An innovative solution to support people with disabilities

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

As business owners, we are essentially solving a problem for our potential clients. And it comes from finding a challenge or a struggle that people are encountering. Today’s guest on the podcast is Jane Morrell, who saw a gap in the disability sector, and she’s come up with an innovative solution To provide people with better care from people that they actually know. Today’s episode is a really inspiring one. So I hope you enjoy. Let’s dive on in.

CLARE: Well, a big warm welcome to the podcast Jane. Great to have you here. Thank you. Thanks for having me. That’s a pleasure. Well, before we dive in, it might be a great place to start if you can introduce yourself to the listeners and share a little bit about who you are and what you do.

JANE: Sure. Yeah. My name is Jane Morrell and I’m the founder and CEO of a company called Carer Solutions. We’re a company based in Australia and we work with people primarily people with disability who want to directly employ their own support workers through what’s called in this country at the moment, the National Disability Insurance Fund. So we work with people who want to exercise choice and control around choosing who they want to directly employ.

And then our company is a payroll and compliance company that sets people up to be able to do that. So I’m working mostly in the disability sector at the moment. And we’ve been around for 13 years.

CLARE: Wow. And what got you interested? Like, why is this something that you’re so passionate about?

JANE: Yeah. It’s, it’s been a real yeah, I guess journey and, and passion of passion, a passion project.

I guess it started out of started out of me. It’s, it’s been a journey. I want to, I was working in the disability sector and I was actually speaking to a lot of families at the time that were just really frustrated with the way that things were set up in this country. Traditionally people were what we call block funded, where they had funding that was attached to a specific organisation and they could only use those funds with that organisation.

They couldn’t exercise real choice or I guess real control over their care arrangements. So there was something spoken of. about at the time, which was the, which was to become the National Disability Insurance Scheme. And when that came into play, it really changed the space for people. So it transformed everything.

So people were now in control of their own funds and that they could choose how they wanted to spend their funds and in terms of which providers that they wanted So, at the time I was meeting a lot of families who were just really disgruntled and really I guess, you know, frustrated that they only had traditional care agencies to go to at the time.

So hearing the same story from so many families over and over, I I felt really compelled to do something about it and knowing that the NDIS was going to be on the horizon that was going to give people an opportunity to have their own funding in their own hands and make decisions, was at the point in which I designed Carer Solutions.

So, families would be able to choose somebody from within their own networks that they were comfortable with, that they could employ directly, and Carer Solutions would be a company that Effectively as a payroll and compliance company that would set these people up to be the legal employer of their own chosen support workers.

So yeah, it was, we, we predate the NDIS. So it was set up pre NDIS. And then obviously we’ve, we’ve been working with that scheme in this country for a decade now. So, but 13 years old as a company. So for me, it was really just. born out of frustration and just seeing so many families that were upset with a system that wasn’t working and just really wasn’t working for them.

It was, it was broken. And, you know, there are a lot of systems across the world, health systems that exist that are in a similar position to, to what Australia was and, you know, looking to reform and looking to make change. So it was really important for me when I’d identified those needs to design something that could actually respond to the needs of what people actually would want and were looking for.

So designed it and started it 13 years ago. And to this day, we’re the only service of its kind in the country.

CLARE: Wow. So can we revert back? So what sort of I guess, work were you doing and what were the frustrations? When you said that there’s a lot of frustrations, the system wasn’t working. Can you explain a little bit more what you mean by that?

JANE: Yeah, absolutely. So the work that I was doing at the time is I was actually working for an organization in the sector. So I had exposure to a lot of families and a lot of individuals. The work that I was doing was geared around providing support and information. for families and primarily parents of children living with disability.

So I got to run a lot of parent support groups. I got to run a lot of you know, community events on behalf of this organization where I’d meet with families and, you know, we’d have conversations and the number one grievance to come out of that was, you know, resoundingly from families was they were really sick of traditional care agencies as the only option for them, which is where they wouldn’t have choice around who the worker was, or the support worker was.

