ACT allied health market capacity building project

Final report 31 August 2017

Progress overviewNational Disability Services (NDS) received a grant from the ACT Government

through funding from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The aim of

this grant was to improve the capacity of the ACT allied health (AH) sector to

respond to the opportunities and demand for services under the NDIS and to

establish a host entity to continue this work and sustainably support the ACT allied

health sector.

All milestones of the project have been achieved.

A steering group and stakeholder group were established to guide and support the

work of the project. The stakeholder group chose seven deliverables for the project:

Institute some speed dating/(i.e. networking) events,

prepare a list of AH practitioner/practice listings,

undertake and publicise a market scan of the delivery of AH therapies to NDIS

participants,

create an on-line NDIS AH information hub,

conduct information webinars relevant to AH NDIS practice

stage a conference to more formally share experience and

support an interest-based working group to facilitate discussion about student

placements.

The speed dating events were successful with at least two more to be organised

after this project ends.

The list of AH practitioners listings has been created and incorporated in the ACT

allied health NDIS Hub which was launched at the NDIS in Practice conference in

August 2017.

At the NDIS in Practice conference the results of the market scan were presented.

The conference presentations (where we received permission to share) can also be

found on the ACT allied health information hub as are the recordings of the three

webinars delivered during this project.

National Disability Practitioners (NDP) will continue develop, update and host the

information hub and support networking events in the future. NDS will support

networking events by making its office available as a venue (if needed). NDS and

NDP will also continue to work together to organise, record and caption a fourth

webinar with the NDIA and the ACT Human Services Registrar on registering as an

NDIS provider in the ACT.

In order to develop and sustain the momentum generated by the project we

recommend:

(i) that the Office for Disability permits NDS and NDP to publicise and share this

report with interested stakeholders.

(ii) the Office for Disability work with AH stakeholders in a collaborative model to

develop a project to address the lack of opportunity for allied health students

to gain disability sector experience or exposure during their training.

Key activities

Establish the steering group

After signing of the deed of grant between NDS and ACT Government, a group of

ACT representatives of AH associations was reconvened in February. This was the

AH working group during the Disability Workforce Innovation Network (DWIN)

project. This group agreed to be the steering group for this project and met

approximately every three weeks from commencement (See Appendix A for steering

group members). The final meeting was held on 18 August 2017.

Establish the stakeholder group

The steering group decided that a wider stakeholder group was needed to guide the

project. They assisted the project manager to identify key stakeholders and actively

encouraged them to be involved in this project. The first stakeholder group meeting

was in March 2017. In this and subsequent meetings the stakeholder group has

provided clear guidance on the direction of this project and its deliverables. The last

stakeholder group meeting was on 24 May 2017. After four meetings the project

deliverables were clearly identified. The steering group decided to no longer have

stakeholder group meetings, but did invite stakeholders to join working groups for

development of the deliverables. While only a few stakeholders took this opportunity,

many remained supportive of the project and assisted it by distributing project and

event information to their networks.

Decide on deliverables of the project

The stakeholder group considered what would be most beneficial to improving the

capacity of the ACT AH sector to respond to the opportunities and demand for

services under the NDIS. Three key requirements were identified: (i) knowing the

market, (ii) supporting practitioners to enter and succeed in the market and (iii)

increasing exposure of students to the disability sector.

Knowing the Market: Good knowledge of the NDIS AH market is needed for AH

practitioners (AHPs) to be able to refer clients to other AHP’s, form multidisciplinary

teams around a client and identify service gaps and market the opportunity to enter it

or expand their services. The establishment of an online networking platform was

discussed but rejected as a way of sharing such knowledge. This had been one of

the solutions coming out of the DWIN sponsored AH forum held in 2016, but

stakeholders doubted if they would engage with such a platform and questioned its

sustainability and longevity. Also, for AHP’s to feel comfortable to refer clients to

others they wanted to have personally met the professionals to whom they were

referring: they did not want to only know them from their online profile. It was

therefore decided to develop three deliverables to increase market knowledge of the

nature and scale of AHPs practicing in disability support:

Speed dating (networking) events: Stakeholders were keen to expand their

network and to meet other AHP’s providing NDIS funded services. Networking

events with a speed dating format were suggested and widely supported.

