1,200+
Services Customers
supported across
NSW, VIC & QLD
700+
Disability support
workers
Hundreds of thousands
of hours of in-home & community disability supports
Independence Australia Group – Independence Australia, SASI and Zest Care, is a social enterprise that provides specialist supports for people with disability or other personal need to regain and retain their independence within an inclusive community.
We have continued to solidify our brand as a trusted provider working collaboratively with referrers, government, insurance and workers compensation agencies, clinical specialists, allied health professionals and service providers to deliver an extensive range of specialist supports, for people with disability, their families and carers. Additionally, family supports for vulnerable children, young people and families.
With a rich history in supporting people in the community with disability, assisting people to live their best lives and promote independence and empowerment, we have continued to scale our services to respond to changes in needs.
On 1 July 2023, after careful consideration and collaborative discussions, Independence Australia Group merged with Statewide Autistic Services (SASI) – a specialist Victorian provider to the autistic community and people with other complex disabilities. As two organisations dedicated to helping people with disabilities, the decision to merge was driven by our shared vision, values and aspirations to create a brighter future for people living with a disability and maximise our collective impact.
This merger brings together a unification between two organisations both committed to supporting people with complex needs and enabling them to develop and progress in achieving their life goals. Combining our resources, expertise, networks and innovative spirit, we have been able to leverage our skills, streamline operations, enhance our capabilities, experience and reputation to extend our scale and reach and broaden our service offering to create a stronger service platform for the hundreds of neurodiverse customers we support, while increasing our ability to pursue emerging opportunities and respond to market demands.
Our disability services now include expanded community-based supports, specialist disability accommodation, supported independent living offering, psychology and counselling services, support coordination, plan management, centre-based programs, short-term and medium-term accommodation, school leaver employment support and positive behaviour support.
We undertook stakeholder consultation to improve our customer intake and service enquiry processes and strengthen our relationships with referring clinical and allied health specialists throughout the year. This successfully resulted in the development of a new streamlined platform solution to simplify the customer intake process and better align our services to meet customer needs.
Our team of 700+ qualified support workers provided hundreds of thousands of hours of quality supports across in-home and community, complex supports, supported independent living (SIL) and shared supported accommodation programs. As a specialist in the delivery of complex supports, helping individuals navigate a variety of challenging situations including transition from hospital to their home and ageing in place, we continued to work closely with customers and their representatives to plan and deliver tailored, complex physical and behavioural supports to meet individual needs. We expanded the delivery of these services, increasing the number of people supported through our complex care programs and securing additional SIL funding for existing high support category customers.
225+
Plan Management customers
12
Recreation camps &
weekend getaways
3
SASI Hubs providing
Active Choices
YoY Growth
in Proactive Behaviour
Supports
The provision of many of our vital services would not be possible without our disability support workforce. As part of our ongoing commitment to strengthening our disability workforce we introduced a dedicated, new DSW Support & Engagement position to provide on-the-ground support, increase engagement and support learning and development needs.
Through the integration of SASI into the Independence Australia Group, we were able to expand the delivery of SIL and Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), while strengthening our ability to respond to the growing demand for SIL options across Victoria. We successfully completed our renovation and refurbishment of our Emma Road property in Croydon, welcoming new residents to our SIL and complex care programs. We are proud to have maintained an occupancy rate above 90% across our 14 SDA and SIL houses in metropolitan and regional Victoria.
We experienced significant growth in awareness of our psychology and counselling services. Our team provided over 400 one-on-one counselling sessions and facilitated 24 peer support groups and health and wellbeing workshops. These services improved the confidence and wellbeing of people living with disability, their families and loved ones to break through the many barriers that living with disability can present.
We also joined the Department of Veterans’ Affairs network of psychologists and accredited mental health social workers to support the delivery of clinical counselling services for veterans and their families through the national Open Arms – Veterans & Families Counselling program.
“Watching people achieve goals, step out of their comfort zones, embracing individuality, building confidence and reaching for the stars to find their own unique purpose, has been the greatest impact of our Psychology and Counselling services this year.”
24
Support groups and health & wellbeing workshops
430+
Counselling sessions
YoY growth
in Proactive Behaviour Supports provided
Continuing our commitment to nurturing the next generation of health professionals, we facilitated a student placement program for psychology and counselling students to enhance their careers and professional development. Through this program we welcomed a new psychologist who transitioned from placement and study to working within the program – further expanding our capacity to provide these vital services.
