Some NDIS support coordination specialists may have particular abilities, knowledge, or experience that can help you concentrate on objectives. It contributes significantly to ensuring that NDIS participants can get all the help to which they are legally entitled. Nevertheless, there are various levels of support coordination.
Continue reading to learn about the levels of support coordination, how a support coordinator function, and how funding for support coordination is allocated. We’ll also outline the distinctions between a plan manager and a specialised support coordinator.
What Does Support Coordination Mean?
A support coordinator can be compared to a NDIS assistant, which is one of the simplest ways to define them. They are available to assist you in comprehending your NDIS plan and establishing connections with resources that will enable you to maximise its benefits. The job of support coordinators is to make the NDIS a bit less perplexing since it can be.
Multiple supplier sourcing and management can be difficult and time-consuming. Certain individuals could choose to handle things on their own. That is when NDIS support coordination comes in quite handy for others. Support coordination collaborates with you to find the best providers and products, organising your support on your behalf and enhancing your informal support system, such as your family.
What Is a Specialist Support Coordination?
Support coordination, connection and specialist are the three phases of NDIS coordination.
Support connection aids participants in acquiring the abilities needed to interact with support in order to accomplish their goals. A higher level of support is a coordination of support. Participants can utilise and understand their NDIS plan with the assistance of a support coordinator. They will collaborate with the participants to guarantee that they have access to a range of supports.
The highest level of assistance coordination is with regard to specialists. People who struggle to obtain and retain the supports to which they are entitled can use it. To ensure consistent assistance delivery, participants engage with a specialist support coordinator. Additionally, they help participants manage the difficulties in their supportive environment.
Levels of NDIS Support Coordination
Depending on the amount of assistance you require, there are three categories of support coordination accessible:
Specialist Support Coordination
For more complex circumstances, specialist support is provided.
Support Coordination
To provide connectivity and coordination of your support from a variety of resources in a more complicated setting, accessible long-term across your plan.
Support Connection
This is short-term support to help you in finding a variety of service providers who can suit your needs, but you are still responsible for organising all of your support and choosing your service providers. Typically, your LAC will offer this.
What Is the Difference Between Plan Management and Support Coordination?
Coordinating support is frequently confused with managing an NDIS plan. Participants are partnered with a plan manager and a NDIS plan support coordinator to guarantee that they get all the support they are eligible for under their NDIS plan. There are significant differences, though.
Participants can handle their plan funds with the help of NDIS plan management. It involves assistance with paying suppliers, understanding the cash given to them, and developing members’ financial management abilities.
Individuals who experience additional difficulties in independently obtaining their support, however, may consider NDIS support coordination. Additionally, it’s intended to encourage participants to build their abilities so they can one day independently access their support.
What Does an NDIS Plan Support Coordinator Australia Do?
The duties of a support coordinator are numerous. But the NDIS considers the following to support coordinator responsibilities:
- Collaborating with participants to organise and prepare their support.
- Ensuring that participants are aware of their NDIS plan.
- Putting participants in touch with resources and services
- Establishing service contracts and service reservations.
- Creating and maintaining support systems.
- Knowing what services suppliers of assistance can and cannot charge.
- Identifying potential obstacles to receiving assistance and making preparations to overcome them.
The coordination of their support must be done by the participants. A support coordinator’s responsibility is to assist people in expressing their preferences and making choices. An effective NDIS plan support coordinator Australia knows that rather than choosing options for participants, their job is to enable them to demonstrate agency.
The Funding Source for NDIS Support Coordination
Funding for NDIS support coordination is included in the attendee’s payments for capacity building. Nevertheless, the quantity of support can differ. This is due to the fact that it is founded on what is deemed “reasonable and necessary”. It considers the participant’s present capacities as well as the unofficial assistance that they receive from friends and family.
Even though funding amounts can differ, NDIS plan support funds are normally fixed amounts. This indicates that participants may only spend this much on support coordination.
What Are the Other Duties of NDIS Support Coordinators?
Support coordinators perform tasks such as evaluating service agreements and facilitating users’ access to sponsored and informal supports.
A professional support coordinator’s job also entails assisting participants in overcoming sophisticated obstacles. This entails being aware of the obstacles a person can encounter, coming up with answers, and creating a procedure to get through them.
The NDIS emphasises that while support coordination must help participants overcome complex obstacles, it should not be mistaken for disability awareness. Rather, the participant should be put in touch with a formal disability service by a trained support coordinator.
Participants may also receive assistance from support coordinators in creating a service plan for their unique support needs. In order to guarantee everybody knows how to communicate and work together so that the participant may accomplish their goals, this may entail working with the participants, their relatives, and their support personnel.