List of AH practitioner/practice listings: Listings of AHP’s and/or the practices in

which they work already exist. Several allow searchers to search on location and

find out if the AHP or the organisation is registered for/provide services under the

NDIS. However, experience had shown that stakeholders were not aware of the

range of listings both with and across different areas of practice. It was

considered that a list that collated the different, more restricted and profession-

based listings would provide an overview where AHP’s could find others with

practices providing services to people with disability that might be complementary

to their own.

Market scan: To gain insight into the current ACT AH NDIS market stakeholders

decided to develop and test a market scan. This scan would capture the kind of

providers and professionals working in the NDIS market, their client groups and

the existence and scale of any waiting lists.

Entering the market: AHP’s, both those entering the market and those already in it,

need information to successfully set themselves up as a provider and thrive under

the NDIS. Stakeholders identified that a lot of information is available in the sector,

but this is not easy to find or access. It was decided to develop three deliverables to

support this:

NDIS information hub: Collation of relevant NDIS information into one place was

seen as important to support the ACT AH market. The project was to develop an

online clearing house to centralise, identify and host NDIS information and

resources for ACT AHP’s. Key features of this were that it would be publicly

accessible and that it hold NDIS relevant information for all professions - be it

current NDIS practitioners, new entrants to this market or students.

Webinars: Stakeholders expressed a desire to gain expert knowledge from

outside but especially also from within the ACT AH market on NDIS related

business and clinical topics. Webinars were seen as the most efficient way to

deliver on this for high level topics e.g. setting up a business and registering as

an NDIS provider.

Conference: To gain and share knowledge on more specific topics stakeholders

asked NDS/NDP to organise an AH NDIS conference to address key topics in

more depth than a webinar could and to hear from ACT based providers and

practitioners about what works for them and what does not when operating under

the NDIS - from both a business and clinical perspective.

Increase student exposure to the disability sector: The DWIN AH working group had

previously identified that the ability of the sector to offer students opportunities to

gain exposure to and experience in the disability sector will impact the ACT AH

market capacity to respond to the service demand under the NDIS in the future. The

steering group and stakeholder group confirmed that this is an issue that needs

collaborative action for it to be resolved. It therefore advised and requested NDS to

bring together an interest based group of service providers/practitioners and

education providers for information facilitation and discussion on what is the best

model for student and industry placements in the disability sector given the current

environment.

Development of the deliverables

NDS worked with the steering group and National Disability Practitioners (NDP) to

develop the different deliverables. NDP operates as a separate division of NDS.

NDP’s mission is to be a professional membership association dedicated to

informing, developing, recognising and connecting individuals working in the

disability sector. Given its focus it was agreed that NDP was the suitable and logical

stakeholder to be the host agency that could continue to support the ACT AH sector

and the developed deliverables of this project.

Speed dating events: The idea of a speed dating event was welcomed with great

enthusiasm by the stakeholder group. Several stakeholders offered to host a speed

dating event at no cost to the project. The first event was hosted by Neurospace on

18 May, the second by CIT on 27 June and the third by Therapy4Kids on 20 July.

NDP organised and facilitated these events.

List of listings: Several steering group members researched listings of AHP’s to

contribute to the combined list. The combined list now includes the AH professional

associations, NDIA provider listing and the ACT Community Directory. The

finalisation of the list was undertaken by the ACT representative of Australian New

Zealand Art Therapy Association (ANZATA). The list is available on the ACT NDIS

information hub. It has been shared with stakeholders who have been granted

permission to share it on their websites as well.

