Job quality under individualised funding models: perspectives of in-home support workers

This thesis investigated the job quality of in-home support workers employed under individualised funding models at a time when the sector is moving towards a disability market. It focused on the experiences of in-home support workers in Victoria who support people funded through consumer-directed, individualised funding arrangements, including the NDIS and Victorian Individual Support Packages (ISPs).

Drawing on new institutionalism as the theoretical framework and using job quality as a heuristic tool, this study explored two related aspects: how in-home support workers under individualised funding models defined a ‘good job’; and the capacity for employers to provide these ‘good’ jobs in light of other institutional influences. Institutional influences in this context included both entities and social norms.

The study used a mixed method design. The qualitative analysis of 18 semi-structured interviews with in-home support workers was supplemented with descriptive statistics of scaled questions used in these interviews.

The research found a ‘good’ job for this group of workers comprises ten dimensions that can be categorised under three broad areas: the ‘work itself’, ‘working conditions’ and the ‘work environment’.