Add or update support coordination funding in a plan approval case

For Internal Use Only The contents of this document are OFFICIAL.

This article provides guidance for a planner to:

understand what support coordination is
understand levels of support coordination
understand support coordination roles
add support coordination funding
update support coordination funding.

Recent updates

October 2023

Current guidance

Before you start

You have:

read and understood Our Guideline — Reasonable and necessary (external)
made a decision to include support coordination funding in a participant’s plan
read and understood article Understand the product catalogue
read and understood article Support Categories.

What is support coordination?

Support coordination is a broad term used to describe the three levels of support. The three levels of support are:

support connection
coordination of supports
specialist support coordination.

This support can be included in the participant’s plan to support them to connect with services whilst strengthening their ability to pursue their goals and aspirations. The provision of support

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coordination helps the participant understand how the NDIS operates within a broader ecosystem of supports. This includes disability organisations and mainstream and community supports.

To provide a high quality service to participants, planners and partners are reminded successful planning is centred on the following principles:

Valuing and respecting the goals and aspirations of the participant.
Understanding the role of mainstream, community and informal supports and the benefit to the participant by connecting them with these supports. Applying reasonable and necessary decision making in developing and determining the funded supports to assist the participant to pursue their goals.
Quality interactions which demonstrate empathy and understanding of the participant’s disability and needs.

Levels of support coordination

There are three levels of support coordination which may be included in the plan in the support coordination budget. Use your reasonable and necessary decision making and consider the participant’s goals and aspirations.

Streaming is an important factor to determine the level of support coordination a participant needs. It’s important that plan developers take into account a participant’s individual circumstances. When you determine the type, level and number of hours to be included in the plan, consider:

existing informal supports
any additional complexity factors
the participant’s streaming outcome.

Note: If support coordination is included in the plan, discuss with the participant if they have a preferred provider for this support. Gain the participant’s consent for the NDIA to make a referral on their behalf. This information will be required for plan implementation. You can add this information in the Handover Notes. For further information refer to articles Complete the request for service and Add handover notes for a plan approval case.

Support connection

Support connection is typically delivered by a participant’s local area coordinator (LAC) or early childhood partner. Support connection is a time-limited assistance to strengthen the participant’s ability to connect with mainstream and community supports. This includes establishing service agreements with support providers. The aim is to increase the

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participant’s capacity and ability to maintain relationships, negotiate with service providers and respond to minor service delivery issues.

Generally support connection is the primary role of the partner. Participants who reside in an area that is supported by an LAC or early childhood partner, will usually not require additional funding to be included in their plan. This is, however, dependent on the level of support the participant needs to implement their plan. You will need to consider all information available to you to make this decision as each participant’s circumstances are different.

Coordination of Support (formerly support coordination)

Coordination of support is delivered by a support coordinator. Consider including coordination of support in a participant’s plan to assist in strengthening the participant’s capabilities to connect to and coordinate informal, mainstream and funded supports in a complex service delivery environment. This may include:

resolving points of concern
unexpected service delivery issues
developing capacity and resilience in a participant’s network
coordinating supports from a range of suppliers or providers.

Participants requiring this level of support will have usually been streamed Intensive.

The support coordinator should focus on addressing barriers and reducing complexity in the s \support environment. At the same time, they should ensure the participant is supported to connect with and build their capacity and resilience. It may also involve development of an intervention plan which will be delivered by disability support workers.

You may need to add or change the coordination of support funding to enable the participant to receive the right level and type of support to implement their plan and address any complexities in their life. You can do this if you have the evidence to support the change.

Note: When a support coordinator is providing capacity building supports, immediately moving to a partner - LAC or early childhood may disadvantage the participant. In this case you can include 3 months of coordination of support in the new plan. Include a request that the support coordinator completes a warm handover to the partner at the end of those 3 months.

The below provides some guidance for including funds for coordination of support in the plan. You will need to consider all information available to you when deciding if funding meets NDIS funding criteria.

Low s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies ) for example, this could be considered when the participant:

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s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies
Medium (s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies ) for example, for participants who:
- s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies
s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies High ) for example, participants who:
- s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies

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Specialist Support Coordination (s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies)

Note: For all levels, these are examples only and you must use your reasonable and necessary decision making when including supports in a plan.

Participants who have been streamed as Super Intensive may require specialist support coordination. These participants may have multiple complexities in their circumstances, multi-jurisdictional involvement and limited support networks. This could involve a specialised and/or intensive response within a specialist framework if the participant has high risks in their life situation and/or environment. These could include:

s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies

This approach is expected to:

address barriers and reduce complexity in the participant’s environment
assist to connect the participant with multiple complex supports
assist to build the participant’s capacity and resilience.

You will need to use reasonable and necessary decision making to determine how many hours to include for specialist support coordination. You should consider the guidance under the heading of Specialist Support Coordination above. When deciding how many hours, make sure there is enough funding to support the participant as well as to allow the support coordinator to fulfil their reporting requirements.

