Angus McFarland writes for the Newcastle Herald: How we stop the exodus of NDIS workers

The career path - and I use this term loosely - of one worker, Claire, is fairly conventional.

With almost a decade worth of experience in disability support work, in recent years Claire has been a sole trader providing support to people with disabilities in their homes.

Although she can find herself working long days, she considers herself lucky not having to work short shifts with unpaid time in between like many in the industry.

Claire wants to upskill but there are no training requirements for disability support workers.

She also does not have any sick or annual leave - only taking a few days off each year unpaid.

Claire loves her work. But she's exhausted and she tells me it's not sustainable. Claire's story, sadly, is typical of many workers in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

To meet demand in the NDIS over the next year, we need to attract tens of thousands of new disability sector workers across Australia.

But even if we achieve that, it will hardly make a difference if up to half the workforce leaves within the next few years, as research and surveys consistently foreshadow.

We need to stop the many Claires from joining the looming industry exodus if we want to build a sustainable NDIS.

The NDIS promised to deliver greater choice and control for people with disabilities.

But since its roll out, workers have told me the lack of training and secure work, alongside a race to the bottom on wages, have thwarted participants from accessing a stable pool of workers who can support their diverse needs and aspirations.

An independent review into the NDIS is afoot, partly to look at ways the scheme can be more sustainable by attracting and keeping workers.

Members of my union have a few solutions that could halt the mass departure, make the scheme the best it can be, and also save precious dollars in the long run.

When it comes to rewarding and upskilling our workforce, we need to develop portable leave and training entitlement schemes.

With so many short-hour jobs in the NDIS, workers are working full-time hours across multiple casual or gig jobs without receiving any full-time benefits.

Accrued annual, sick and long service leave should stick with the employee at a scheme level as they work between or change jobs.

Like superannuation.

Similarly, there should be a portable training scheme within the NDIS so workers can always have access to ongoing accredited training to develop specialisations and build career paths.

All of this is cost neutral and would provide significant savings to the scheme over the long term.

Recently, the McKell Institute released a report which found leave is actually already factored into NDIS packages - it's just that employers in the sector often don't pass it on to workers because of their short-hour casual or gig-like work in the sector.

Portable leave and training will save money for the NDIS because it will cut down the costs of recruiting new workers to the scheme.

Disability providers have told me they spend on average $10,000 on each new employee in recruitment and onboarding costs.

If we can keep workers in the scheme for longer and stop the churn, that will be massive savings over time.

More staff would feel refreshed after taking holidays and committed to their job and career thanks to accessing professional development opportunities.

Having a happy, respected, skilled workforce would lead to better quality services for people with a disability and give the NDIS more bang for its buck.

I know Anthony Albanese's federal government has indicated in the past that it will work with the states, unions and industry to develop portable leave entitlements for industries that have insecure work arrangements.

The disability sector clearly needs to be the priority.