They’d get given a worker or appointed and allocated a worker. And some of the issues that people would experience along with that was the workers wouldn’t show up. The workers were often restricted in relation to what they could do, they could care for you, they could care for your child, but they couldn’t do something such as simple if you wanted them to as unpacking the dishwasher.

So families were kind of very hampered and also a lot of these agencies charged exorbitant fees. Well, that would really eat into a family’s funding which wouldn’t make sense because people weren’t just get weren’t getting the right quality or the quality of care that they needed. And they certainly weren’t able to exercise any choice or control over the situation.

They were kind of being dictated to rather than being able to make a choice. So I guess one of the things that came out of my conversation with so many of those families, I’d said to them was, what would an ideal world look like for you? Like, how can we solve this problem? And honestly, I was probably so frustrated.

This is, you know, 13 years ago now, probably 15, sort of a couple of years of me sort of putting all this together. And then actually starting 13 years ago, was, you know, they just, often turned around and said, well, we just, if we could choose who we wanted, somebody who I already know, someone who I already trust, someone who knows me, knows my family that would be the ideal for me.

And, you know, but I’m not a bookkeeper, I’m not an accountant. I don’t know what it’s like to be a legal employer. I don’t understand obligations. And frankly, I don’t have time because I’m so time poor with my family and my commitments. And then that’s what got me sparked up, sort of thinking, well, an organisation needs to exist that would take on those obligations of effectively payroll and compliance on behalf of the individuals to set them up, to be in that position where they could exercise pure choice and control.

And at the time, this is 10 years ago now, there was actually a movement that started called the Every Australian Counts campaign that was started by a bunch of families that effectively just started. going to Canberra standing on the grounds of parliament and basically lobbying for change. And that was, I guess, the start and the makings of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in this country.

So the idea behind the National Disability Insurance Scheme or NDIS is that people can have choice and control over how you know, they, they live their lives effectively. And they can choose which providers they want to use that are suitable for their needs, so a person can actually achieve their goals in life and not being this, you know, old sort of archaic model, which we came from, an archaic world where you were dictated to, and you just were deemed lucky to have any funding that you received, let alone to be able to have choice around that.

So I think for me, it was frustration. It was shock in hearing all of that, all of those stories from families repeatedly with the same grievances. And it was just frankly disappointment that, you know, we live in a first world country. Like Australia is an incredible country with so much opportunities for all of us.

Why are we marginalizing and treating one portion of the community differently to the way we treat everyone else? And that, For me, it was just, you know, really, I guess, sparked and really lit a fire in me that just compelled me to have to do something about it and not just, you know, contribute in a way that I felt like I wasn’t really contributing in the, in the job I was in at the time, but actually talk about effecting real change and making a real difference in people’s lives rather than just, you know, saying I work for an organization that did, but didn’t.

So,

CLARE: yeah, interesting. Yeah. And I think that this is something you know, a big thing that often blows my mind having conversations about disability is how, I guess, Naive a lot of people are in society and how people don’t realize how close it can be because I think that a lot of times people think, well, you know, it’s not directly affecting me or my, or my family at the moment, but the truth is.

Anyone can develop a disability at any point in time, and I think that it’s only when you have those experiences that you realize how frustrating the system is and how unsupportive it can be. So I’m really curious to know, because there’s a lot of noise in the media at the moment. And again, we’re specifically talking about Australia here, but I imagine that there’s a similar kind of sentiment in other parts of the world, but around the, you know, people saying that people are extorting the NDIS that, you know, it’s gone too far that way.

What are your thoughts around that? And a lot of the tightening around the legislation and rules that’s happening at the moment.

JANE: Yeah, it’s certainly a time of huge reform and change in the sector. One thing that we’ve been part of, been part of this space for so long is just the constant and the only constant being change.

But what we, where we come from in terms of our view is we’re really supportive of the government’s proposed changes in the space and they’ll continue to roll out over the next sort of, you know, over the years to come. But, you know, there is a lot in the media around the rorting around the fact that there needs to be tighter quality and safeguards.

