating resources early to families and communities to encourage aspirations for their disabled members, foster natural support networks, and cultivate the independence of disabled individuals, rather than relying on intervention during crises.
3. Person-Centered: Providing disabled individuals with tailored support aligning with their unique needs and goals, taking a comprehensive life-span approach rather than fragmenting services.
4. Ordinary Life Outcomes: Enabling disabled individuals to lead everyday lives in typical settings, affording them the opportunities for learning, employment, family life, and social participation that mirror those of their peers.
5. Mainstream Emphasis: Facilitating disabled individuals’ access to mainstream services prior to resorting to specialized disability services.
6. Enhancing Dignity: Acknowledging and valuing the capabilities and contributions of disabled individuals and their families.
7. User-Friendly: Offering disabled individuals uncomplicated and flexible support systems.
8. Nurturing Relationships: Constructing and reinforcing connections between disabled individuals, their families, and their communities.

Direction of Sustained Transformation

Substantial redesign and alteration are imperative on several fronts:

1. Empowering Disabled Individuals: Fostering the knowledge and skills of disabled individuals to empower them to comprehend the transformation’s direction and exercise greater control over their support.
2. Investment in Families/Communities: Supporting families and communities to empower them in facilitating a fulfilling life for their disabled members and cultivating ambitious goals.
3. Cultivating Inclusive Communities: Ensuring that communities, including businesses, educational institutions, workplaces, and cultural and recreational activities, are accessible, hospitable, and acknowledge the contributions of disabled individuals.
4. Reconfiguring Government Systems: Tailoring government processes to bolster the system’s redesign, such as integrated, outcome-focused contracts, personalized funding, cross-allocated funding, and involving disabled individuals and families in governance, system design, and oversight.
5. Revamping Service Provision: Aligning service governance, delivery models, workforce competence, accountability metrics, and evaluation with the vision and principles underpinning the transformed system.