A Sunshine Coast disability provider is calling for stronger safeguards in NDIS reform. Your Best Life Disability and Health Services (YBLDHS), a long-established regional provider, has called on the Australian government to ensure participant choice and control remain at the centre of Supported Independent Living (SIL).
In a submission to the NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, YBLDHS CEO Debbie Blumel welcomed efforts to improve quality, sustainability and oversight within the disability sector while cautioning that future commissioning arrangements could unintentionally reduce competition and limit participant choice if conflicts of interest are not addressed.
Ms Blumel says the most significant issue is the continued failure to require a clear separation among SIL and housing providers and support coordination services.
“Good reform should strengthen participant choice, not narrow it,” she says.
“We support measures that improve quality and accountability, but any future commissioning model must include protections against conflicts of interest and market concentration.”
YBLDHS has operated for 37 years across the Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay and Gympie regions and provides disability, mental health, behaviour support and allied health services.
The not-for-profit organisation has maintained NDIS registration without any non-conformances since the scheme started in the region.
Ms Blumel says the main concern is that the bill does not advance the recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission and the NDIS Review, which identified the need to address conflicts arising when the same organisation provides housing, SIL services and support coordination.
“Participants deserve truly independent advice when making decisions about where they live and who provides their supports,” she says. “The separation of housing, SIL and support coordination services is fundamental to protecting participant rights and ensuring decisions are genuinely participant-led.”
