NDIA Accountability Project

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Add or update support coordination funding in a plan approval case

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The contents of this document are OFFICIAL.

Add or update support coordination funding in a plan approval case

Guidance in this document is not approved for use unless you view it in PACE.

This article provides guidance for a planner delegate 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:

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• 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 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

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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 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 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.

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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 (1-2 hours a month/approximately 24 hours per year)

For example, this could be considered when the participant:

  • has elderly parents who are needing to explore and establish a range of supports including housing options and future planning issues for their son/daughter
  • lives in a group home or large residential facilities and has a strong informal support network with no identified risks
  • is adjusting to vision, hearing and other sensory loss type conditions.

Medium (3-6 hours a month/approximately 48-72 hours per year)

For example, for participants who:

  • have a managed psychosocial diagnosis and are well connected to clinical supports. For example, may be accessing treatment options to understand their condition, trial medications and create a recovery plan.
  • have a support network that may be at risk
  • are at mid stages of a degenerative condition
  • may require assistance to transition to alternative living arrangements.

High (approximately 7-9 hours a month)

For example, participants who:

  • are experiencing an unstable psychosocial disability and have a history of long-term hospitalisation and/or history of tenancy instability
  • have limited family and social networks
  • have very low levels of community participation

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• in the absence of support, have difficulty living in the community and are at high risk of hospitalisation or homelessness • identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and may be living in remote communities • are involved with other services such as child protection or justice • are living with a diagnosis of a degenerative condition such as younger onset dementia, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), muscular dystrophy or motor neurone disease (MND). As a result they require support to engage with specialist support organisations to assist with understanding their condition and connecting with available supports. Required where multiple providers are involved. • mild to moderate levels of intellectual disability or acquired brain injury and are residing alone and need to make sure proactive supports are in place. They may require assistance to access and maintain community activities, budgeting, shopping, or similar activities ensuring successful maintenance of their independence.

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

Specialist Support Coordination (typically up to 100 hours for a 12 month 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:

• risk of homelessness due to their behaviours of concern • interface with justice, housing and/or other complexities • children living outside the family home under formal voluntary out of home care arrangements as acknowledged by the relevant state or territory authority and the NDIA.

Refer to Guide – Children living in a formal voluntary arrangement outside their family home.

This approach is expected to:

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• 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 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

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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

  1. In the Plan Approval case, select the Draft Budget tab.
  2. Select New Support Category.
  3. Enter Support Coordination and Psychosocial Recovery Coaches in the Support Category field. Note: The support category will be locked to Capacity Building.
  4. Select the Budget Type from the drop-down list. Note: The Budget Type for this support will default to Stated.
  5. 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.
  6. Enter the Amount for this support.
  7. Select TSP Variance Reason from drop-down list.

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  1. 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.

  1. If the support meets all of the NDIS funding criteria under the Justifications heading, select the checkbox.

  2. 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.

  3. If you’re using evidence to support your justification, select the Evidence Used checkbox.

  4. Select the Evidence Type from the drop-down list:

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

  1. 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.

  2. Enter the Evidence Explanation into the free text field.

  3. If you need to add more evidence to support your justification, select the checkbox Add further evidence links and repeat step 12.

  4. Select Save.

Update support coordination funding

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

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  1. Select Support Coordination and Psychosocial Recovery Coaches from the Stated Budget items.

  2. Select the Budget Type from the drop-down list. Note: The Budget Type for this support will default to Stated.

  3. 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.

  4. Enter the Amount for this support.

  5. Select TSP Variance Reason from drop-down list.

  6. 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.

  7. If the support meets all of the NDIS funding criteria under the Justifications heading, select the checkbox.

  8. 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. 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.

  9. If you’re using evidence to support your justification, select the Evidence Used checkbox.

  10. Select the Evidence Type from the drop-down list:

    • If you select Document, go to step 12
    • If you select Other, go to step 13.

  11. 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.

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  1. Enter the Evidence Explanation into the free text field.

  2. If you need to add more evidence to support your justification, select the checkbox Add further evidence links and repeat step 11.

  3. Select Save.

Remove funding for support coordination

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

  2. Select Support Coordination and Psychosocial Recovery Coaches from the Stated Budget items.

  3. If removing the support item, scroll to bottom and select Remove Support from Budget.

  4. Select Yes to Are you sure you want to remove?

  5. Select Save.

Next steps

  1. 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.

  2. If you need to add further supports, refer to article Change the draft budget.

  3. If you are ready for the plan meeting, refer to article Prepare for the plan meeting.

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