2/03/2026
We are delighted to introduce Freddie Brincat FIEP, Founder and Executive Director of Community Bridging Services (CBS) Inc. in South Australia, who has joined the IEP Fellowship.
Freddie’s career began in education, as a history, health and specialist disability physical educator, before he was drawn to supporting people with a disability at Strathmont Centre, one of South Australia’s disability institutions. There he joined a group of forward-thinking colleagues committed to building the confidence and capacity of people with intellectual disability.
Guided by a holistic, strengths-based philosophy, Freddie has always sought that balance between social justice, positive values and culture on one hand, and sound business and financial leadership on the other. After completing postgraduate studies, he founded Community Bridging Services (CBS) Inc. in 1996, an organisation he continues to lead as Executive Director today.
At the heart of Freddie’s approach is a simple but powerful ambition: he wants people with a disability to hear ‘Yes’ more than ‘No’. Under the new Inclusive Employment Australia (IEA) contract, CBS works to support people in building their economic and social independence. This is something Freddie believes must remain the central focus of the sector.
“I believe we all need to embrace diversity as a reflection of who we are in our communities and look at what people can do, having a focus on the positives in us all rather than the negatives,” Freddie said.
“When you attract the best people and resources in support of jobs and career development, you can move mountains. To help do this, I need to keep learning and sharing, and the IEP provides more opportunities to connect and achieve this with other professionals in Australia and around the world.”
A Call to the Sector: Human Service, Not Industry
Alongside his Fellowship, Freddie has a message for the broader sector, one that speaks directly to how professionals describe the work they do.
Freddie is concerned about the growing use of the word ‘industry’ to describe what he considers a human service. From his experience, the term was rarely applied to disability support before the NDIS, and he believes its rise reflects the commercialisation of services under competitive contracting frameworks.
“When I studied history at university, I studied the Industrial Revolution, where gadgets and widgets were made to make life easier for us humans,” Freddie said. “People with a disability are not gadgets and widgets.”
“In my opinion, the use of the term ‘industry’ to describe what we do dehumanises people and what we do. It makes people with a disability appear more as commercial widgets you do things to in order to make maximum profit, rather than keeping the focus on the person.”
Freddie draws a parallel with education and health – both human services built around people – and invites colleagues across the sector to reflect on the language they use and what it signals about their values.
“I ask you to please consider the use of this term to describe what we do. It devalues people with a disability and devalues what you do as professionals.”
About the IEP Fellowship
Fellows of the IEP are a community of passionate and influential professionals from within the Employability sector. They work to share best practice across the sector, and to support the vision and mission of the IEP.
Fellows are usually expected to have been working in Employability or a related sector for at least seven years, to have participated in or supported activities across the sector, to be prepared to play a role in advancing the sector, and to be committed to Continued Professional Development. Candidates undergo a professional development interview, which is vital to the professional standing of the IEP.
Interested in applying for IEP Fellowship? Find out more and apply at the IEP Australia website.