Practice Guide – Complex Support
Needs Pathway
Page 1 of 19
Contents
Practice Guide – Complex Support Needs Pathway
- Purpose: 3
- To be used by: 3
- Scope: 3
- Complex Support Needs (CSN) Pathway: 3
- Referring to the CSN: 4
- Behaviours of Concern: 4
- Risk of inappropriate entry into Residential Aged Care: 5
- Younger People in Residential Aged Care (YPIRAC): 5
- Children living in a voluntary agreement outside the family home: 6
- Homelessness: 6
- Justice interface: 7
- Liaison officers: 7
- Supporting material: 7
- Feedback: 8
- Version change control: 8
Purpose
This Practice Guide will introduce the Complex Support Needs (CSN) Pathway. It will describe the reasons participants are referred to the CSN Pathway and how to refer a participant in need of specialised support.
To be used by
- Plan Developers:
- Planners
- Partners in the Community (Early Childhood Partners and Local Area Coordinators [LACs])
- NDIA Plan Delegates.
Scope
This practice guide has been developed to provide you with an overview of the CSN Pathway and the cohorts they work with. This is not detailed planning guidance. Where a link is provided to another resource, you must refer to that resource for full guidance.
Complex Support Needs (CSN) Pathway
The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) is committed to ensuring all participants of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) have an experience which meets their needs and delivers a fit for purpose plan. However, a single pathway approach is not appropriate for all participants. Because of this, the NDIA has introduced the 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. The CSN Pathway has dedicated planning teams and a network of skilled planners with experience working with specific complex support cohorts such as justice, psychosocial and/or with allied health experience.
The CSN Pathway acknowledges the range of primary and secondary situational and personal factors contributing to the complex support needs of a participant. This may include voluntary or involuntary involvement in other government service systems and transitional supports for returning to the community, for example, exiting incarceration or an acute rehabilitation environment.
The NDIA defines complex support needs as:
‘A situation where a person has extraordinary support needs based on the presence of situational and personal factors that require a comparatively greater need for coordination of multiple services to’
CSN Pathway
For the purposes of the CSN Pathway, the definition of complexity does not describe the complexity of the participant’s disability, rather the interaction of the personal and situational factors, level of intensity and how these impact the participant’s ability to navigate the NDIS Pathway.
At access, or throughout ongoing engagement with the NDIS, participants may be identified as suitable for the CSN Pathway based on factors such as:
- Behaviours of Concern (BoC)
- Younger People in residential Age Care (YPIRAC) and those returning to the community from living in residential aged care
- children living in a voluntary agreement outside the family home
- involuntary or voluntary involvement with particular government systems, such as justice or mental health
- homelessness.
Participants may move between the typical NDIS Pathway and the CSN Pathway depending on their situational or personal factors at any given time.
Referring to the CSN
During the planning process you may identify the participant has complex support needs. The decision to refer the participant to the CSN Pathway is made by National Delivery.
The decision to stream the participant in or out of, the CSN Pathway is made by the CSN Branch.
Note: Being streamed as Intensive or Super Intensive does not mean a participant needs to be referred to the CSN Pathway. The criteria and process to consider when to refer to this pathway can be found in Standard Operating Procedure - Referral for Complex Support Needs.
Behaviours of Concern
Behaviours of Concern (BoC) refers to a wide range of behaviours of an intensity, frequency or persistence that threatens the quality of life, physical safety of the individual and/or others. BoC may include:
- physical or verbal aggression
- property damage
- inappropriate sexual behaviour
- disinhibited and impulsive behaviour
Risk of inappropriate entry into Residential Aged Care
Participants who are considered at risk of inappropriate entry into residential aged care are supported by the CSN Pathway to help them to identify current and future support needs and appropriate, alternative housing options.
Factors that may indicate if the participant is at risk of inappropriate entry into residential aged care include, but are not limited to:
- homelessness, or at risk of homelessness
- a lack of adequate and readily available housing and supports
- a recent or unexpected loss of a sole carer or guardian with no known alternative care options
- exposure to domestic violence and/or
- palliative care needs.