Market scan: The market scan built on the ACT Government AH mapping initiative

conducted in March 2016. We thank the ACT Government for sharing their

questionnaire, telephone script, dataset and analysis. Based on these resources, the

steering group developed a scan with eight questions that was handed out at the

speed dating events. The idea was to gather a first rough overview of the ACT NDIS

AH market. The results of the market scan were presented at the ACT allied health

NDIS in Practice Conference. Now that the scan has been tried and tested it has

been handed over to the steering group to take back to their professional association

to coordinate and align a potential periodic scan amongst their respective

membership bases. The steering group realised that this will not result in a full

overview of the ACT AH market, but it has the virtue of providing a sustainable way

to coordinate data collection between these different organisations in a simple and

practical way.

NDIS information hub: The development of this hub has been taken up by NDP. It is

placed within the NDP website and publically accessible (NDP ACT Allied Health

Hub). It was launched at the ACT allied health NDIS in Practice Conference. It

already holds a range of resources in five different categories: NDIS business

resources, NDIS clinical resources, Discipline specific resources, List of practitioners

and Education and event. NDP will continue to include updates and checking for new

and relevant information after project end.

Webinars: NDP has organised and offered three webinars during the project.

Recordings of the webinars will shortly be available via the ACT NDIS information

hub. The first webinar covered the topic of creating your vision for starting a private

practice (6 June) and the second followed on from that with the topic of preparing

yourself to start a business (14 June). Both these webinars were delivered together

with Maida Learning. The topic for the third webinar was on A snapshot of the ACT

AH workforce (29 June). This was delivered by NDS’ National Manager Workforce

and Carecareers. A fourth webinar is planned for October on how to become a

registered NDIS provider in the ACT. This webinar will be delivered jointly by the

NDIA and the ACT Human Services Registrar. NDP regularly runs webinars on a

wide variety of topics relevant to disability practitioners. A selection of these will be

offered to ACT AHP’s following the project via the ACT allied health hub.

Conference: NDS and NDP organised the NDIS in Practice conference for ACT

allied health practitioners on Saturday 12th of August with a view to creating a

sustainable model for a program that NDP can continue to host on an annual basis

following the end of the project. The aim was to provide a forum for ACT allied health

practitioners (from a variety of disciplines) to be informed of changes that are

transforming the ACT disability sector and hear how others are responding to the

opportunities and challenges. Stakeholders from several professions formed the

conference working group. A call for papers was sent out in early June urging

potential speakers to come forward with their ideas for a presentation. This was sent

out through NDS’ and NDP’s networks and the professional associations and other

stakeholders. A total of eight proposals were submitted. These were reviewed by the

conference working group and based on these a conference program was developed

and additional speakers were approached. The final program (see Appendix B) had

a total of nineteen speakers from nine different allied health professions and other

backgrounds, two facilitators, an opening by Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith MLA

and a welcome to country by Matilda House. Unfortunately, days before the

conference and on the day itself three speakers had to withdraw including the

speaker from the NDIA.

Interest based group on student sector exposure: Discussions within the stakeholder

group made it clear that service providers were (i) not aware of the different ways

students can gain experience during their studies in an industry and (ii) that the way

student placements were set up within disciplines differed with some more suited to

the disability sector than others. Responding to this, the University of Canberra

mapped how student placement are set up within the different disciplines as a basis

for discussion with service providers on how placements and other opportunities can

best be tailored to make it more attractive for providers to take on students in their

organisation. The steering group tried to find a stakeholder to run this discussion as

this would need leadership beyond the end of this project and bring together

interested providers to join it. Unfortunately, interest from providers in this discussion

at this point in NDIS transition was low. The steering group therefore decided to no

longer pursue the establishment of this group and concentrate efforts on the other

deliverables.

ACT Disability Network Facebook page: Following the final speed dating event it was

recognised that there was still appetite for more allied health networking events and

stakeholders willing to host more events. However, with the end of this project in

August 2017 there was the question how interested practitioners could receive

regular updates about new events and updates to the ACT information Hub.

