Disability service providers: what about social purpose in a market environment? A qualitative investigation.

Abstract

Australia’s social care sector has historically only consisted of not-for-profit (NFP) organisations. These arrangements have been supported by the government which had written into legislation that only NFPs were eligible to apply for government funding to deliver support and service to people with disability. This is no longer the case. In Australia, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is the primary policy mechanism used by governments to deliver services and supports to people with disability. The NDIS provides individualised funding to those who are eligible, and these funds can then be expended in a social care market of registered and non-registered providers who deliver a suite of specified services and supports. The disability care market now consists of traditional NFP organisations and for-profit entities that are new and emerging providers in the NDIS. But the understanding of what drives these new market entrants into the social care market and what urges traditional providers to stay is still unknown. Through a values lens, this study aims to find ‘common ground’ amongst disability providers in the contemporary social care market.