Referral for Complex Support Needs

When determining the level of support coordination you may identify the participant has complex support needs. These needs may require a referral into the Complex Support Needs (CSN) Pathway. The CSN Pathway aims to provide specialised support for people with disability who experience personal and situational factors that are beyond the scope of the typical NDIS Pathway. To refer a participant for assessment by the CSN branch, refer to How to refer a participant to CSN through PACE.

Psychosocial recovery coach

Generally, the participant should not have funding for both recovery coach support and support coordination included in their plan. Support coordination may be considered reasonable and

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Necessary in addition to funding a recovery coach in limited circumstances. For example, funding for a specialist support coordinator may be considered reasonable and necessary if the participant identifies a goal of finding suitable housing.

The market may be limited to provide this service. Until the market matures there may not be any recovery coach providers available in the participant’s local area. The LAC or support coordinator can continue to provide support if the participant has support coordination included in their plan.

For further information refer to articles Add psychosocial recovery coach funding in a plan approval case and Support Categories.

Support coordination roles

The role of the LAC, early childhood partner (support connection) or support coordinator is to assist the participant to implement their plan. They will make sure the participant can:

exercise choice and control to link with the right providers
pursue their goals
locate and coordinate a range of supports.

Generally, this will include mainstream, community and funded supports while building on informal networks. They will provide participants with strategies for how to use their support budgets to pursue their goals. Support coordination activities can include supports to build participants’ resilience in their own network and community.

A support coordinator will need to complete implementation and progress reports as part of their role in supporting the participant. Plan developers should make sure that additional hours are included in the support budget to allow for this to be completed. You will need to use reasonable and necessary decision making to make sure all required inclusions are in the participant’s plan.

Add support coordination funding

In the Plan Approval case, select the Draft Budget tab.
Select New Support Category.
Enter Support Coordination and Psychosocial Recovery Coaches in the Support Category field. Note: The support category will be locked to Capacity Building.
Select the Budget Type from the drop-down list. Note: the Budget Type for this support will default to ‘Stated’.

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Select the Instalment Type.

Note: The Frequency and Plan Duration fields will be locked. To change the plan duration, refer to article Change plan duration.

Enter the Amount for this support.
Select TSP Variance Reason from drop-down list.
Record Additional Description about why the participant needs this support.

Note: This will not display on a participant’s plan. Use these comments to discuss funded supports as part of a plan implementation meeting.

If the support meets all of the NDIS funding criteria under the Justifications heading, select the checkbox.
Record Justification in the free text field. For some supports, this might automatically populate. For more information about recording justifications, refer to article Add budget justifications.

Note: This field has a character limit of 3000. Certain special characters in this field may cause an error; this is generally caused when copying justifications from SAP CRM into PACE. If you see the characters |%, you will need to remove these before you can select save.

If you’re using evidence to support your justification, select the Evidence Used checkbox.
Select the Evidence Type from the drop-down list:

If you select Document, go to step 13
If you select Other, go to step14.

Enter the Evidence Link name. You can view linked evidence on the Evidence tab of the Plan Approval case. To learn more about linking evidence, refer to article Add and link evidence to a case.
Enter the Evidence Explanation into the free text field.
If you need to add more evidence to support your justification, select the checkbox Add further evidence links and repeat step 12.
Select Save.

Update support coordination funding

In the Plan Approval case, select the Draft Budget tab.

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Select Support Coordination and Psychosocial Recovery Coaches from the Stated Budget items.
Select the Budget Type from the drop-down list.

Note: The Budget Type for this support will default to ‘Stated’.

Select the Instalment Type.

Note: The Frequency and Plan Duration fields will be locked. To change the plan duration, refer to article Change plan duration.

Enter the Amount for this support.
Select TSP Variance Reason from drop-down list.
Record Additional Description about why the participant needs this support.

Note: This will not display on a participant’s plan. Use these comments to discuss funded supports as part of a plan implementation meeting.

If the support meets all of the NDIS funding criteria under the Justifications heading, select the checkbox.
Record Justification in the free text field. For some supports, this might automatically populate. For more information about recording justifications, refer to article Add and link evidence to a case.

If you’re using evidence to support your justification, select the Evidence Used checkbox.
Select the Evidence Type from the drop-down list:

If you select Document, go to step 12
If you select Other, go to step13.

Enter the Evidence Link name. You can view linked evidence on the Evidence tab of the Plan Approval case. To learn more about linking evidence, refer to article Add and link evidence to a case.
Enter the Evidence Explanation into the free text field.
If you need to add more evidence to support your justification, select the checkbox Add further evidence links and repeat step 11.
Select Save.

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Remove funding for support coordination

In the Plan Approval case, select the Draft Budget tab.
Select Support Coordination and Psychosocial Recovery Coaches from the Stated Budget items.
If removing the support item, scroll to bottom and select Remove Support from Budget.
Select Yes to Are you sure you want to remove?
Select Save.

