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Summer Foundation Focus – May 2025

Welcome to Summer Focus.

This month, Australia re-elected the Albanese Government for a second term. We congratulate the Hon. Mark Butler for his appointment as the Minister for  Health and Ageing, Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and the Hon. Jenny McAllister for her appointment as Minister for the NDIS. We look forward to working with them to continue to reform the NDIS so it delivers for people with disability.

A key focus for this term will be the co-design and implementation of the support needs assessment, flexible budgets and foundational supports. This work is critical to delivering fair and consistent access to NDIS supports as well as timely and high-quality supports for people receiving supports outside of the NDIS.  

Equally important is the urgent need to expand housing and support options for people with disability who have high support needs. The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability exposed the violence, abuse and neglect occurring in group homes and recommended they be phased out.

Beyond the human cost, group homes are also placing significant financial pressure on the NDIS—costs that are projected to continue to rise in the years ahead.

At the Summer Foundation, we are exploring a range of high potential solutions that will deliver better outcomes for people with high support needs. We’ll soon release our first policy report under our new mission and purpose, outlining a national strategy to grow Individualised Living Arrangements across Australia. 

This month, Focus also takes you behind the scenes on our recent photography shoot with the people we work with, including a special interview with one of our stars – Meghan Kyne.

In this issue, you’ll also read an article on our recently published study to understand the experience of family members supporting people with disability moving into Specialist Disability Accommodation. 

We have also included a link to our most recent podcast with NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioners Louise Glanville and Natalie Wade. 

Enjoy the issue.

Di Winkler

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Lights, camera, action!

Come behind the scenes on the Summer Foundation’s recent photography shoot, as we refresh our visuals and feature greater diversity on our website, social media and publications. Our vibrant new imagery captures people with disability in their homes and communities, thriving and doing what they love, and we couldn’t be more excited to share it with the world.
Read More

From “toothless tiger” to “formidable” regulator: Is this a new era for the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission? 

In this latest episode of Reasonable & Necessary, Dr George Taleporos brings us an exclusive interview with NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioners Louise Glanville and Natalie Wade. Louise and Natalie deliver a powerful call to action for the safety, rights and dignity of people with disability. They also discuss the future of the Commission and the impact of upcoming changes to NDIS regulation.
Read More

Tell us a bit about yourself. 

My name is Meghan and I’m 38 years old. I live in my home in Melbourne with my housemate Isobel. I work at an op shop on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. I also like going out and meeting my friends at Escapades (a Milparinka-run activities program). My favourite things to do are going bowling, swimming and picnics. I love fashion, and my support worker Milly and I are going to cut and change some of my t-shirts.

Recently, you took part in a photo shoot for the Summer Foundation. What was the experience like for you? Did you have fun? 

Yes I liked it – I want to do it again next year. It was fun pretending and I liked having photos at my work, the op shop. The op shop workers were excited.

Was anything hard or tricky during the photo shoot? How did you handle it? 

It was a bit tricky when I was holding the glasses and crockery waiting for the photos to be taken. I was pleased I didn’t break anything. It was good to show how to use the pricing gun.

The photos look great! How was it working with the photographer and videographer? 

Fantastic, it was a good experience. Yes, it was fun, they were all nice people.

Do you like how the photos turned out? How do they make you feel?

Yes, I liked Milly my support worker walking with me, that was my favourite photo.

I felt fantastic seeing the photos, I did a good job. I like the photos and people can see what my life is like.

In the February issue of Summer Focus, we introduced new resources from the Housing Hub for helping people navigate NDIS housing issues. These resources, which were co-designed by NDIS participants, providers and supporters, have helped people learn about their tenant rights, give and receive feedback, and understand where to go for more help when accessing supported living arrangements. 

To ensure participants get the most out of these resources and know how to put them into practice, the Housing Hub is hosting a series of free online workshops across May.

Upcoming workshops will cover topics like: 

– Service Agreements – what am I signing?

– How should shared support work in my NDIS Housing?

– Who is responsible for what in my NDIS Housing? 

