The StewartBrown Disability Services Financial Benchmark (DSFB or Benchmark) collects financial performance, equity, and staffing data on a quarterly basis; giving disability service providers the ability to benchmark their data at an organisational level and across different service types.
The Disability Services Financial Benchmark will use proven systems and processes already established in StewartBrown’s renowned Aged Care Financial Performance Survey. The Aged Care Financial Performance Survey is the largest and most highly regarded financial benchmark in the health and aged care sector, with quarterly participation comprising over 330 organisations, in excess of 1,200 residential aged care homes and over 60,000 home care packages.
In addition to whole of organisation benchmarking, a provider’s Disability Services are benchmarked as follows:
- Supported Independent Living (SIL) & Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) services
- Daily Living (Non-SIL)
- Social & Community Participation
- Allied Health (Therapy Supports)
- Supported Employment Services
- Support Coordination
The Benchmark is primarily for the benefit of disability services providers in reviewing their financial performance and considerations of strategic direction on an individual SIL or SDA home basis and services basis. This service level data collection and analysis is a key difference to the NDIA Financial Benchmarking Survey.
A secondary benefit is that overtime the aggregate of the data will provide a significant level of trend data and detailed analysis. The Benchmark will provide evidence based, objective analysis and accurate data on sector trends, which may be used by key stakeholders in the sector for advocacy based on facts and national coverage of providers.
StewartBrown’s role is that of an independent third party to collect, cleanse, analyse and report the data.
Each Benchmark participant receives the quarterly Benchmark report, with detailed analysis of trends, succinct summary tables and clear graphs; and a tailored report for each disability service comparing results against various benchmarks. The tailored reports compare provider’s service level results against the average and top 25% of services.
Participants also have access to the StewartBrown profession Analyst team, individualised Board and Executive presentations about the Benchmark results and privileged access to special services on our secure website.
Why benchmark your organisation and services?
Benchmarking enables an organisation to learn from the outside, gaining an independent perspective about how well they perform compared to other service providers. This knowledge allows you to develop baselines, define best practices, identify improvement opportunities and create a competitive environment within the organisation. This process delivers relevant performance measures that ensures that your staff are able to implement service-specific solutions.
Benchmarking at its best is used as a tool to help organisations evaluate and prioritise improvement opportunities.
Benchmarking is a common best practice and helps organisations:
Integrating benchmarking into your organisation will result in valuable data that encourages discussion and sparks new ideas and practices. However, the approach to benchmarking can be just as important as the data. StewartBrown encourages organisations to incorporate benchmarking into the practices and culture by engaging key decision makers and personnel throughout the process. The best use of the Disability Services Financial Benchmark produces a team focus that:
- Improves understanding of the real opportunities and their priority at all levels
- Minimises resistance to change and garners support for action
- Fosters a spirit of enthusiasm to do better than the benchmark
- Promotes discussion based on data rather than assumptions or emotion
Utilising the Disability Services Financial Benchmark provides a number of direct benefits:
There are also a number of indirect benefits of using benchmarking:
How to participate?
Providers pay an annual subscription which is based on the operating size of the organisation. Our pricing guide is set out in the registration kit. As a benefit for joining in the initial Benchmark, the one-off joining fee will be waived. For the financial year 22-23, the pricing will be pro-rata based on 2 Benchmark periods (Jun-22 and Jun-23).
The registration kit contains details on our service including terms and conditions of participation, the roles, and obligations of StewartBrown, and of your organisation, Benchmark timetable, and pricing of services. The kit also contains an application form so that you can provide us with the details of the services to include in the Benchmark, as well as your contact information.
If you have any questions about the StewartBrown Disability Services Financial Benchmark, please do not hesitate to contact Steven Toner on (02) 9412 3033 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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