Younger People in Residential Aged Care (YPIRAC)
Younger people who reside in a residential aged care facility on a permanent basis, who have been approved under the Aged Care Act for residential aged care and are NDIS participants are considered to have complex support needs.
YPIRAC participants are supported within the CSN Pathway due to their complex living arrangements, support needs and interface with the aged care system.
Refer to the Practice Guide – Medium Term Accommodation, Practice Guide - Younger People in Residential Aged Care and Standard Operating Procedure – Younger People in Residential Aged Care.
Children living in a voluntary agreement outside the family home
Voluntary out-of-home care arrangements are the provision of care outside the family home when a child’s parent/s or primary care giver are no longer able to continue to care for their child in the family home due to the child’s significant disability support needs.
Under these circumstances, the voluntary arrangement is jointly coordinated and overseen by the relevant state or territory authority and the NDIA. Under this arrangement, parents or primary care givers continue to be responsible for the decision-making relating to their child.
A child who is not currently living in a voluntary arrangement but who is at risk of requiring accommodation outside the family home should be referred to the CSN Pathway. This will ensure the child has supports in place to increase the capacity of both the child and their family to remain living together as a family and reduce or remove the risk of requiring living arrangements outside the family home.
Refer to Practice Guide - Children and Young People with Disability Living in a Voluntary Agreement Outside the Family Home.
Homelessness
The NDIA provides reasonable and necessary disability supports to all eligible Australians, including people who are homeless. A person is homeless if they:
- do not have conventional accommodation, such as sleeping rough or in improvised dwellings
- frequently move from one shelter to another, such as emergency accommodation or “couch surfing”
- live in accommodation that falls below minimum community standards, such as boarding houses and caravan parks. Representatives from the NDIA and LACs will engage in face-to-face meetings with participants who are homeless. These meetings can be at any of the NDIA offices, Service Australia Service Centres, LAC offices or any safe location in the community.
A person experiencing homelessness can provide a postal address to receive mail from the NDIA. This could be the address of a support agency, church or a representative.
A support coordinator can be included in the plan to support the participant to engage with local homelessness services and make sure they are receiving any services and supports they are entitled to.
Refer to Homelessness Australia for information on available supports in your state or territory.
Justice interface
Planning for participants who are involved with the justice system generally follows the same process as for other participants.
A participant interfaces with the justice system when they are:
- in custody (in a correctional facility for example, prison, remand centre, or youth detention centre), on remand, awaiting or following sentencing
- on bail, probation or parole and required by a Court order to report to a correctional or community correctional agency
- serving a community based order
- under forensic orders, which may include restrictions on their movements and/or other requirements, for example, drug testing, attending prescribed treatment.
Interfacing with the justice system alone is not an indicator for referral to the CSN Pathway. A referral should only take place if the participant’s complex needs are unable to be met by a planner in the NDIS Pathway.
Refer to the Practice Guide – Justice for further information.
Liaison officers
Liaison Officers are represented in all states and territories and are part of the Complex Support Needs (CSN) pathway Branch. Liaison Officers provide a single point of contact for health and/or justice staff to facilitate support for participants (prospective and current) in health and/or justice settings. The role of a Liaison Officer is a non-participant facing role with a focus on support for hospital and justice staff, NDIS plan developers (planners and LACs), engagement staff and support coordinators.
Refer to the Health and Justice Liaison officer factsheets on the CSN intranet page for further information.
Supporting material
Feedback
If you have any feedback about this Practice Guide please email Service Guidance and Practice. In your email, remember to include the title of the resource you are referring to and to describe your suggestion or issue concisely.
Version change control
| Version No | Amended by | Brief Description of Change | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.0 | CS0074 | New definition for homelessness. Added section to address participants at risk of inappropriate entry into residential aged care. Update to include guidance on Liaison officers. Replace DHS with Services Australia Class 1 approval | APPROVED | 2020-03-17 |
| 3.0 | CRG656 | Class 1 approval Practice Guide strengthened to incorporate advice that children at risk of requiring accommodation outside the family home should be referred to the CSN Branch. | APPROVED | 2020-07-24 |