Learn more and register

They say a picture is worth a thousand words – and what better way to highlight the opportunities the Summer Foundation wants people with disability to have than through a broader range of images of lives in communities. 

Over the last few months, our Co-Design Team worked with six people with disability living in a range of different housing types including Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), Individualised Living Arrangements (ILA) and private homes.

Our stars invited us into their homes, workplaces and lives. Here are just some of the things people showed us they loved…

🎨 Ned showed us around his work and art studio. 

🏋️‍♀️ Kirby brought us to the physio and taught us her workout routine. 

🐞 Leanne shared her love of ladybirds and some fruit from the market with us. 

🎳 Nick showed off his house and his bowling skills. 

🐶 Anna took us for a stroll around the neighbourhood with some of the dogs she walks, before hosting a delicious lunch.

👗 Meghan let us sit in on a shift at the op shop, then showed us her homemade cookbook. 

All the people we worked with loved being movie stars for the day. Meghan had a ball posing for our photographer and videographer to get ‘the shot’, while the artistic Ned took a keen interest in the camera gear. 

The experience was also a memorable one for Gina Fall, Co-Design Curator, and Jodie Gallacher, Videographer/Digital Editor, from the Summer Foundation. “From my perspective, it was really fun to be part of their lives for a day. They were great stars,” Jodie says.

Look out for more pictures and videos on our website, social media, and our published work. 

For more behind the scenes stories, read our interview with Meghan. 

All talent were paid for their time and efforts and have consented to their photos being used by the Summer Foundation.

More Australians with disability are choosing individualised housing options over group homes.  Current projections estimate that 36,000 people will be eligible for NDIS funding to live in Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) housing by 2042. 

The move to individualised housing is an exciting and challenging time of transition. The Summer Foundation undertook a study to understand the experience of family members supporting people with disability moving into SDA. We conducted interviews with twelve family members who shared their valuable insights into this transition experience. 

As an invaluable source of caring know-how, family members can play a key role for people with disability in their move to individualised housing. Supporting family members to share their knowledge and navigate this period will help leverage this know-how and set up new independent living arrangements for success. 

Next steps for this project include working with families and NDIS participants to explore, prioritise and co-design information for, and by them, to better prepare for and support the transition to individualised living.

Read more about the study.

On February 20 our Head of Policy, Communications and Systems Change, Jessica Walker attended the NSW stakeholder meeting on increasing accessible housing in Sydney.  

Following this, the Summer Foundation made a submission to inform the NSW approach to the adoption of the Livable Housing Design Standards (LHDS) in the National Construction Code (NCC) 2022.

Consistent with the NSW Building Better Homes campaign position, the Summer Foundation supports the adoption of the LHDS with reasonable exemptions. We believe this represents a reasonable and pragmatic approach for NSW to join the rest of the nation in delivering  accessible housing in all new builds.  

Research finds that there is a 60% chance that any home will house someone with a disability during its lifespan. In the context of Australia’s housing crisis, we must future-proof housing stock for all Australians by ensuring all new houses meet minimum accessible design standards – things like a step free shower and level entry to the home. 

Both the Disability Royal Commission and the NDIS Review called for immediate nation-wide adoption of the LHDS in the NCC. Australia’s Disability and Age Discrimination Commissioners recently echoed this position.

By joining the rest of the nation in adopting the LDHS, the NSW Government can ensure its housing meets the needs of current and future generations.

Read the full submission

The Summer Foundation calls for a renewed focus from the Albanese Government to stop younger people with disability from entering residential aged care.

New data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows 81 people under the age of 65 entered aged care in the last quarter of 2024, and there were still 1,287 younger people stuck in aged care.

This is despite a government commitment to stop aged care being a destination for younger people with disability.

Head of Policy, Communications and Systems Change at the Summer Foundation, Jessica Walker, said the data showed the downward trend in the number of younger people with disability entering residential aged care had slowed considerably in recent quarters.

“The implementation of the Aged Care Act in July this year will mean people under 65 will not be able to access residential aged care. But we remain concerned about a loophole which may allow younger people with disability to unnecessarily enter aged care if they are deemed at risk of homelessness,” she said.

