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The Impact of Public Policy on Support Services for Indigenous Families with Children with Special Education Needs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2017

Karen Trimmer  and
Roselyn Dixon
Karen Trimmer*
Affiliation:
School of Linguistics, Adult & Specialist Education, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia
Roselyn Dixon
Affiliation:
School of Education, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Karen Trimmer, Faculty of Business, Law, Education & Arts, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia. Email: karen.trimmer@usq.edu.au
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Abstract

In Australia and Europe, government agencies and not-for-profit organisations (NFPOs) have had long involvement in the funding and provision of community disability services. Significant change has occurred in Australia over the past two decades in the way government funds are expended, with marketplace mechanisms increasingly being used. As a consequence of economic and governance imperatives, funding of services via NFPOs has changed significantly with a move away from the provision of grants to the contracting of these organisations for the provision of services. In 2013, a new national policy, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), was introduced that has impacts for the provision of disability services for children and their families. In particular, Indigenous families are likely to experience barriers in accessing services. This paper reviews the impact of international changes in policy and associated funding models and considers the impacts and research implications of Australia's initial experience of implementation of the NDIS.

Keywords

culturally appropriatedisabilityfundingIndigenousnot-for-profit organisationservice provision
Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , December 2018 , pp. 198 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2017 

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