This will form part of your plan budget line around Access to Community, Social and Recreational Activities. It comes under the Capacity Building Supports Budget Line.
This is where you gain support in setting up, coordinating, and managing your providers within accordance of NDIS Plan Goals and Objectives.
You will be allocated a dollar figure and it is up to you and your Support Coordinator to negotiate the service you are provided. This is where I encourage Service Agreements be entered into for open and honest communication (ie Transparency).
This also ensure you know exactly where the money is going and on what service.
Coordination of Supports
There are three “layers” of support coordination that you may see in the NDIS plan:
- Support Connection
- Support Coordination
- Specialist Support Coordination
Please find below the NDIA description in accordance with legislation and then my interpretation of this description.
Support Connection
NDIA states, this is a …
Time limited assistance to strengthen participant’s ability to connect with informal, mainstream and funded supports, and to increase capacity to maintain support relationships, resolve service delivery issues, and participate independently in NDIA processes.
To me this means you will have a certain amount of time with help in locating, setting up and starting the supports, such as Respite, Therapy, Equipment, Social/Recreational Supports. All in alignment with the goals and objectives mentioned and outline in the Plan. After this has happened you will be responsible for maintaining and locating supports. Rest assured you can always have this changed as your circumstances change. All you have to do is seek a review meeting and have your Support Connection person assist you with this.
Support Coordination
NDIA states, this provides …
Assistance to strengthen participant’s abilities to connect to and coordinate informal, mainstream and funded supports in a complex service delivery environment. This includes resolving points of crisis, developing capacity and resilience in a participant’s network and coordinating supports from a range of sources.
What I believe this means is you will receive assistance in setting up and arranging the supports for multiple service providers. This could involve assisting with arranging multiple complex appointments to work in with families life. This could also be assisting families and supports to work together to achieve the goals and objectives. This to me is where equipment and relationships could potentially break down without assistance. All of this would happen with high level communication where everyone involved will be kept informed.
Depending on the individual situation, some of the supports may be managed by the Support Coordinator, this is usually negotiated in the beginning and included in the plan and service agreement. Your Support Coordinator can assist you with this.
Specialist Support Coordination
NDIA states …
The provision of Support Coordination within a specialist framework necessitated by specific high level risks in the participant’s situation. This support is time limited and focuses on addressing barriers and reducing complexity in the support environment, while assisting the participant to connect with supports and build capacity and resilience. It may also involve development of an intervention plan which will be put in place by disability support workers.
To me I believe this relates to families who are vulnerable within the community, such as family members have disabilities themselves and are not in a position to assist. It could be because of the complexity and high level of needs the participant has, means it is too much for a family member (for example) to manage on their own. This could include medical, hospital, equipment, therapy, transport, supports, and so on… This could be where other workers are involved in the support and management of the NDIS Plan, such as Social Worker, Medical Practitioners, and Disability Workers.
I believe this is where having someone who specialises or has the capacity to (qualifications, experience, clearances, ethical standards) to cope and manage these situations.
As each individual case is different and unique, before engaging with providers registered or not, I would have a list of questions to ask them. Most importantly, I would want to see how they are qualified to perform what is required, professionally, ethically and in accordance with the NDIS Plan.
Disclaimer: at the time of writing this information, all contents were true and correct based on personal lived experience. Please note that is a guide only and over time they may change their processes and some information contained in this article may become void and irrelevant. If in doubt, please go directly to the source, NDIS to seek clarity and clarification.