And frankly, there does. You know, the, the whole analogy from the NDIS has been, they built the plane and they’ve been flying it at the same time. And that’s what we’re talking about. That’s effectively what’s happened. So a lot of, I guess, the stringent rules that probably should have been put in place from the outset hadn’t been, which left, you know, a very vulnerable cohort in our community open to rorting and open to you know, all of this you know, fraud that’s going on in the sector as well.

So I guess it’s, it’s kind of, you know, it’s very, it’s, it’s awful. It needs to be reined in absolutely in that regard. And it’s incredibly disappointing, but also when you build something the way in which we have, and then roll it out at the same time, you’re leaving yourself very wide open to these things occurring.

So I think for us from our perspective to see the government cracking down and creating some, you know, You know, hard and fast rules and legislation that will stop that from happening is so welcome. It’s incredibly positive. There’s also a whole conversation going on around registration and registration of providers within our within our sector as well, which is an interesting one, because that’s one that we are certainly very heavily involved in and a part of in that sense.

And the interesting part around that. The registration piece for us is, you know, innovation in terms of what we do is pure innovation in that sense. And it actually isn’t recognized currently under the current registration framework. So we’re working hard to lobby through our connections to have changed and obviously also have a voice at the table.

So when they’re redesigning this framework, framework for registration that a model like ours can be considered because a model like ours really is the future of care in that regard and the way that most people want to go in terms of self directing their own supports they’re calling it service for one.

They’re what we call it direct employ all those sorts of things, which is really the future. So and, and doing those sorts of things and being able to have. a voice and affect that change so we can be responsive in the conversation around the framework will also help in relation to some of the you know, unsavory providers that are out there that are sort of don’t fit out, that fit outside the box or, you know, no one really knows what they’re kind of doing in the background, which is a bit of what’s happening at the moment.

And also, I think for us, you know, we’ve always, Put ourselves forward as always doing things in best practice, because what we’ve done in terms of what we’ve the innovation here is we’ve broken through broken through so much new ground because no one else has done what we’ve done before in the sector.

So we’ve constantly been pioneering and really paving the way for this model and this service to fit in the in the sector that it does. So the more quality safeguards and things that we can have in place are really important, particularly for us. because then we can continue to increase our impact and grow in that sense which is challenging when they can’t fit you into a box.

So you’re not recognized in a category. So we’re lobbying pretty hard to get that recognition, which will also help with the way that providers are currently viewed because, you know, with the conversation you know, being so I guess heavy around fraud and things like that, all providers tend to be sort of tainted with the same brush, which I think is disappointing.

And, you know, the more we can have, the opportunity to influence some of those conversations and some of those decisions around what it looks like to be an innovator in the sector, the better we can make our space for all providers. And also, the

CLARE: And what do you think is the opportunities again, in a, in a big country like ours, I know that there’s a lot of disparity and sectors, even within the marginalized disability sector.

There’s also. Marginalized communities within that. It’s something that I often think about because, you know, even living in a capital city, having a certain level of education, being able to articulate things and and having the confidence to stick up for yourself already puts you in an advantaged position over over other people.

Are you sort of Noticing this marginalization both regionally, but also you know, based on other other characteristics as well.

JANE: Yeah, it’s a really interesting one, you know, with the scheme, we’ve got 650, 000 participants in the National Disability Insurance Scheme at the moment. Got, I think the breakdown is 69 percent of those live in major cities.

And then 31 percent are in regional or remote or very remote areas, and 9 percent of those are cold community, and about 8 percent are First Nations, so definitely, you know, we live in a huge, vast country that there are a lot of people that are being marginalised and you know, where they cannot receive service, or services just won’t, you know, work.

Operate in some of those areas because of the costs involved. So yeah, it definitely is a big issue for the, for the sector. And it’s not, I guess, you know, again, going back to innovation, it’s important that there are services that are designed that can get into those areas. We’ve been doing a lot of work in the First Nations community and signed our first First Nations partner, which is what we call our clients, in East Arnhem Land last year.

So that was an exercise where a team of us of four from the organization went out there, were literally on the ground in community for four days with a translator going through the paperwork to get this this person to be able to use our service moving forward and, and, but. As far as we’re concerned, there’s not enough of that.