Therefore the ACT Disability Network Facebook page was created and launched at

the NDIS in Practice conference. At present the page has 23 members and is being

administered by NDS and NDP staff.

Output measures

Engagement

Steering group: The first steering group meeting was attended by eight people.

Engagement after that varied with one member withdrawing from the steering group

due to overloaded work schedule. Six members regularly attended steering group

meetings. The steering group met ten times over the course of the project.

Stakeholder group: The contact list for the stakeholder group consisted of 40 people.

A total of 23 people attended or dialled into the first stakeholder meeting and eight

were an apology. Attendance steadily dropped after that with an increasing amount

of late on the day apologies due to work commitments. Stakeholders indicated that

as the months progressed time pressure increased for providers in the thick of the

NDIS in the ACT. The stakeholder group met four times.

Speed dating event: A total of 44 people registered for the first speed dating event

with 31 actually attending. For the second speed dating event 28 practitioners and

three students registered and 26 practitioners were in attendance. All but three had

not attended the first event. The third event was smaller with 18 registrations and 14

attendees.

Webinars: For the first series of two ‘Starting a Private Practice’ webinars (6 June

and 14 June) 20 ACT practitioners registered and 9 attended. All registrants were

sent follow-up materials. The third webinar was called ACT allied health snapshot

(29 June). For this webinar 11 ACT practitioners registered and 4 attended the live

event. All registrants were sent the recorded link (most of those unable to attend

requested this). Two people requested the link post registration.

Market scan: In total 33 people completed and returned the Market scan survey.

Most respondents answered all the questions. See Appendix C for the results.

Conference: A total of seventeen speakers and two facilitators contributed to the

conference program free of charge. The total number of attendees was 51.

Effort and commitment to produce outcomes

A range of stakeholders and steering group members have significantly contributed

in both commitment and ongoing support to deliver the outcomes of the project.

Three stakeholders put their hand up to host a speed dating event at no-cost to

the project. Another has offered to host two networking events after project end.

Steering group members put in time and effort to the development of the market

scan, ACT Allied Health information Hub, conference program and list of listings.

Steering group members also assisted during the conference with registrations,

timekeeping, audio/video assistance and roving microphones.

Several steering group members have agreed to be part of a reference group to

assist NDP in the continued updating of the information hub.

Multiple stakeholders have actively promoted the speed dating events, webinars

and the conference to their networks and members.

There is interest from an ACT service provider to be involved in organising the

next ACT AH NDIS conference.

Feedback

Speed dating events: A total of 43 people provided feedback on one or more of the

speed dating events (see Appendix D). Overall feedback was that the events

encouraged attendees to network with other allied health practitioners, the format

helped to facilitate networking and new and/or relevant sector contacts were made.

All but four participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they would like to attend

another ‘speed dating’ networking event with allied health practitioners. At the first

event some participants struggled with the pace, but after adjustments complaints

about this diminished and were gone at the last event.

Conference: The conference was very well received (see Appendix E). All but one

attendee who provided feedback rated the conference as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’.

Almost three quarters (73%) ‘fully’ or ‘mainly’ achieved their aim for attending the

conference and 70% ‘strongly agreed’ that they would like to attend other networking

events with ACT allied health practitioners.

Highlights and challenges

Highlights

Speed dating: We were planning to organise two informal face-to-face networking

events during the project, but because of the interest to host the speed dating events

it was decided to do at least three hosted by Neurospace, CIT and Therapy4Kids.

One stakeholder has already indicated that they want to host two more networking

events after project end. The steering group see these events evolving into regular

e.g. quarterly networking events with a guest speaker.

Commitment and support to produce outcomes: Steering group members and

stakeholders have shown active support and commitment to guide, develop and

organise key deliverables of this project. Through their efforts this project has

received clear guidance on its deliverables and was able to deliver more than we

had planned for. By actively promoting the events organised through this project

stakeholders have helped us to reach far wider and deeper into the ACT AH market

than we could have done ourselves.

