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Standard Operating Procedure

For Internal Use Only

The content of this document is OFFICIAL.

Complete the Participant Statement

This Standard Operating Procedure will support you to record and update the participant statement in the NDIS Business System (System) during the planning conversation.

If you need to update the participant statement as part of an administrative change task refer to Standard Operating Procedure — Create an administrative change task.

1. Recent updates

Date	What’s changed
June 2023	Updates include:

Section 3.1 - guidance about identity and including people’s preferred name and pronouns in the participant statement.
Link to our new Fact sheet - Updating your name, pronouns and information about your gender. | | February 2021 | New Standard Operating Procedure format to align with Operational Guidelines refresh. Standard Operating Procedures include process information only. Use Operational Guidelines to help you make decisions and refer to Related procedures or resources. Standard Operating Procedure has been updated to include steps on how you can record more participant goals than the System allows. Process to update the participant statement as part of an administrative change task has been moved to Standard Operating Procedure — Create an administrative change task. |

2. Checklist

Topic	Checklist
Pre-requisites	You have:

read and understood Our Guideline — Creating your plan
read and understood the Setting goals web page
read and understood the Conversation Style Guide |

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Standard Operating Procedure

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Topic	Checklist
	(☐) read and understood either
o Standard Operating Procedure — Prepare and complete the planning conversation for the participant’s first plan
o Standard Operating Procedure — Prepare for the ongoing check-in conversation
(☐) read and understood the Participant Experience Delivery (PED)
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and are complying with the PED KPI relevant to this task
(☐) started the planning conversation.
	Actions
—	—
	☐ Understand the purpose of the participant statement
☐ Complete the participant statement
☐ Record more goals than the System allows
☐ Next steps

Procedure

3.1 Understand the purpose of the participant statement

The participant’s statement of goals and aspirations tell their story. It is a comprehensive picture of their:

identity (including their pronouns, and how they wish to be spoken to and about)
life circumstances
goals, or things they want to work towards, and
existing supports, including informal and mainstream supports. When we say identity, we mean the values, culture and traits that make a person unique. Identity is important for everyone as it allows us to live authentically. For example, some participants might tell you they have a preferred name, or pronouns that affirm their gender. You will provide a respectful experience by putting their preferred name and pronouns in the participant statement, while continuing to write in the participant or child representative’s own words. For more information, read Fact sheet - Updating your name, pronouns and information about your gender.

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Standard Operating Procedure

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Some participants may find it difficult to communicate with spoken word. This does not mean they do not have a unique story to share.

You will support participants with communication difficulties to complete their statement. You might do this by:

supporting them to communicate using a communication device
finding out who helps them communicate and make decisions in their life
supporting the people who help them communicate to contribute to the participant statement.

Many participants with communication difficulties can make their own decisions. If a participant has a plan nominee or guardian who make decisions on their behalf, you will:

work with them to complete the participant’s statement
include the participant in the completion of their statement, as much as possible.

Complete the participant statement

The participant can have as many goals as they like. You will support the participant by recording all of their goals in the System.

At least one goal must be a short-term plan goal.The participant can also have medium to long term plan goals.

Work with the participant to identify their goals and the steps they can take to work towards them.

The System will allow you to record:

four steps for both short and medium to long term plan goals
two short term plan goals in the My Plan Goals section
five medium to long term plan goals in the My Medium to Long Term Life Goals section
additional short and medium to long term goals in the free text field.

Review the information the participant has given you about their goals:

Use information the participant has given you, for example if they have completed Booklet 2 – Creating your NDIS plan, to complete the Participant Statement.

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Standard Operating Procedure

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If the participant has not brought any information with them, you can use Booklet 2 – Creating your NDIS plan and the Setting goals web page to help guide your conversation.

In Pre-planning – Staff Tasks, select the Complete the Participant Statement task.
The NDIS Participant Statement form opens.
Ask the participant to tell you about their current living arrangements, relationships and supports. Record the information in the Living Arrangements, Relationships and Current Supports field.
If the participant has future housing needs, record this in the Details - Housing and Accommodation section of the System. Refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Update person details. This is important if the participant has a goal to enter/exit a Residential Aged Care Facility.

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Ask the participant to tell you about their daily life.

Record their answer in the Daily life – Describe your day to day life field.

Every morning during the week I wake at around 7am and my mum supports me making sure I am ready to leave the house and catch the bus to work by 8:30am. I work at a café and really like it. The best bit is that I can try lots of different things during the day. I was really excited when I got a promotion earlier this year. I work hard every day and am usually tired when I get home. Sometimes I help Dad prepare the family meal before relaxing on my computer. I really like using the computer and people tell me I am good at it.

Note: If the participant does not want to include some information in their participant statement, record the reason in an interaction in the System. For example, ‘the participant discussed their living arrangements at the face to face meeting but did not want this to be included on their plan as they were seeking to keep this information confidential.’

Ask the participant to tell you their goals and the steps they will take to work towards pursing their goals.

You can use the following guidance to support you:

Setting goals web page
For plan reviews:
- discuss goals from the previous plan and review how the funded supports in their plan helped them pursue their goals
- celebrate the participant’s successes
- follow up what may not have worked well and talk about next steps to develop new goals.
Discuss how the participant is currently being supported by their mainstream, community and informal supports. Explore the ongoing availability and suitability of these supports in assisting the participant to work towards their goal/s. The information recorded in the How I will be supported field will be visible in the goals section of the participant’s plan.
You will record goals the way the participant wants you to record them. You should read the goal back to the participant to confirm you have understood and recorded the goal in their words.
For a child aged 0–6 years, record goals in the child representative’s words.

