02/09/2026
Can we please stop calling things “inclusive” when disabled kids are being priced out of participating?
I’ve recently seen a disability-specific community camp that was previously free for attendees (due to funding from the community) now charging families $3,350 per child with the suggestion that families use their NDIS funding to pay for it, even recommending the line item to use.
And I genuinely have questions.
Because… from what funding?
We are watching NDIS plans being cut, squeezed and scrutinised. Families are already trying to stretch minimal plans across support workers, therapy, behaviour support, personal care and the everyday disability supports their children actually need.
Now we’re expecting them to somehow find another $3,350 for a three-day camp?
And here’s the part that concerns me even more.
The fee apparently includes “support, including overnight nursing support if needed.” So the obvious question was asked: Are participants going to be supported by paid disability support workers, or will volunteers, including teenage volunteers, still be providing much of the support?
No response.
And that distinction matters enormously when families are being asked to use thousands of dollars of individual NDIS funding.
This is absolutely not a criticism of volunteers. Teenage volunteers are incredible, and peer relationships and community connection are hugely valuable, and teaching the next generation to be genuinely inclusive, supportive and understanding of people with disabilities is, in my view, priceless.
But a teenage volunteer is not the same thing as a paid disability support worker.
And if you’re charging $3,350 and directing families towards NDIS funding, there should be complete transparency about what participants are actually paying for.
Who is providing the disability support? Are they paid? What are the ratios? What training and qualifications are required? How much of the $3,350 is accommodation, food, transport and activities, and how much is actually attributed to support?
We also know that an equivalent NDIS respite/STA rate is around $750 per day, while this works out at approximately $1,100 per day.
They’re not necessarily like-for-like services, so I’m not pretending that’s a perfect comparison. But that’s exactly why the costing needs to be transparent. Especially if significant portions of the program are being supported by volunteers.
And then we come back to the word inclusion. These programs talk about reducing isolation, improving mental health, building independence, increasing confidence and creating belonging. Those outcomes are incredibly important.
But you cannot claim to be reducing isolation while simultaneously creating a financial barrier that excludes the very people you’re supposedly trying to include.
An NDIS plan is not an endless bucket of money. It cannot become the automatic replacement funding source every time a community program that was previously free starts charging disabled participants.
Because here’s where we’re heading:
Programs lose funding.
Costs get shifted onto individual NDIS plans.
NDIS plans simultaneously get smaller.
Families are expected to make the maths work.
And the disabled child whose plan doesn’t have a spare $3,350?
They simply don’t get to participate. That isn’t inclusion. That’s exclusion with an NDIS line item attached to it.
And there is an important distinction here: an NGO exists to serve a community purpose, not to operate like a private company shifting costs onto individual participants. When charitable/community organisations start relying on individual NDIS packages to fund previously subsidised programs, we need to be asking where community responsibility ends and commercial service provision begins.