Conference: The NDIS in Practice conference was a fitting way to close this project

and share the resources and learnings. It also allowed the sector to showcase its

learnings and share the knowledge that ACT providers have gained from engaging

with the NDIS and its participants. In its reflection on the conference the steering

group highlighted the significant change in tone compared to the ACT allied health

forum last year. Where the latter was strongly focussed on issues and what was not

working, this year’s conference showed how the sector was getting on with things

and were making it work. It had a clearly more positive message with a focus on

learnings rather than problems.

Challenges

Level of engagement in stakeholder meetings: The level of engagement in

stakeholder meetings steadily dropped with each meeting.

Organising registration webinar :The original plan was to have the first webinar cover

the topic of becoming a registered provider under the NDIS. This ran into a range of

logistical and some policy problems which are only now slowly being resolved. To fill

the gap NDP gave access to two webinars on setting up a private practice to ACT

AHPs.

Student exposure working group: Despite its efforts to bring together key

stakeholders around the issue of the lack of opportunities for students to gain

exposure to and experience in the disability sector, this is the one intended objective

that the project did not achieve. Even though both the stakeholder and steering

group acknowledged the importance of this issue to the future market capacity, the

level of commitment from stakeholders to invest time and effort in finding solutions

through a working group was low. With the still evolving business and quality and

safeguarding framework of the NDIS, providers are hard pressed to keep up and

catch on.

RecommendationsThe project team and steering group recommends to all stakeholders including

Governments, NDS and NDP that the following deliverables be supported into the

future:

Continue development and updating of the NDIS information hub - NDP has

agreed that subject to resources it will continue to develop and add content to the

Hub as those resources come out.

Continue informal network meetings - NDP and NDS are keen to be able to

continue to support stakeholder hosted networking events. As resources permit

they will assist with organising of the events and the NDS meeting room will be

made available as a possible venue.

Stage a registration webinar - NDP and NDS will continue to work together to

organise, record and caption a webinar with NDIA and ACT Human Services

Registrar on registration as an NDIS provider in the ACT.

Hold another ACT allied health NDIS conference - NDP and NDS are willing to

pursue the possibility of staging another ACT allied health conference in 2018 or

2019 by partnering with an ACT service provider keen to explore this option.

We recommend that the ACT Government Office for Disability :

Make this report publicly available: Several stakeholders in and outside the ACT

have requested this report to be shared as the deliverables and lessons learned

are relevant or could be adopted by others. It could either be placed on the ACT

Government website or we ask permission to make it publically available via the

ACT allied health Hub and share it with interested stakeholders.

Support the development of different time/ways to find opportunities for student

sector exposure: The steering group and stakeholder group confirmed it is

important to offer students opportunities to gain exposure to and experience in

the disability sector as part of the ways to respond to the service demand under

the NDIS in the future. This issue needs collaborative action, but at the moment

allied health and general provider focus is mainly on navigating and managing

their business in the evolving NDIS environment. We therefore recommend to

consider bringing together key stakeholders around this issue at a later date

when the market is somewhat stabilised to consider other ways to stimulate

interest and innovation around this topic.

Milestone status

Milestone Due date Status Summary Action being taken to resolve red or amber

Contract Signed January 2017 The deed of grant was signed 24 January 2017

Reconvene DWIN AH

group

February 2017 The DWIN AH group was reconvened on 10

February 2017Bring together key

stakeholder group

March 2017 The first stakeholder group meeting was held

on 16 March 2017

Choose deliverables April 2017 Seven deliverables were endorsed by the

stakeholder group on 12 April 2017Run 1st ACT networking

event

May 2017 The first face to face networking event was held

on 18 May 2017Develop deliverables July 2017 Development of deliverables has been

completed by project endLaunch deliverables August 2017 Deliverables were launched on 12th of August at

the ACT AH NDIS in Practice conferenceRun 2nd ACT Networking

event

August 2017 The second face to face networking event was

held on 27 June and the third on 20 July. On

Saturday the 12th of August a conference was

held to mark the end of the project.