“This situation is not good enough. The government made a commitment to the disability community that younger people would not be forced to enter aged care.

“It is a national shame that younger people with disability are still being placed in aged care facilities meant for the final chapters of life, not a life still full of potential.

“Even though the younger people in residential aged care targets have passed, the Albanese Government cannot fail in its commitment to people with disability. We need a renewed focus to get the job done.”

MEDIA: For interviews with Summer Foundation Head of Policy, Communications and Systems Change Jessica Walker, please contact Strategic Communications and Media Manager Jessica Craven on 0400 424 559 or jessica.craven@summerfoundation.org.au. The AIHW data can be found here.

A recent investigative report on a series of horrific incidents of violence and abuse in group homes was shocking. But nothing new.

This report is just the latest in a long line of reports and inquiries that show that group homes are often unsafe. Where residents have little or no say over who they live with, their daily routines or how they receive essential supports.

And each time, we follow a predictable pattern. People express outrage and concern. The government promises to crack down on bad providers. But nothing is done to address the root cause of the issue: when people with disabilities are isolated and not included in the community, they are at greater risk of harm.

In 2023, the Disability Royal Commission revealed harrowing evidence about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation in group homes. Only months before, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission’s Own Motion Inquiry found more than 7,000 serious incidents were reported in a sample of seven of the largest disability group homes providers over a four-year period.

This is not a question about insufficient funding in the disability housing and support system.

Quite the contrary. Providing support to people with high housing and living support needs is costing the taxpayer $15 billion a year. Yet this investment is not delivering the quality of support people need to live dignified lives where they are included in their local community.

For this systemic violence and abuse to stop, the federal government needs to invest in a range of alternative housing and living options. Government must then commit to stopping the flow of people into group homes once and for all. 

The National Disability Insurance Agency’s attempt to stimulate more contemporary living options through a specific funding stream (individualised living options) has failed. Government’s lack of commitment to growing these options is demonstrated through the lack of indexation for this stream of funding since it was established in 2019. This is in stark contrast to the treatment of Supported Independent Living, the stream used to fund group homes, which increased by 28% over the same time period.

Australia lags behind other OECD countries in providing more inclusive and contemporary housing and living options, despite us paying more per capita in equivalent disability support. The United Kingdom, parts of the United States and Canada for instance have successfully implemented inclusive housing and support for people with disability.

The UK now has about 10,000 people in Host arrangements, where a person with disability is matched with a carer who has a spare room in their house. The person with disability shares in the Host’s life, family and community. These arrangements can save the UK government between $16,000 and $61,000 per person per year compared to supported living and residential care. This costs significantly less than the supports provided by group homes through the NDIS (average cost of about $350,000 per person annually). And, it’s safer, with ninety-one per cent of people living in ‘shared lives’ arrangements reporting feeling more involved in their community.

These arrangements exist at a small scale here, particularly in Western Australia. Perversely, while innovations such as these were meant to grow under the NDIS, they have stalled.

The government’s continued lack of response to the Disability Royal Commission recommendation to phase out group homes over a 15-year period will only result in more people with disability being subject to violence, abuse and neglect.

People with disability deserve more choice in how and with whom they live. Taxpayers should also demand better quality services delivered with their tax dollars.

There is enormous potential to grow more contemporary models of housing and living in Australia but more must be done. Shared lives arrangements, apartment living in mixed developments and flexible supports (such as key ring and drop-in and on-call) should all be part of the solution. Existing providers need support to continue to deliver these arrangements and new providers need to be encouraged to enter the market. We need strong market stewardship from the government to grow more bespoke, individualised arrangements for people with disability.

Both sides of politics should commit to an action plan aimed at growing alternative housing and living options and stopping group homes being the de facto solution for people with high support needs. This will address the serious incidents of violence, abuse and neglect happening daily across the country in group homes. Most importantly, people with disability will have better, more affordable alternatives that are safeguarded by strategies that work for all of us: deep relationships, friendships and connections to their community.