Providing high-quality services for autistic people across the Eastern Melbourne and Gippsland regions of Victoria (in addition to the uptake of community-based supports) SASI experienced significant growth in the delivery of centre-based and community recreation programs, school leaver employment supports and support coordination programs.
We saw increased participation in our Active Choices program delivered from our Seaford, Newborough and Moe Hubs in Victoria. Active Choices provides an environment for autistic people and people with disability to engage in visual arts, hospitality, gaming and Information Technology (IT), horticulture, performing arts and task force activities that develop and promote skills for life, breaking free of barriers to reach their full potential. The impact and outcomes achieved through this program go far beyond just the service provided.
We are deeply committed to promoting community wellbeing in the regions we operate, where we actively support individuals in need. One of our notable initiatives is our partnership with Vinnie’s Kitchen on the Mornington Peninsula, where our customers and program leaders prepare over 300 meals each week for distribution to community members experiencing homelessness and disadvantage.
With a clear focus on providing exceptional and sustainable customer supports, Zest Care developed its customer experience capabilities to strengthen customer relationships, enhance quality and safeguarding, increase support for our direct support staff and maximise customer choice and control. We strengthened stakeholder relationships through the implementation of new systems and processes to meet partner needs and support future growth of our disability support offering in New South Wales and Victoria, as well as support programs for families and vulnerable children in New South Wales and Queensland.
Leveraging our expertise in both disability and family services, we continued providing specialist supports for children with disability who are either moving from a family support program to a NDIS program or children who can access both funding streams. The range of supports included restoration, supervised visitation, transportation, emergency accommodation, pre-birth support, mothercraft, respite and mentoring programs for families of vulnerable children.
SpinChat
Our spinal cord injury awareness and prevention program, SpinChat, continued to engage and educate young people on the critical issue of spinal cord injury prevention across Victoria. Our SpinChat speakers delivered 30 SpinChat sessions to 2,900+ secondary school students – each sharing their own unique story of life with an acquired disability after serious injuries.
Having overcome some of life’s toughest battles, our speakers share their stories and experiences through engaging and powerful presentations to inspire students to make safer and informed choices. Through this high impact program, we aim to promote prevention, awareness, minimise risk of injury and encourage students to consider the consequences of high-risk activities.
Eric’s Story
The transition from school life to your first job interview can be a path paved in self-doubt, fear, confusion and uncertainty for anyone. The loss of routine and familiarity can throw young, autistic individuals into a spin or often into the refuge of staying at home.
Our School Leavers to Employment Support (SLES) program understands this and aims to develop and practice the skills that allow individuals with autism to venture out of their comfort zones and into the post-school world armed with resilience and courage.
Eric is one of the young adults who participated in the program. He came to us with a gusto of personality, a bucket full of dreams and ideas, but was unsure on where to start (and whether he could). Over 12-months in the SLES program, Eric volunteered with community services, excelled at work experience in different sectors, grew his confidence, set new goals, and even made new friends along the way.
After an online search, a modeling agency, a revamped resume, some new photos and a job advertisement later, he decided he was ready to embark on his first job application. Just to click the ‘Apply’ button was a major achievement for Eric.
To his pleasant surprise, he got a reply almost immediately requesting an interview – the very next day in the heart of Melbourne! Everything that Eric learned during the SLES program was about to be put into practice.
He rocked the interview, bringing his vibrant personality and newly gained interview etiquette skills. Keep an eye out for Eric, as he may just be the next big thing!
During his time in the program, Eric learnt to explore his views of the world through meaningful conversations, has become a Youth Leader at Duke of Edinburgh, is a role model for his peers and is constantly surprising everyone with his humour and personal growth.
Services Hub
As part of our commitment to continuous improvement of customer experience, increased engagement and maximising choice and control we introduced new systems to strengthen our responsiveness and continuity of supports and developed the Services Hub.
The Services Hub is an online platform that enables our community supports customers to access personalised information and connect to Independence Australia’s platforms, rosters, resources and communications to manage their supports – anytime, anywhere. The Services Hub was rolled out to a small group of customers and further developed to reflect feedback received. We look forward to launching the Services Hub to more of our customers in the year ahead.
We also embraced our partnerships and internal collaborations to improve the reach of services by connecting people with new supports and provided essential tools and resources for our customers to achieve their personal goals.
