Disability and Community Care Services, Department of Communities commissioned an evaluation of the outcomes, process and costs of the Self Directed Support pilot by a research team led by the Social Policy Research Centre. This final report provides findings about the outcomes for participants and their families, implementation of the pilot, the process and cost analysis. It also draws together implications for future development of similar programs. The Self Directed Support pilot had two key objectives: community inclusion and the empowerment of service users to make their own choices about their support (self direction). Self directed support enabled individuals, their families and their other informal supporters to identify their needs, lifestyles and aspirations, and set personal goals. By giving people with disabilities access to planning and case management, and control over their allocated funding, the program allowed them to be their own agents of change (Department of Communities, 2010: 7). The Queensland Department of Communities selected two service providers from a negotiated tender process to implement the Self Directed Support pilot to two groups of people with disability – children and their families, and young adults. One was the Sunshine Coast Children’s Therapy Centre (SCCTC), which supports young children (0-6 years) with physical disabilities and their family carers and significant other informal supporters. SCCTC had one full-time service coordinator. The second was the Acquired Brain Injury Outreach Service (ABIOS) in Brisbane, which supports young adults (20-35 years) with acquired brain injury and physical disability. Existing ABIOS case managers (ten) incorporated the self directed support function into their other responsibilities. The two provider