Absolutely. And the government needs to really I guess, support ourselves and a lot of organizations that are in our boat in relation to ensuring that we can get out to these areas and be able to impact. And that’s by providing opportunities for businesses, you know, making it attractive. I think, you know, one of the frightening stats that we’re seeing at the moment is about three quarters of NDIS providers are saying that, you know, according to the NDS reports that they’re going to shut their doors in the next 12 months because of NDIS pricing, like, it’s just not viable for people to continue to operate and that’s, you know, across the board, let alone without thinking, going back to those stats, how many of those people within the scheme are sitting in those rooms, Those regions and those communities that already aren’t getting care if you’re already going to lose potentially three quarters of your providers in the sector, what are you doing as a government to be able to attract people to be able to operate as a business within the sector, courage, entrepreneurs, innovation, etc.

So that is, I think, a huge. Issue for the government and a really critical and key consideration that they have to have moving forward, you know, for the scheme to continue and continue to be sustainable. You know, there’s a lot also being said, not just about the fraud and things like that, but also in cutting costs to the scheme because of the amount, the billions of dollars that the scheme actually costs them.

The country like, you know, you need to if you’re going to lose that many providers, what are you doing to actually encourage the people that do have the appetite to want to come in and, and, you know, pioneer or be a changemaker? So it’s it that’s probably a conversation in my opinion. In my opinion, I should say that’s not happening enough.

I think more people need to sort of talk about that, because we see it so successfully, I think, rolled out across so many other industries, you know, who welcome innovation you know, who are doing it incredibly well. But when you think about. Disability, and you think about the disability sector in Australia, I don’t know, like it probably doesn’t sound sexy enough for people to want to get involved in, but if you’ve got a brilliant idea, and you know the space and you know that it can work here, you’ve got to have the appetite, but you’ve also got to be enticed.

And there’s got to be some kind of attraction for you in that sense not just the passion, because you’ve certainly got to have that as well. But yeah, the, the pricing points are challenging for so many providers. And as I said, with a third with a quarter of them, you know, three quarters of them looking to shut doors, it’s a.

Pretty alarming start.

CLARE: Yeah. And I, I guess something that comes up for me is that a lot of people, again, in probably more so in marginalized communities don’t even have access to get diagnoses to, you know, you know, when we think about disability, I think a lot of times people think about someone in a wheelchair or someone who, who looks a certain way.

And yet there’s a lot of disabilities that, you know people might just be that kid’s really naughty and, you know, coming through. Our generation now, we look back and go, Oh, my gosh, that kid clearly had, you know, some other challenges. And if they had been supported differently, their outcomes in terms of academic, in terms of being able to function in society could be vastly different.

I know unfortunately, one of my friends son is you know, on the spectrum and. They’re quite well to do. And I look at the transformation that’s happened in him from being able to have the financial resources, the support. He is a different kid in mainstream school now, and you think, In generations gone past and in not just gone past in places where they don’t have access to the wealth and resources to support someone, that person just gets cast aside as, you know, someone who’s naughty, someone who can’t function, and that then has a massive knock on effect.

And I think this is the thing that government forgets about the longevity of these decisions as well, because again, you know, we end up with generational unemployment. Employment societal issues. I remember when the stabbing happened in Bondi and we’re like, Oh, that was waiting to happen. I’m like, but what are we doing about it as a country?

And yeah, it’s such a a sad and challenging, issue, isn’t it?

JANE: It is. It really is. And I think going back to your point earlier around people out there, I guess the common sort of thought process is, I don’t know anybody with a disability. I think you only have to think about, and I guess that’s sort of Bondi stabbing sort of conjured that up in my mind, that mental illness and mental health is actually a disability.

And you think about, you know, the stats around how many of us have been either directly affected ourselves and all. Or a living in, you know, in a living with people around them that are close to them that are experiencing extreme issues with mental health, and the fact that as a society, you know, it’s it’s it goes unsaid, it goes taboo, you know, they they look fine.