Disability Sector Education & Networking Events
We were thrilled to launch our new series of Support Coordination Education Days this year. Designed to improve collaboration across the sector, support shared strategies, establish peer connections, share experiences and gain insights from industry expert speakers, these events were a huge success, with plans underway to extend their reach in the year ahead. This new series is in addition to the six Local Area ‘Lunch with Purpose’ events we hosted for Support Coordinators in Victoria during the year.
6
Local Area ‘Lunch with Purpose’ events for Support Coordinators
2
Support Coordination Education Days
Social Impact Project
As part of our strategic intent to deliver positive and sustainable impact, Independence Australia collaborated with Swinburne University of Technology’s Centre for Social Impact to develop a framework to measure the impact of our services on the people we support.
Co-investing in a PhD research scholarship to explore ways to measure service user outcomes, in 2021 we commenced our research project ‘Independence and disability: maximising impact and NDIS outcomes for disability service users’.
After four-years of extensive field and literature research, the project made several important contributions to outcomes measurement in the context of disability services including the requirement for a new separate process to identify and assess customer attainment of relevant outcomes and the critical importance of understanding ‘outcome attainment’ as a ‘maintenance of status quo’ as our customers’ outcomes are not necessarily about ‘change’ or ‘progress’, but about ‘stability’.
This collaboration between the academic and disability sectors sought to bridge the gap between service delivery and measurable outcomes, ensuring that support provided truly meets the needs of disability service users.
By focusing on accurate outcomes measurement, we can develop and implement sustainable service responses that demonstrate positive sustainable social impact and improve the well-being of the people we support.
Joseph’s Story
We first met Joe when he was a regular at our Seaford Hub prior to the pandemic. Apart from a once-off visit for a ‘trial day’ in 2021 between lockdowns, we hadn’t seen much of Joe. Until recently…
With encouragement and support for our Support Coordination Team and Hub Practitioner, Joe has overcome his confidence barriers and has not only become a regular face again. Most importantly, Joe is participating in meaningful activities to grow his confidence, skills and social connections. Joe hit the ground running and is making great progress in our garden space – potting seedlings for our greenhouse, tending to the lawns, keeping the carparks and garden beds tidy. Joe is now starting his very own veggie patch!
Joe is actively engaged with the program, has developed a great relationship with Program Leader, Liam, and really looks forward to Fridays at the Hub.
Joe’s next goal is to explore our hospitality program and gradually increasing his days coming into the Hub.
Hundreds of thousands
of orders delivered to customers in their homes across Australia
90%
Average customer satisfaction
13
Continence and Wound Care Education Days
We proudly operate as a social enterprise, redistributing the surplus funds we generate from the sale our healthcare products, mobility aids and equipment into programs that support people living with a disability.
When people shop with us, they’re helping to cover expenses where funding gaps occur. As a social enterprise we can ensure the continuation of vital programs such as psychology, counselling and community supports for the people we support.
6
Distribution centres
nationally
This year, we experienced continued growth and successfully delivered nearly 900,000 orders to people across Australia – reflecting the trust and loyalty our customers place in Independence Australia as their one-stop-shop for healthcare consumables and assistive technology. Customers also have access to a wide range of information and resources related to their purchases including continence, wound care, nutrition, children’s health and the NDIS.
Paramount to everything we do at Independence Australia is choice. We are proud to have stocked more than 12,000 products for customers to choose from, delivered directly to their door, anywhere in Australia, when they need them thanks to our network of distribution centres in every state.
Refining our internal systems and processes has allowed us to deepen our engagement with customers, tailoring our product solutions and services to better meet their personal needs.
Not only did we experience an increase in direct-to-customer orders, we also saw the strengthening of supplier partnerships with Home Care Package providers and health service providers across Australia. This contributed to continued growth across these segments. Our personalised service and online ordering platform ensured optimal customer experience and provided ongoing, direct support for our B2B customers.
The successful relaunch of our Health Professional website strengthened our position as a trusted source for health professionals seeking tools, resources, and information to provide the best support possible.
Health professionals can access our NDIS resources explaining our specialisation in complex care, our wide range of consumables and supports outlined in your NDIS package for their clients, as well as continence and wound care resources, how-to guides on placing an order with Independence Australia and so much more all on the go.
The growth experienced this year, coupled with consistent positive customer reviews and ratings, underscores the trust our customers have in the products and services available at Independence Australia.