Dr Di Winkler AM
CEO, Summer Foundation

In this latest episode of Reasonable & Necessary, Dr George Taleporos brings us an exclusive interview with NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioners Louise Glanville and Natalie Wade.

Louise and Natalie deliver a powerful call to action for the safety, rights and dignity of people with disability. 

They also discuss the future of the Commission and the impact of upcoming changes to NDIS regulation. 

This exclusive joint interview covers: 

  • The Commission’s reform agenda and push for new legislative powers
  • Mandatory registration of key NDIS services
  • Protecting human rights through regulation
  • Balancing quality, safety, and participant choice and control
  • The importance of co-design and centring lived experience of disability
  • The significance of disability leadership within the Commission

For NDIS participants, family members and providers alike – this is an episode you won’t want to miss. 

Listen now on Reasonable & Necessary, available on YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your thoughts in the comments!

Download transcript

🎙️ Listen to the podcast on:
SoundCloud
Apple Podcasts 
Spotify 

View all podcasts

In the latest episode of Reasonable & Necessary, Dr George chats to the Minister for Social Services and Minister for the NDIS, Amanda Rishworth, to unpack some of the changes coming to the NDIS. The Minister stated that the ‘In’ and ‘Out’ lists are intended to maintain flexibility in NDIS spending and committed to ongoing engagement to address concerns.
She confirmed that foundational supports will be introduced in stages, with the new system set to begin in the second half of 2025. Other key questions covered include:

  • Will Support Needs Assessments lead to funding cuts? Many participants are worried that their funding could be reduced under the new system.
  • What’s next for the in and out lists? Section 10 of the NDIS Act has caused frustration in the community. George asks whether the government will make fixes to the permanent rule.
  • What is the government doing to ensure people with disability have real housing choice? With group homes often unsafe and restrictive, George presses the Minister on plans to expand individualised living arrangements so that people can live where and with whom they choose.
  • Will foundational supports be ready in time? The Minister lays out the timeline for foundational supports and how they’ll work alongside the NDIS.

Of course, with the federal election imminent, the Minister also shared her plans for other NDIS reforms if the government is re-elected – including pricing, safeguarding and advisory committees.

Download transcript

Listen to the podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. 

View all podcasts

Tell us a bit about yourself. 

My name is Jamie-Lee Dwyer and I’m a 34 year old woman living on the Gold Coast. I currently work at the Housing Hub as a copywriting assistant, and as part of that I write a lot of lived experience blogs. I hope to make a difference for other people with disabilities going through similar struggles so they don’t feel alone.

You worked on our project to develop resources to support people with disability living in shared support settings to resolve issues for 18 months. What made you get involved? 

I was interested in how collaborative the co-design project would be with people who had different disabilities. I wanted to be a part of something where different perspectives were involved to create something meaningful. 

I hope that by using skills that I’ve learnt as well as my unique experiences I can provide support for other people in similar situations to me. 

What did you enjoy most about the process? 

I enjoyed working alongside people from different backgrounds and seeing what they came up with. 

For example, I really enjoyed working with other people who have lived experience and seeing the way they’re able to communicate with assistive technology.

What did you take away from this project? 

Better education about NDIS roles and responsibilities and more confidence to navigate this in the future. Personally, I don’t think there is enough education out there about disability and I’m excited to be a part of this project. 

What would you say to other people considering getting involved in a co-design project like this? 

I would encourage as many people as possible to get involved in a co-design project because it opens your eyes as to what other people may be going through. 

What do you think about the final designed resources?

The final resources show how much effort the whole team put into designing them. I think they are very useful and I only wish that I had access to these resources back when I moved into SDA (Specialist Disability Accommodation).

Is there any resource in particular that you would recommend to people thinking of checking them out? 

I would recommend the Knowledge Builder: Building the Culture. I think it explains so much about living in SDA and how shared support works as opposed to your personal team of support workers. 

Check out the Knowledge Builder and the full set of resources:

Full Resources

While up to 36,000 people will be eligible for Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) payments in the next 20 years, little is known about the impact SDA has on the lives of people with disability who live there. 

