Latest Update - April 2025
Disability Systemic Advocacy completed its first commissioning cycle in 2021. Through this process, two new 5-year funding arrangements were entered into with disability people's organisations to:
- build influence on issues, policies and programs affecting the interests of people with disability and their supporters
- work to ensure the voice of people with disability and/or carers is present, heard and reflected through systemic advocacy, and
- contribute to increasing the wellbeing of people with disability and/or carers.
Disability Systemic Advocacy is currently in the Integrate and Evaluate stages of the Commissioning Cycle and will move into the Discover phase from 1 July 2026, thus recommencing the commissioning cycle.
For more information contact: officefordisability@act.gov.au
Cycle: 1
Commissioner: Community Services Directorate and ACT Health Directorate
Status: Delivery
We maintain collaboration between sector partners and commissioner to deliver the desired outcomes. In this phase we will:
- Establish our partnership that ensures:
- service outcomes are met and evidenced with data
- the voices of people with lived experience continuously inform service delivery
- maintain dialogue that meets the needs of commissioner and service provider
- promote open, transparent conversations regarding risks, challenges, and opportunities
- Cultivate flexible service delivery
- Demonstrate impact through outcomes reporting
- Deliver in partnership to meet the needs of the community through the service.
Background
Canberra is home to over 50,000 Carers and 62,000 people with disability, of which 18,000 people have a profound or severe disability.
Commissioning is our opportunity to ensure consumer and industry peak bodies representing carers and people with disability in the ACT are providing effective advocacy. Effective advocacy helps shape policy, drive reform and ensure sustainability of human service system that supports the needs of people with disability and their carers within the ACT.
The voice of people with disability has been crucial in the ACT’s transition to the National Disability Insurance Scheme and in development of key social policies such as the Disability Justice Strategy and the ACT Disability Strategy.
Disability Peoples’ and Carers Organisations within the ACT had short-term funding arrangements that were different for each organisation. This made it challenging for organisations to build trust or engage effectively and meaningfully with government or commissioners. Funding agreements also focused on outputs delivered by organisations rather than understanding the impact of their collective work.
Commissioning is an opportunity to provide greater funding certainty with longer agreement terms and to clarify the advocacy scope and potential for impact.
Engagement and collaboration
The Commissioner (government) engaged and collaborated with Disability People’s and Carers Organisation to co-design new grant arrangements. Through workshops, participants reviewed existing grant arrangements, set shared objectives, and defined a framing statement to guide advocacy arrangements in the ACT.
Organisations began delivery of advocacy under the new arrangements in 2022.
Contact us
To learn more about the process email Health and Community Services Directorate: HCSDCommissioning@act.gov.au
What we are looking at, listening to, and sharing
We continue to work with Disability Peoples’ and Carers Organisations to:
- Support advocacy across multiple commissioning cycles
- Identify emerging community needs and service gaps
- Developing better linkages and opportunities for industry innovation
- Inform commissioning as a reform of the whole human service system
- Determine initiatives that support sector sustainability.
Who is involved
We continue to work with Disability Peoples’ and Carers Organisations in the ACT. We also listen to a wide range of perspectives and experiences from people with lived experience who engage with and benefit from the advocacy of consumer and peak organisations in the ACT.
We will use your views to
- Innovate ways we can address the service gaps across the sector
- Continuously learn from commissioning experiences
- Ensure commissioning outcomes are in line with the ACT Wellbeing Framework
- Drive sector sustainability initiatives and capability development.
Related commissioning cycles
We are listening to, connecting with, and drawing from all active commissioning cycles.
Key links
We are referencing the following plans, strategies, and frameworks in this cycle:
Page updated: 26 Nov 2025
