Findings from the Enliven Pilot Project Evaluation: Final Report
NDIS recipients often lack meaningful choice and control over where they live, who they live with or how they get support. There are limited options for them to try something new, and not enough support to explore these options in the first place.
To help address this, the NDIS Review proposed a new “shared support facilitator” role. The purpose of this role is to help participants who share housing and living supports have a say about how their support and household is organised. So that participants get to have a real say, the NDIS Review also recommended that these facilitators be independent of support providers and property managers.
Summer Foundation and La Trobe University worked with Enliven Community to conduct the first evaluation of a shared support facilitation model. Enliven Community was specially developed as a shared support model by Enliven Housing, a Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) provider.
The evaluation focused on the shared support facilitation model in eight homes, where Enliven Community worked with people with disability to make decisions with other residents about their housing and shared supports. In each home, there were nine meetings with a person called a facilitator, who helped people talk about what they want for their home and support.
The facilitators were able to help understand and resolve real problems faced by people living in the homes. For example, in one home, the residents talked about not being involved in choosing support workers or even seeing the roster. In this case, they invited the service provider to the meetings, and after discussions, the provider began sharing the weekly roster with the residents and involving the residents in hiring new support workers.
In another home, residents living in one-bedroom villas with shared living spaces did not have keys to their villas. This restricted their ability to come and go freely, forced them to leave their doors unlocked during the day, and required them to be home at specific times for staff to secure their villas. The facilitator raised this issue with the site team and explained why it was inappropriate. As a result, residents received keys to their villas, enabling them to lock and unlock their doors themselves.
The evaluation conducted by Summer Foundation and La Trobe University found potential in the shared support facilitation model to provide people with greater influence over their shared supports.
The evaluation also found that the facilitator role is a highly skilled one and requires time to build relationships and trust with residents.
A solutions-focused approach, built on supported decision-making principles could expand the benefits of people having more say in their shared housing and living supports across the country.
The Summer Foundation will continue to explore models that enable people with disability to make decisions, particularly in shared settings. To read the full report, click here.