The Summer Foundation and La Trobe University are investigating this across 4 key indicators: health, wellbeing, community integration and paid support needs, through the Home and Living Outcome Framework study. 

Early results from the pilot study are already showing large positive effects and significant improvements across all indicators. 

Drawing on an initial sample of 15 NDIS participants living in well-located and well-designed SDA, the results of the pilot show that after moving into SDA: 

  1. 60% had higher overall health
  2. 66% had improved wellbeing
  3. 73% felt better integrated within the community
  4. 21% no longer required overnight support
  5. Participants required 2 hours and 24 minutes less of daily support 

These initial outcomes have important implications for policy, and demonstrate that suitable SDA can reduce the cost of support hours required for participants.  

For example, the pilot study showed that a person living in single-occupant SDA needing 2.4 hours (2 hours and 24 minutes) less support per day could save the NDIS over $60,000 per person per year. 

While yet to be quantified, improvements to health, wellbeing and community integration also have considerable value in terms of savings to be made. 

Results like this start to build a rigorous evidence base for the creation of innovative, high-quality and fit-for-purpose SDA. 

Are you about to move into SDA? We’re looking for more research participants. 

Learn more about the study here, and register to have your say here.

It can be difficult for people living in Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) or shared support settings to know who to turn to when experiencing problems. 

Just like anyone living with other people, there are roles to negotiate and responsibilities that need to be made clear. 

That’s why we’ve co-designed these resources to help NDIS participants know their rights and how to take action when they feel a situation puts their rights or safety at risk.

The Summer Foundation and Housing Hub, through a grant provided by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, worked with NDIS participants, providers and supporters to produce the resources which aim to:

  • Clarify roles and responsibilities in shared support settings and provide information on who to contact if you’re having trouble resolving an issue
  • Guide NDIS participants with tips for setting up service agreements and having conversations about support with their providers
  • Provide information on setting up tenant advisory committees and other ways to make sure there is open communication between tenants and housing providers

Check out the resources here and hear from one of our co-design contributors here.

View resources

Hot off the press is this toolkit from the Department of Social Services, designed to be a helpful one-stop-shop source of information for people with disability on moving out of aged care. 

The toolkit covers key concerns on the journey out of aged care, and breaks down information on finding housing options, the basics of moving, settling in and ongoing support. 

The Summer Foundation helped with the development of this toolkit by coordinating the participation of Lived Experience Contributors who helped to develop and review the material.

These Contributors included younger people who used to live or are still living in aged care, as well as their families. 

We would like to thank everyone who contributed their voices and experiences to this resource. 

We hope the tips, stories and guides in this toolkit will give people, their family and carers the confidence and knowledge to make choices that work best for them. 

Find the toolkit here.

Download toolkit

It’s an exciting year for the Summer Foundation as we work with renewed purpose under our new vision to identify, design and scale up great ideas to deliver better housing and living solutions for people with disability who need access to 24/7 support.

The Summer Foundation is currently exploring four areas with lots of potential. These include: 

Flexible and on-call supports:  Technology-enabled support that is more flexible and responsive than rosters of care and/or 3-4 hours of scheduled shifts. These may use health and other monitoring technology.

Ecosystem of Housing Innovation: Establishing an ecosystem of universities, designers and developers that are continually innovating to improve the built design of housing to make it more adaptable and functional for people with disability living in Specialised Disability Accommodation (SDA).  

Shared Lives: Individualised Living Arrangements (ILAs) including hosts, homeshare, sharehouses, good neighbours, co-residents and mentors where people with disability have a choice about where they live, who they live with and how they receive their supports.  

Self-determined lives: Governance models and interventions that enable NDIS participants to direct the services they receive and the workers that deliver their support.

I look forward to keeping you updated on our progress and sharing what we learn along the way.

2025 is also an important year for disability policy reform, with the development of the foundational supports strategy, the NDIS’ support needs assessment and budget model and a tiered registration system for providers. It’s important that these critical reforms support innovation in housing and living supports for people with disability. You can read our submission to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission on the registration of NDIS participants who self-direct their NDIS funded supports here. 

