This report assesses Down Syndrome Australia’s Employment Connections Service (ECS), which provides tailored, evidence-aligned employment services to jobseekers with Down syndrome (and, more recently, people with other intellectual disability) and to employers. Reflecting current international best practice, the service model has four key areas of activity: discovery/vocational profiling, job development and customised placement, intensive job-site training, and ongoing support. 

This report was commissioned to determine whether ECS can be sustained beyond its time-limited establishment funding and to identify what changes — within funding settings, revenue strategies, or service delivery arrangements — would be required to maintain and expand a model that is demonstrably effective for people with Down syndrome. The study focused on cost to deliver the service, and revenue and sustainability. The study documented and standardised ECS service activities; assessed alignment with international evidence on supported/customised employment; built a cost model; mapped activities to NDIS and IEA revenue; and tested multi-year scenarios including the provision of multi-year ongoing support and re-placement into additional employment when initial placements end. 

Across the scenarios tested, there is a consistent sustainability gap: the revenue that can realistically be generated under current settings does not reliably match the cost of delivering ECS at the intensity required for people with Down syndrome and intellectual disability — particularly where participants work fewer than 15 hours per week, and most acutely below 5 hours per week. Despite these low hours of employment, the service effort to achieve and sustain employment for this cohort is significant. In other words, the model that best reflects evidence on ''what works” for this cohort is not well matched to the way mainstream funding is currently structured.