Next steps

If you have added or updated support coordination funding, you will need to make a fund management decision. Refer to article [Make fund management decision](Make fund management decision).
If you need to add further supports, refer to article [Change the draft budget](Change the draft budget).
If you are ready for the plan meeting, refer to article [Prepare for the plan meeting](Prepare for the plan meeting).

Article topics and case names – internal use only

Topics

This article relates to the following topics:

Add: t_psychosocialdisability
Add: t_behavioursupport
Add: t_complexsupportneeds
Add: t_communityconnections
Add: t_informalcommunityandmainstreamsupports
Add: t_informalcommunityandmainstreamsupports
Add: t_streaming
Add: t_createaplan
Add: t_planchanges
Add: t_reasonableandnecessary

Case names

You can use this guidance for the:

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Version control

e Add: case_planapproval

e Add: case_planchange

Version	Amended by	Brief Description of Change	Status	Date
1.1	BIM847	KA transferred to correct template	DRAFT	2023-08-09
1.2	MJB576	Draft content to align with PACE steps and language.

Changed article title from ‘Add support coordination funding’ to ‘Add and update support coordination funding’

Added next steps section. Added ‘update’ and ‘remove’ sections. Sent for peer review. | DRAFT | 2023-08-31 | | 1.3 | BCK161 | Peer review | DRAFT | 2023-09-11 | | 1.4 | BIM847 | Action peer review

Sent for VT

VT results:

Long sentences 16.04% Passive voice 10.45% Readability 41/100 Grade level 10 | DRAFT | 2023-09-12 | | 1.5 | JS0082 | EL2 review to progress to BiLs | DRAFT | 2023-09-21 | | 1.6 | BTM847 | BIL feedback transferred Action BIL feedback BIL endorsement received. | DRAFT | 2023-09-28 | | 2.0 | JS0082 | Class 1 Approval | APPROVED | 2023-09-28 |

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The contents of this document are OFFICIAL.

(El) Check evidence for a decision — Impairment is likely to be permanent

This article provides guidance for an access delegate, local area coordinator, early childhood partner or internal review delegate to:

review evidence of permanent impairment
use this information to support the person to understand the eligibility requirements.

Recent updates

August 2023

Guidance improvement — update to align language to PACE and knowledge consistency check.

Before you start

You have:

read and understood Our Guideline - Applying to the NDIS in section, How will early intervention help you?
read article Understand early intervention requirements.

Evidence the impairment is likely to be permanent

Review evidence of a permanent impairment

Review the available evidence to consider if the person has one or more impairments that is permanent or is likely to be permanent.

You will need to review the available evidence that says they are likely to have the impairment for their whole life.

They might have some periods in their life where there is a smaller impact on their daily life, because their impairment may be episodic or fluctuate in intensity. Their impairment can still be permanent due to the overall impact on their life, and the likelihood that they will be impacted across their lifetime.

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Even when their condition or diagnosis is permanent, you need to check if the impairment is permanent too. For example, a person may not be eligible if their impairment is temporary, still being treated, or if there are remaining treatment options.

Generally, you’ll consider whether an impairment is likely to be permanent after all available and appropriate treatment options have been pursued. rreb

Early intervention requirements are just one of the eligibility requirements. To be eligible for the NDIS under early intervention, the person must meet all the following:

age requirements
residence requirements
early intervention requirements.

Go to article Check evidence for a decision – age and residence requirements.

Next steps

If you are an access delegate

To determine eligibility, continue to follow guidance in article Make an access decision
To check the timeframes to make a decision, follow guidance in article Check decision – Legislative timeframes.

Article topics and case names – internal use only

Topics

This article relates to the following topics:

Applying
Disability-related health supports
Evidence

Case names

You can use this guidance for the:

Access Request
Access Decision

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Version control

Version	Amended by	Brief Description of Change	Status	Date
0.1	BTM847	Draft ready for showcase	DRAFT	2022-11-09
1.0	EMN960	Reviewed and approved by EL2	APPROVED	2022-11-10
1.1	JJO192	Class 1 - Cl-applying work package Update knowledge article for PACE national expansion.	DRAFT	2023-06-30
1.2	CGT260	Peer review VT grade level 8.5	DRAFT	2023-07-06
1.3	JJO192	Actioned peer review	DRAFT	2023-07-26
1.4	VFK746	EL1 Review and progress to EL2	DRAFT	2023-07-27
1.5	EMN960	EL2 Review and progress to SD and Partners
1.6	JM0122	Incorporate SME feedback	DRAFT	2023-08-09
1.7	VFK746	EL1 Review — progress to EL2 for approval to publish	DRAFT	2023-08-10
2.0	EMN960	EL2 approval to publish	APPROVED	2023-08-10

V2.0 2023-08-10 (El) Check evidence for a decision Page 3 of 3

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