I hope you enjoy this edition of Summer Focus. If you have colleagues or friends in the disability community or working in the disability sector, we’d love you to share this edition with them or encourage them to sign up to our mailing list. We will have lots of exciting research, events and other information to share this year.

Di Winkler CEO and Founder

Subscribe to our Summer Foundation Focus updates

View all articles in this issue

New podcast episode: Diving Deeper into Individualised Living Arrangements

On this episode of Reasonable & Necessary, Dr George is joined by Rod Davies, CEO of One2One. We learn how aIn the latest episode of Reasonable & Necessary, we learn how a lifelong relationship with a childhood friend sparked One2One CEO Rod Davies’ passion to deliver truly person-centered housing and support solutions for people with disability.
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5 things people with disability do and don’t want in SDA 

A co-design project was undertaken by the Summer Foundation, to inform the design of contemporary specialist disability accommodation (SDA) for thin markets. The aim of this project was to partner with people with disability and the building and design sectors to co-design innovative models of housing that foster a user-driven SDA market.
Read More

Your toolkit for moving out of aged care 

The Department of Social Services, designed to be a helpful one-stop-shop source of information for people with disability on moving out of aged care.  The toolkit covers key concerns on the journey out of aged care, and breaks down information on finding housing options, the basics of moving, settling in and ongoing support.
Read More

Promising early findings from longitudinal SDA study

The Summer Foundation and La Trobe University are investigating this across 4 key indicators: health, wellbeing, community integration and paid support needs, through the Home and Living Outcome Framework study.  The toolkit covers key concerns on the journey out of aged care, and breaks down information on finding housing options, the basics of moving, settling in and ongoing support.
Read More
Young women smiling into the camera, she has a red bow in her hair. Text reads meet Jamie-Lee.

Meet Jamie-Lee

My name is Jamie-Lee Dwyer and I’m a 34 year old woman living on the Gold Coast. I currently work at the Housing Hub as a copywriting assistant, and as part of that I write a lot of lived experience blogs. I hope to make a difference for other people with disabilities going through similar struggles so they don’t feel alone.
Read More

Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) can create greater independence for people with disability, while also allowing their other supports to be delivered better and more safely. 

However, badly designed SDA risks Australia developing social infrastructure that doesn’t live up to its potential. 

Recently, the Summer Foundation brought together 15 people with lived experience of disability and a consultant architect to co-develop design principles that will drive innovation in SDA. 

Here, we share key insights from the process in the form of 5 things people want – and don’t want – in SDA. 

5 things people with disability DO want:

  1. Universal accessibility lets people undertake daily activities independently and with dignity.
    Access – to the home, from the home and within the home – is fundamental to get right. Universal accessibility reduces demand on others and enables greater autonomy, but it also removes barriers to activities that make life meaningful.

    “We have a garden club and some of the beds are raised and I’ve been enjoying planting and digging…but some of the beds are inaccessible to me.” – Lived Experience Partner
  2. Adequate space to move around freely improves quality of life.
    There must be greater consideration for home layout, and the ways in which design can remove friction and improve the flexibility of a space. Well-designed SDA should let people with disability move around safely and efficiently, while also enabling and encouraging activities that improve quality of life, such as fitness, hobbies and entertaining visitors. 

“Doing the 20 point turns in a manual wheelchair gets a bit tiring.” – Lived Experience Partner

  1. Designing for modification and customisation can support changing needs.
    Some design elements can be universal. However, SDA should also plan for customisation to balance the current and future needs of people with disability. This could look like reinforced ceilings and walls to support the addition of grab rails and ceiling track hoists.

    “I have to have rails of course, to you know, hoist – get in the shower and toilet, but they couldn’t do one rail because there’s no beams, they forgot some of the beams.”
    – Lived Experience Partner
  2. Assistive technology (AT) increases control.
    Good AT gives people with disability greater control in their environment, helping them to access support and amenities, and feel more safe and secure at home.