: the milestone is on track or completed

: there is an issue affecting progress but Contractor can resolve it; no adverse consequences for progress, outcomes or reputation

: there is an issue affecting progress and Contractor cannot resolve it alone and/or risk of adverse consequences for overall progress,

outcomes or reputation

Appendix A – Steering group membership

Australian Association of Social Workers: Cassandra Hanbridge

Australian New Zealand Art Therapy Association: Su Hanfling

Australian Physiotherapy Association: Diana Perriman

Australian Physiotherapy Association: Alexandra Edmondson / Lara Bowyer

Australian Physiotherapy Association: Jenny Robertson

Australian Psychology Society: Judith Buchholz (withdrawn)

Dietitian Association Australia: Annette Byron

Dietitian Association Australia: Shannon Butler

Occupational Therapy Australia: Jan Yarrington

Speech Pathology Australia: Susanne Moore

Appendix B - Conference program

Appendix C – Market scan results

• 33 respondents – 32 NDIS providers – 28 registered NDIS providers

• 6 Sole traders – 12 working in a small practice – 13 working in a large practice

• Most respondents worked in organisations with OT’s (21), physio’s (16) and/or

physiologists (12)

• Most experienced an increase in staff in the last 12 months

• All respondents except one increased their number of clients over the last 12

months

• Most have a broad client base, only 2 specialised in one type of diagnosis

• 8 worked with all age groups

• Waiting list: 50% had a waiting list and the majority with a waiting list did not

have one 12 months ago

• ACT AH market appears to be growing with an increased number of staff, but

demand continues to grow as well

Appendix D – Feedback on speed dating events

18 May 2017 hosted by Neurospace

Responses to evaluation questions (22 responses in total):

Q1. All but one participant ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the event encouraged

them to network with other allied health practitioners. One attendee was unsure.

Q2. All participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they met new and/or relevant

sector contacts.

Q3. All but one participant ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the format of the event

helped to facilitate networking. One attendee was unsure.

Q4. All but four participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the pace of the event

was appropriate. Two attendees felt that the timing of the speed dating rounds were

too quick, two others felt three minutes was too long.

Q5. All but one participant ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the venue and facilities

were adequate. One attendee was unsure.

Q6. All but two participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the time of the event

encouraged participation. Two attendees were unsure – one indicated the time of the

event was ‘too early’, another ‘too late’.

Q7. All but three participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they would like to

attend another ‘speed dating’ networking event with allied health practitioners. Three

attendees were unsure.

Q8. All but four participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they would be

interested in attending a one-day conference to discuss issues relevant to ACT allied

health practitioners. Two attendees were unsure and two attendees were not

interested in attending a conference.

Recommendations for future speed dating events

Reduce the number of forms practitioners needed to complete; an evaluation,

post-it boards and environmental scan was a bit much.

Provide some seating for participants to sit, should they wish.

Split practitioners into the type of client serviced rather than discipline (e.g.

adults, adolescents and children).

Provide discussion cards to assist with conversation starters (some attendees

indicated that speed dating was difficult for introverts).

Increase the speed dating rounds from 3 minutes to 5 minutes.

A number of participants requested that representatives from the NDIA be invited

to attend.

Provide a list of event attendees at the conclusion of event (allow an opt-out

during the registration process).

27 June 2017 hosted by CIT

Responses to evaluation questions (15 responses in total):

Q1. All participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the event encouraged them to

network with other allied health practitioners.

Q2. All participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they met new and/or relevant

sector contacts.

Q3. All participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the format of the event helped

to facilitate networking.

Q4. All but two participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the pace of the event

was appropriate. One attendee was unsure, another indicated that 5 minutes was

not long enough.

Q5. All but three participant ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the venue and facilities

were adequate. Two attendees were unsure, stating that the room was difficult to

find. One participant disagreed that the venue was appropriate, stating that the

mezzanine open-plan style was a bit noisy for those with a hearing impairment.

