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Co-designing the Questions: Inside the Safe Homes Project
- NDRP
- Dec 16
- 4 min read
About this project
This project brings together researchers from the University of Melbourne, Inclusion Australia staff, and families to plan future research on service-for-one support for people with intellectual disability and complex support needs.
Service-for-one is when a person employs their own support workers and lives in a home they and their families choose in their community. Families say this support can be more stable, safer and more personalised than group homes. But there isn’t much research about it, which makes it hard for families to get the support they want.
The team is using co-design to decide what questions the research should ask and how the research should be done.
Who’s involved?
A cross-sector team is leading the work.
University of Melbourne
Dr Tess Bright (Project Lead)
Prof Anne Kavanagh (Supervision / Senior Research Support)
Research Assistant Bella White
Research Team
Inclusion Australia
Policy and lived-experience staff including Darian McClean, Amy Conley Wright, Luke Nelson and Brooke Canham
Complex Needs Reference Group family advisors
The team is working together to understand safety, choice, quality of life and value-for-money in service-for-one arrangements.
What people are asking
Families contributing to this work have described service-for-one arrangements as:
More stable
More personalised, and
Safer than traditional group living settings
They also say it helps reduce restrictive practices and improves quality of life.
But because there is very little formal evidence, it can be hard for families to explain why this support is important, and hard for government to understand its value.
The project team is now exploring:
What the future research should focus on
How to define “service-for-one” clearly, and
How to collect information through interviews and data analysis.
Taking time for co-design
2025 research funding gives the team time to build relationships, listen carefully and make decisions together before running the full research project.
So far, the team has:
Set up a Governance Group (three meetings so far)
Met regularly with Inclusion Australia
Met the Complex Needs Reference Group twice
Hired Research Assistant Bella White
Designed early interview plans
Received specialist advice on supported decision-making
Completed a complex ethics process
Piloted the topic guide for interviews
Started recruiting families, and completed six interviews
Begun exploring Person Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA) datasets.
This planning work is helping the team move into the next stage with a strong foundation.
Extra information: Methods, data and technical design details
Recruitment is focused on four pairs: a person with disability and their family member.
Two interviews with people with disability have been completed after working with parents to build safe engagement plans.
A mixed-methods design is being prepared, including qualitative interviews, potential shadowing approaches, and quantitative analysis.
The team is refining a definition of “service-for-one” for both interviews and PLIDA analysis.
The ethics process required three rounds of revisions, often due to limited committee understanding of disability-inclusive research.
PLIDA can provide demographic, goal and payment data, but cannot show spending or long-term change, which makes cohort identification challenging.
National Disability Data Asset (NDDA) data is not available as planned.
Co-design in action
Shared leadership
People with intellectual disability, including Luke and Brooke from Inclusion Australia, sit on the Governance Group and help make decisions about the project.
Different ways to take part
People with disability and their families take part in ways that work for them, such as:
One-on-one meetings
Multiple shorter sessions
Supported decision-making advice, and
Communication support
Designing methods together
The team is co-designing:
Interview guides
Participatory approaches
The order of family and participant interviews
How to support people with complex communication needs, and
How to define service-for-one for research.
Working through systems together
The ethics process showed gaps in understanding of disability-inclusive research.The team responded together, using the process to strengthen future systems and relationships.
A strong theme so far: partnership and shared leadership
Dr Tess Bright shared:
“It’s amazing to have funded time for co-design. We get to learn how our partners like to work and what research they want to do. They are the experts; I see myself as a facilitator, not someone who comes with all the answers.”
Early insights
Families feel heard
Families say it is meaningful to have their experiences taken seriously and reflected in the planning.
Policy barriers are clearer
The NDIA 3:1 support ratio is emerging as a major barrier to service-for-one access.
Skills are growing
Bella is learning co-interviewing
Luke and Brooke are shaping the research as co-researchers
Tess has completed Easy Read training and attended the Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability (ASID) 2025 Conference to learn from experts in the field.
Partnerships are strengthening
The project is deepening collaboration between the university, Inclusion Australia, and other specialists.
These early shifts are shaping the next phase of planning.
Why this work matters for safety
Families and people with intellectual disability say service-for-one support helps create safer and more stable living arrangements. But without research, it is difficult to advocate for these options.
This project is helping build that missing evidence by bringing lived experience, families and researchers together to plan the work from the start.
Extra information: Project development, partnerships and system learning
The ethics process itself strengthened understanding of inclusive research within committees.
The team has built new partnerships, including with Dr Jo Watson at Deakin University.
The Governance Group and Complex Needs Reference Group have helped shape early decisions about methods and priorities.
A postponed co-design workshop will focus on developing the research strategy once foundational work is finalised.
About this page
We wrote this page in plain English so it is clear and accessible to everyone. The Extra information sections include deeper detail for people who want it, but you don’t need to read them to understand the project.
People with disability are co-researchers on this project, and we aim to reflect that priority in this series.