Looking ahead, we remain dedicated to our core purpose as a social enterprise and are excited to continue building on the successes of this year to drive positive change in the lives of people living with disability or other personal needs.
CCI Services
Since its inception in 1976, CCI Services has been dedicated to delivering savings and efficiencies to Australia’s not-for-profit sector. As a not-for-profit themselves, CCI Services understand the challenges of driving the dollar further to enable a greater good to be delivered in communities across Australia.
Russell Schrale (CEO, CCI) says “CCI has over 270 like-minded not-for-profit members located across Australia. Membership offers the ability for a collective buying power to be generated for our members, thereby securing great deals with leading suppliers across Australia.
Independence Australia has been appointed as a supplier to CCI Services in the Medical Consumables Community category and the relationship has been a favourable one for both of our organisations.
It’s fantastic to be working with another like-minded not-for-profit where we’re both able to grow and most importantly, deliver more value to other not-for-profit organisations at the same time.”
Russell concludes by saying “the mission of CCI Services is to empower the greater good, and our supplier arrangement with Independence Australia certainly contributes towards this.”
National Epidermolysis Bullosa Dressings Scheme
Helping families and children receive the support they need, whether it be through products, insight, education and overall empathy, is reflected in the National Epidermolysis Bullosa Dressings Scheme (NEBDS) administered by Independence Australia on behalf of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care.
In the past year, 28 new participants joined the scheme – bringing the total number of participants in NEBDS to more than 330. We remain committed to helping people with Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) access government subsidised dressings, bandages and ancillary products.
Putting families first is our number one priority as demonstrated by an overall customer satisfaction rating of 4.9 out of 5 in our annual NEBDS Annual Stakeholder survey and an extension to our contract for the provision of services for a further 12 months.
Following the introduction of 15 new products to the NEBDS schedule (approved by the Australian Government), we have been able to continue supporting families and children that are living with EB in more ways than ever have before – making us people’s first choice for unwavering support.
The NEBDS eligibility guidelines were updated to include ‘Epidermolytic Ichthyosis’ as an EB subtype and specify the Clinical Advisory Committee (CAC) referral pathway where an applicant is not clearly within the eligibility criteria. This update saw eight applications approved via Clinical Advisory Committee referral following the update to the NEBDS eligibility guidelines, which will see many more families supported under the scheme.
The scheme continues to deliver unmatched support for families in metropolitan and rural areas across Australia.
Our expansion has seen the addition of six new health professionals to the scheme and approved funding from the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care for EB nurses at various education and professional development events to provide ongoing professional advice, awareness and support to families.
19
School education
sessions
6
Preschool
education sessions
5
Antenatal education
sessions
5
Health Professional &
General education sessions
4
Postnatal education
sessions
2
Birth supports
Mobility Aids Australia (MAA)
Providing mobility aids and assistive technology across Victoria, Mobility Aids Australia (MAA) is helping individuals with comfort, confidence and independence with trusted and reliable mobility equipment.
Entrusted by many, MAA has effortlessly provided our customers with advanced assistive technology and mobility aids to suit a wide variety of support needs. Whether our customers require supported independent living solutions to navigate everyday living with peace of mind, through to bathroom aids, living aids, bedding and seating, or require more complex care supports to get around in both style and comfort, with quality scooters, wheelchairs and walkers; MAA has continued to provide our customers with the products they need to retain and regain their independence.
Events & Education Days
This year we successfully delivered 13 Continence and Wound Care Education Day events across Australia, held two Support Coordination Education Days in metropolitan Melbourne and launched three new regional events in Bendigo, Shepparton and Canberra.
Our free of charge education days present health professionals with the opportunity to earn continuing professional development (CPD) hours, connect and communicate with other industry professionals and learn and grow through critical resources, education, insights and tools around support coordination, continence and wound care, autism awareness, psychology, product insights and so much more.
The success of our events has enabled us to share industry knowledge and expertise with health professionals, creating upskilling opportunities, more diverse and topical product insights, deepened industry knowledge and rewarding experience for all. We look forward to continuing our expansion into regional and remote areas in 2025.
13
Continence & Wound Care Education Days
2
Support Coordination Education Days
6
Program sponsors
16
IAG Charity Golf Day partners
120+
Charity Golf Day attendees raising vital funds for services
4.6
Average Star Rating for Products Sold Online
Continence Specification Tool developed to better assist customers
Improved
Accessibility and
Site Responsiveness
This year, our commitment to delivering a customer experience embedded in purpose and empathy deepened, underlining our ongoing dedication to putting our customers first in everything we do. This ethos is not just a guiding principle — it is the foundation of everything we do to connect with our customer through a multi-channel customer experience approach.