    “I love the intercom because all you [have to] do is utilise the intercom and it can get down to the staff room and say, hey, look, I need some assistance immediately. And someone will be up here within two minutes.” – Lived Experience Partner
  3. Sensitive sensory design improves comfort.
    Sensory elements like temperature, light and noise may be felt more acutely by people with disability, and need to be carefully considered in the design process. For example, block out blinds can help with light sensitivity, and sensor lights help increase visibility on the approach to the home.

    “I like to know that there’s enough lighting outside. So when I pull up in the cab, there’s sufficient lighting around… so the taxi pulls up, the sensor light comes on, and I’m able to access – to go inside without feeling… afraid.” – Lived Experience Partner 

5 things they DON’T want:

  1. Housing design should support, not separate, families.
    Not all households look the same. Yet, assumptions about people with disability lead to SDA designed for the “stereotypical norm” – frequently to the detriment of existing household arrangements.

    “…the idea that people with disabilities are just only themselves and [that] they don’t come with anyone else…” – Lived Experience Partner
  2. Poorly chosen locations lead to inconvenience and isolation.
    SDA developments in decentralised locations have trickle-down effects, separating people with disability from essential services, meaningful activities and community.

    “That’s the other problem with SDA in [rural town], is they’re all like 5 or 6 K’s [kilometres] out of town, not near shops, not near anything.” – Lived Experience Partner
  3. Support should be close by, but not automatically onsite.
    The ability to choose when and how to engage supports is important to maintaining a sense of privacy and independence. This can be achieved by providing options to people with disability – such as proximal, but not onsite supports.

    “If I need help, I can call on them. And if I don’t, I don’t have to see them. Which works for me because I want to be as independent as possible.” – Lived Experience Partner
  4. Homes should feel like homes, not hospitals.
    Design elements that create a sense of home and increase comfort have the power to make SDA feel like home and “something not hospital-like”. People with disability value the opportunity to have input, too – such as choosing colours.

    “I need a garden. I need a backyard… I need a tree – I just need a home that looks like a home that regular people would have. But with accommodations for what I need.”
    – Lived Experience Partner
  5. Generic technology can create frustration.
    Not all assisted technology is created equal. Things like light switches that are inaccessible from bed, or windows that aren’t automated hinder people’s ability to adapt their homes for their comfort – and cause great frustration.

    “If I don’t have support [the windows] just stay open.” – Lived Experience Partner  


SDA must be designed to be adaptable, functional and liveable for people with disability. 

SDA providers can get it right from the get-go by incorporating the perspectives of those with lived experience into the design process.

Read Full Report

The 2023/2024 annual report marks a pivotal chapter in the evolution of the Summer Foundation as we relaunched to focus on increasing the housing and living support options for Australians with disability who need access to 24/7 support.

Our annual report reflects on a busy year of important work across policy, research and co-design, as well as our approach as we aim to set a new standard in housing and living supports- one that lifts the standard of what a good life can look like for Australians with disability with high support needs.

Read our Annual Report
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The Australian Government is consulting on a new registration system for NDIS providers. 

In January, the Summer Foundation provided a response to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission’s consultation on the design of the registration category for NDIS participants who self-direct their supports. 

The Summer Foundation’s position is that the considered design of the system of proportionate regulation—including this component (people who self-direct their supports)—is key to ensuring that the NDIS can achieve its original intent of supporting the independence and social and economic participation of people with disabiliity. 

We made 7 key recommendations: 

  1. Create a regulation system that encourages new housing and support opportunities for people with disability. 
  2. Make sure government information is clear and easy to understand so participants know their rights and responsibilities. 
  3. Only remove self-direction as a last resort based on risk to the participant. 
  4. Design the regulation system with input from people with disability, including their role in monitoring and compliance. 
  5. Define self-direction to include all ways workers can be involved.
  6. Ensure the Self-Directed Supports category is easy for all NDIS participants to understand and use. 
  7. Value and invest in peer networks and resources to help participants understand their rights and responsibilities. 
READ OUR SUBMISSION