Q6. All but two participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the time of the event

encouraged participation. Two attendees were unsure.

Q7. All but one participant ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they would like to attend

another ‘speed dating’ networking event with allied health practitioners. One

attendee was unsure.

Q8. All but three participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they would be

interested in attending a one-day conference to discuss issues relevant to ACT allied

health practitioners. Two attendees were unsure, one attendee was not interested in

attending a conference.

Additional comments:

“Met some awesome people and had some ideas for future funding”

“Met a wide variety of practitioners that I never knew were round the ACT”

“Location a bit difficult”

“I would also like to network with Orthoptists, Audiologists and Psychologists”

“I enjoyed learning about Allied Health Assistants”

20 July 2017 hosted by Therapy4Kids

Responses to evaluation questions (6 responses in total):

Q1. All participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the event encouraged them to

network with other allied health practitioners.

Q2. All participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they met new and/or relevant

sector contacts.

Q3. All participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the format of the event helped

to facilitate networking.

Q4. All participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the pace of the event was

appropriate.

Q5. All participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the venue and facilities were

adequate.

Q6. All participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the time of the event

encouraged participation.

Q7. All participants ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they would like to attend

another ‘speed dating’ networking event with allied health practitioners.

Q8. All but one participant ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they would be interested

in attending a one-day conference to discuss issues relevant to ACT allied health

practitioners. One attendee was unsure.

Additional comments:

“New networks”

“Insight into other service providers”

“Great to put a face to a name. Greater awareness of others who are offering

services in the profession.”

Appendix E - Conference evaluation

Responses to evaluation questions (27 responses in total):

Overall 63% rated the conference to be ‘excellent’ and 96% rated it ‘excellent’ or

‘good’.

The content of the different sessions was rated ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ by 64% to

92%. 80% to 92% of attendees rated the presenters of the various sessions

‘excellent’ or ‘good’. The duration of the sessions was ‘excellent’ or ‘good’

according to 65% to 90%.

The main aim for most respondents in attending the conference was ‘networking’.

Other aims mentioned five or more times were ‘gaining practical advice’,

‘receiving NDIS information’ and ‘hearing about the challenges’.

Almost three quarters (73%) ‘fully’ or ‘mainly’ achieved their aim for attending the

conference.

The evaluation also showed the main gains in attending the conference were

‘expanding their network’, ‘hearing about lessons learnt and tips from other

providers’, ‘learning more about the difficulties faced by providers’, ‘gaining

insight into how to manage the relationship with the clients’ and ‘the advice to

stay true to their profession and the clients that they want to work with’.

Considering this it is no surprise that two thirds ‘strongly agreed’ that the

conference allowed them to network with other allied health practitioners and all

attendees ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ with this statement.

Almost two thirds ‘strongly agreed’ that the conference provided them with

opportunity for discussion with peers and again all ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’

with this statement.

Three quarters of attendees ‘strongly agreed that the conference was well-

structured and 70% ‘strongly agreed’ that they would like to attend other

networking events with ACT allied health practitioners.

Over 80% ‘strongly agreed’ that the venue and facilities (Great Hall at ANU) were

adequate for the event.

Some additional comments:

The conference was great! I learned so much and don't feel so alone in my

profession. I feel hopeful for the future.

Thank you it was great, we need more events like this.

Good opportunity to meet with other disciplines and professionals. Couldn't think

of anything that would make it better.

Good healthy menu. Not over catered. Solutions for families with complex needs,

low literacy and language challenges would be a useful topic for future

discussions. Good that you included people with a disability as speaker.

I think the NDIS/NDIA missed an opportunity to discuss some of the issues with a

group of providers - can they be provided with the feedback about the project

conference and issues raised and discussed.

We need to look at supporting woman/men to return to allied health profession

after time out with family - ie supervision to meet AHPRA or psychology

supervision requirements.

Managing the transition section was interesting but very long. Glad it was so

varied, not too repetitive.