Extensive research across strategic, communicative and digital aspects of the customer experience were undertaken which led to meaningful improvements specifically in our digital journey mapping, with a focus on how our NDIS customers navigate our services and how we can assist in guiding them more effectively.
Our continued focus on understanding the dynamic and evolving needs of all customers led to the integration of a new customer data platform. This technology allows us to tailor experiences based on individual behaviours and preferences, ensuring our services become increasingly more personalised and customer centric, enabling us to be more effective whilst collecting and analysing data to deliver continuous improvements to service customers better.
A new Continence Specification Tool was launched to help customers find the right continence product to suit their needs. The tool encourages customers browsing our continence category to take a short quiz and be matched with personalised product recommendations. Customers can then order a free product sample to try before they commit to purchasing. By providing personalised product recommendations, we continue to inform and connect customers with appropriate products to support their individual needs.
In line with our commitment to accessibility, we revitalised our educational content by organising it into a comprehensive, thematic online library. This enhancement makes it easier for diverse audiences to access and utilise the resources needed. The successful relaunch of our Health Professionals website strengthened our position as a trusted source for health professionals seeking tools, resources, and information to provide the best support possible.Our Health Professionals website includes enriched resources and information for health professionals to access on-the-go.
By signing up and registering with their own account, health professionals can access our NDIS resources explaining our specialisation in complex needs, our wide range of consumables and supports outlined in your NDIS package for their clients, as well as continence and wound care resources, how-to guides on placing an order with Independence and so much more, all on the go.
Our strategic brand and communication initiatives have been executed to highlight our core message, of delivering choice and quality to every individual that we serve, to ensure they achieve the independence they deserve.
Our team actively interact with our customers, through interviews, independent research, content creation, storytelling and more, which is brought to life through a multi-channel approach in Inform Magazine, Digital Channels and Website content, showcasing the heartfelt stories of our people and their individual success achieved alongside Independence Australia. Our campaigns are developed to instil trust and generate awareness for our brand and its ability to help our people thrive.
By actively listening to our customers, we continue to deliver on our purpose – to make a difference in the lives of our customers and community through meaningful brand experiences at Independence Australia.
In our journey to becoming an employer of choice within the NDIS environment, this year marked significant progress in nurturing an inclusive and diverse workforce that reflects our core purpose and values at Independence Australia.
We are proud of the many milestones we achieved this year, all directed at strengthening the culture, capability, and capacity of our people — ensuring we are well-positioned to meet both present and future needs.
Earlier in the year we implemented the Human Capital Management System which is the final component of the HR tech stack solution. With the solution fully implemented, the final stages of integration will be completed over the next 12 months. This will support data driven analytics and improve our compliance management, whilst reducing administration.
Collaboration was a key feature of this year, particularly during the successful negotiation of two new Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBA) that now cover almost 85% of our workforce. Over 81% of employees actively participating in the voting process with 84% of them endorsing the agreements.
The modern and competitive conditions agreed to in the new EBA will help us attract, retain, and grow our workforce, ensuring that we continue to build our capacity and capability for the future.
We know that our people are central to our purpose and impact. People join our organisation with a deep connection to our purpose and the work we do to support people with disability or other personal needs. By focusing on their growth, safety, and wellbeing, we can create a stronger impact in the community.
The safety and wellbeing of our people and the delivery of quality, safe services and products is paramount in what we do.
As a registered disability service provider, we proudly maintain our certifications under the NDIS Practice Standards and ISO 9001 Quality Management System Standards.
Following significant merger and acquisition activity over the past two years, we have reviewed the capability and capacity of our Quality & Safety function to ensure the continuation of quality, safe supports for our customers, and the safety and wellbeing of our people across the broad range of workplaces in which we operate – our work sites, within our customers’ homes and in the community.
This resulted in the separation of our Quality & Safety portfolio into two new functional teams – Quality & Safeguarding and Workplace Health & Safety.
The separation of these functions will enhance our ability to provide quality services and deliver products that maximise customer choice and control and enhance customer experience.
Importantly, this will also allow us to continue our journey with embedding risk management and safety practices within our operations across the Independence Australia Group.