They look high functioning. They’ve got a high powered job. They’ve got this going on. They’ve got a family. They’ve got it all together. When in fact, you know, underneath it all, they really haven’t. So we’re not. I guess supporting people are having the, the structures in place at that really, I guess, sort of early intervention level to be able to diagnose.

And the same with autism, as you’ve mentioned, in children with autism, he’s just naughty or he’s had issues. You know, and, and, you know, he’s just a bad kid. Well, no, he’s not. What, what, what are the system, where has he fallen through the gaps or where have all the kids fallen through the gaps? Cause it’s not just, you know, there’s, there’s, So many of them out there that have and still are because we haven’t set things up at a baseline.

And I think that’s also challenging as well when you haven’t got those structures and supports in at that level, but then also you’re trying to operate within a scheme that’s so big and so bureaucratic and got everything going on and you’re trying to satisfy all different kinds of criteria. But in reality, you know, the government has a lot to do.

To consider and think about it’s not just registration. It’s not just the fraud. It’s not just the bad press that they get. It’s just not that the schemes blown out by billions and billions of dollars, and they need to rein it in for the taxpayer. It does start at that very early level and that very grassroots community level, which needs a lot of work and, and that will just need to continue.

And interestingly, I was asked by, a couple of providers, my thoughts just around recently, just around the future of the NDIS. And, and, you know, there’s a lot being said about sustainability. And, you know, you need providers, as I said, going back to that stat, which is a bit scary about the number of providers that are struggling at the moment.

But you need providers in the space for the scheme to be successful. You don’t need people pulling out or being, not being able to deliver service, whether you’re in a major city or in a very regional remote setting. We do not need that. And that’s obviously one of the risks that’s happening at the moment.

And they said, Oh, what do you think will happen? Will, you know, the NDIS just sort of kind of run its course in some sense, or will there just continue to be reform after reform after reform? And, you know, for us, it’s the latter. We just think it’s just going to be just this continuous reform. It’s legislation, you know, it’s set in stone.

It’s not going to be taken away by the government. The reality is it cannot be taken away. It’s just about how what reforms are put in place and how those reforms continue to be rolled out. And also, frankly, it’s, it’s a bit of a a survival of the fittest with providers. You know, you’ve just got to be super agile.

You’ve got to have, you know, strong, strong leadership, strong teams, and you’ve just got to be able to weather the storms. And have a group of, you know, really passionate people that really you know, really lit up by the fact that they’re creating real positive outcomes for people. And that’s, you know, I think for us, that’s where you need to be and that’s where, how you need to be operating to be able to continue to move through the only constant in our sector, which is certainly change.

CLARE: Say any constant

JANE: in the

CLARE: world.

JANE: Oh yeah. Exactly. Definitely. A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

CLARE: Yeah. So if people are listening and perhaps maybe they, they personally think I would love to access your services, what’s a way that they can work with you?

JANE: Yeah, absolutely. Probably jump onto our website, carersolutions.

com. au, which has all the information regarding our service. We’re also across socials Facebook, Instagram. If you want to jump on, jump on LinkedIn if you’re a professional out there, our LinkedIn page has a lot of information about our service as well. But yeah, we’re yeah, I guess the website’s probably the best place to start.

CLARE: And if people are listening and wanting to do something bigger in the space of advocacy, of making a difference, of helping spread the word, any suggestions that you’ve got about how they can offer support in that way?

JANE: Do you mean it just in a general sense?

CLARE: Yeah, I

JANE: mean in a general

CLARE: sense, but also

JANE: obviously helping carer

CLARE: solutions as well.

JANE: Yeah, I guess it’s, it’s sort of tricky with us. I mean, we have to, we do a lot of self advocacy. So we have to advocate on behalf of our model, as I said, to ensure that that’s recognized moving forward for things like registration. So that’s a lot of what we do. We also advocate on behalf of some of our partners as well.

The recent work that we did in the First Nations community was the first of its kind in the country where we advocated on behalf of the family. Okay. Who wanted to and needed to, because of her cultural situation directly employ a family member as her chosen support worker. One of the rules of the NDIS is that you cannot employ family members.