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Standard Operating Procedure

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Record the participant’s plan goals in their own words:

Record short-term plan goals in the My Plan Goals section.

Record medium to long term goals in the My Medium to Long Term Life Goals section.

Select the most appropriate Goal Type from the drop down list.

Note: You must record the participant’s goals for social and/or economic participation.

Select one or more support types in the Please select one or more support types associated to the goal section. To do this think about the types of support that may be

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needed. Tick the relevant checkboxes.

You will be able to see the participant’s goals in the relevant support type screen of the Determine Funded Supports.

If a support type is ticked, the goal will also appear in the relevant Core, Capacity Building or Capital funded supports section in the participant’s plan (if the support type is funded). Support types with no funding included will not display on the participant’s plan.

Record the participant’s first step to working towards their goal in the How I will achieve this goal field. Use action words and positive language to describe a specific measurable activity. For example, to ‘develop a budget’ is a positive step rather than ‘to

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stop spending money on certain things’.

How I will achieve this goal:

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Record all non-funded supports that help the participant pursue their first step in the How I will be supported field. You can record multiple supports. Talk with the participant about any current supports that can help them. If there are gaps in supports, encourage the participant to start thinking of new mainstream and community services they can access.

How I will be supported: I can access Centrelink support to determine my job capacity and mainstream eligibility to DES. My LAC will support me to connect to services for employment supports.

To add another step to work towards the same goal select Yes at Do you want to add another step to achieving this goal? This will add new fields. Record step two of achieving the goal and all relevant supports.

Note: The How I will achieve this goal and How I will be supported fields are not mandatory for early childhood participants (aged 0-6).

Do you want to add another step to achieving this goal?: How I will achieve this goal: Learn how to look for work and start applying for jobs.

How I will be supported: My LAC will support me to connect to a service which can help me to develop my job searching skills.

Add a second short term goal or up to four more medium to long term goals. To do this select Yes at Do you want to add another goal?

Do you want to add another goal?: Goal:

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Record more goals than the System allows

Record additional short and medium to long term goals in the free text field. Go to the last goal in the NDIS participant statement form.
Select Yes at Do you want to add another step to achieving this goal? Use the first free text field to record information about the additional goal. Repeat this step for every additional participant goal.

Note: You should ensure that additional goals recorded in a free text section reflect the format used in the NDIS participant statement form. When recording the additional goal include the following headings:

Goals
Goal Type
Support Type
How I will pursue this goal
How I will be supported

At any time you can select Save to save the form and return to complete it later. When the form is complete, select Submit.

Important: The information in the Participant Statement will print in the participant’s NDIS Plan. Please pay close attention to your spelling and grammar before submitting the task. 4. When you submit the form, a confirmation message appears. Select Close.

Next Steps

Record the names and contact information of relevant relationships identified by the participant in the System. This may include details of the participant’s family or carers. Refer to the following Standard Operating Procedures for more information:

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Standard Operating Procedure – Appoint or decline a Nominee
Standard Operating Procedure – Suspend or cancel a Nominee
Standard Operating Procedure – Record the child representative request

Complete any remaining Pre-Planning tasks. Use the Standard Operating Procedure – Prepare and complete the planning conversation for the participant’s first plan to identify which tasks need completing.
Review the Participant Statement at each plan review to ensure it reflects the participants current situation.
Related procedures or resources
- Our Guideline – Creating your plan
- Booklet 2 – Creating your NDIS plan
- Conversation Style Guide
- Fact sheet - Updating your name, pronouns and information about your gender.
- Setting goals web page
- Standard Operating Procedure – Update person details
- Standard Operating Procedure – Record informal, community and mainstream supports
- Standard Operating Procedure – Appoint or decline a nominee
- Standard Operating Procedure – Suspend or cancel a Nominee
- Standard Operating Procedure – Determine or revoke a child representative
Feedback

If you have any feedback about this Standard Operating Procedure, please complete our Feedback Form.

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Standard Operating Procedure

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Version control

Version	Amended by	Brief Description of Change	Status	Date
1.0	redacted: s22(1)(a)(ii) - irrelevant material	Class 1 Approved APPROVED	2021-02-23
New SOP to align with Our Guidelines refresh. SOP provides guidance on how to:

update the participant statement as part of pre-planning only
record more participant goals than the System allows. To update the participant statement as part of an administrative change task you will refer to SOP — Administrative Change Task. | 2.0 | redacted: s22(1)(a)(ii) - irrelevant material | Class 1 Approved APPROVED | 2022-11-18 Update as part of the Your privacy information and gender project - to support a respectful and dignified experience for people from diverse backgrounds. Updates include:
Section 3.1 - guidance about identity and including peoples preferred name and pronouns in the participant statement.
Link to new Fact sheet - Updating your name, pronouns and information about your gender. | V2.0 | redacted: s22(1)(a)(ii) - irrelevant material | 2022-11-18 Complete the Participant Statement Page 12 of 12 This document is uncontrolled when printed. OFFICIAL Page 64 of 80