CASE STUDY: ILLUSTRATING
Down to 10 Days
The Down to 10 Days campaign advocated for faster, more accurate decisions on housing and support for NDIS participants.
The challenge
Decision-making by the NDIA around funding for housing and supports was too slow, leaving people with disability spending months and sometimes years, waiting for funding outcomes. Our challenge was to secure faster approval for housing and supports. Our intention was to inform and influence policy makers to achieve a firm commitment to improve wait times around NDIS living and support funding approvals.
Our approach
The campaign took a 3-pronged approach. Initially we set about building an alliance of aligned organisations – the Down to 10 Days alliance. This consisted of more than 130 organisations who joined forces to apply pressure to policy makers to end the bureaucratic delays on funding decisions.
Alongside the alliance, we ran a petition that gained 4,705 signatures of individuals who supported our advocacy to reduce wait times around decision-making.
The alliance and the petition were complemented with a storytelling campaign where we shared the stories of people with disability who had endured protracted wait times on their funding decisions.
One of the many videos we helped produce.
A poster featuring Angela – one of our lived experience contributors.
Our impact
Since the campaign launched, we have seen significant improvements and a public admission from the NDIS that it needs to do better. More than 25 public news stories were published or aired on television, significantly raising public awareness of the issue.
Data from the NDIA Quarterly Report (June 2023) shows that just 11% of decisions took longer than 60 days in Q3 of FY22/23, down from 45% 12 months ago.
Brendon – one of our lived experience contributors.
“Sharing my story; I felt great it made me feel useful to help others …to get the help they need… to know you are not alone – I loved working with the co-design team”
Nathan
“It’s been a long journey for me to get the funding I need. The impact it has had on me has been enormous. I don’t want anyone else to go through what I’ve been through.”
Brendon
“I wanted to help others, my main objective is to enhance other peoples lives. Working with the co-design team, it’s been brilliant and gives me an opportunity to collaborate.”
Simone