It’s only ever allowed in extreme circumstances. This case even though it was in East Arnhem Land, as I said, a remote community, Millingimby, where the population is about 1, 000 people this case was. denied. It was, yeah, it was refused twice. And then we had to go all the way to Minister Bill Shorten’s office and just advocate and lobby really hard to get this over the line.

And finally we, we got it through, which is fantastic. All that work. We, we, we do in the advocacy space is unpaid. It’s just purely so we could get the outcome for the client, which is obviously critical. And that set a precedent. So it’s the first, first nations community in this country that have ever allowed a family member to be directly employed as a.

As a support worker. So that was an exciting, I guess, opportunity for us and an advocacy piece that we worked really hard on that we’re now up for a couple of national awards for. So that was a really it’s a really great moment for us as a, as an organization in terms of progress and just contributing to change within the sector.

So to be recognized hopefully in a few weeks by a governing body for that is really cool. And just to be a finalist and also for the model to be recognized after 13 years. For us it’s really important to create that impact and, and really sort of increase awareness around direct employ.

Because what we do is really in all honesty, the future of the sector, it’s, you know, you’ve got traditional care agencies, you’ve got big online platforms, but you’ve also just got the families at home who want to be in control of their own lives. in their own arrangements that may not be tech savvy.

They also probably don’t want to go through all the hoops that they need to go through with the traditional care agency and all the workers that they don’t know. They just want to have people they know and trust around them in their circle. So this direct employee service that we’ve designed really is the future of care in that regard.

So I think the best thing that people could do is if they’re interested in the sector, just educate yourself, just read up about. What Carer Solutions has done what we’ve pioneered here, the importance of this work in our space and, you know, why, and looking at it in the broader context of the NDIS, why it needs to exist.

And, you know, one of the other reasons why it needs to exist is by June next year, which is alarming, there’ll be 128, 000 additional support workers needed across the country. very much. And nobody knows where those support workers are coming from. But that’s just speaking to the critical need of, of I guess a model like ours in the space.

And that’s because, you know, we don’t, we don’t encourage people to sort of think about it as, find a support worker, it’s look within your own community to the people around you that you’ve got existing relationships with, that you already know, that you already trust, and know that you can employ one of those people to be your chosen support worker.

And carer solutions can obviously facilitate that for you on your behalf. And you can sit in that position of choice and control and you know, really be able to get the best results in terms of outcomes for yourself or your family members. So we really see ourselves as a really great solution to that problem of the support worker shortage, which is just huge.

But again, awareness around that isn’t probably great enough. Like we’re talking about the fraud, we’re talking about things like that. It’s very important, don’t get me wrong, to shine a light on those things. And it’s very critical that the government is looking at quality and safeguards and rejigging that and putting putting you know, stronger measures in place to stop that from happening.

And we’re incredibly supportive of that. But if we’re 128, 000 workers short by June next year, what are we doing about it? How can we get this message out there through, you know, channels like yourself and others to be able to, for people to understand and be inspired to come along and say, well, actually I’ve got an idea, I’ve got a business idea where I’ve potentially got a solution to this.

How can I get involved? And it’s probably the best thing that people can do as well. And, you know, you’re attracted to so many other industries and there’s, you know, entrepreneurs left, right and center, but where are they in terms of our sector? And they’re very few and far between. You know, I know a lot of them, you know, alongside myself and there’s some incredible people out there that have started amazing businesses in this sector as well.

And I know them and they’re awesome, but, you know, we see it and we see it as the few. And you know it’s the it’s time for, you know, for more people to come, people to come in and it needs to be encouraged. The care economy is the biggest economy in this country, whether it be disability or aged care, you know, we’ve got incredible minds in this country.

We’re all the people with the brilliant ideas, you know, we need you for. You know, for reasons that I just spoke of in with regard to the shortage and so many other reasons as well.

CLARE: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Well here’s to you getting the message out there raising awareness and yeah, love the work that you’re doing.

Jane, it’s been a real pleasure having you on the podcast today.

JANE: Thank you so much.

CLARE: Yeah, thank

JANE: you. Appreciate you having me.

CLARE: Cheers. Thanks, Jane.

JANE: Thanks Clare.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio