Practice Guide – Children living in a formal voluntary arrangement outside their family home

IMPORTANT: For use by children and young people planners in the Complex Support Needs Pathway only.

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Contents

Practice Guide – Children living in a formal voluntary arrangement outside their family home

1. Purpose ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
2. To be used by………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
3. Scope …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4 3.1 Voluntary out of home care arrangements ………………………………………………………. 4 3.2 Participants younger than 9 ………………………………………………………………………… 5 3.3 Crisis situations ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5 3.4 Parenting Agreements …………………………………………………………………………………… 7
4. Pre-planning ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7 4.1 Verifying identity and recording consent ………………………………………………………… 8 4.2 Pre-planning checklist …………………………………………………………………………………. 8 4.3 The planning conversation …………………………………………………………………………… 10 4.4 Participant goals ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 11 4.5 Streaming ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 11 4.6 Plan duration ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11 4.7 Child Representatives ……………………………………………………………………………………. 11 4.8 Family Outcomes Questionnaire …………………………………………………………………… 12
5. Planning………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12 5.1 Property damage …………………………………………………………………………………………. 13 5.2 Core supports ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 14 5.3 Capacity Building supports …………………………………………………………………………….. 16 5.4 Capital supports …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 18
6. Transition planning for 16 – 17 year olds …………………………………………………………… 19
7. Plan management……………………………………………………………………………………………… 20 7.1 Self-managed or plan-managed ……………………………………………………………………. 21
8. Plan implementation ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 21 8.1 Handover to specialist support coordinator and/or coordinator of supports ……….. 21 8.2 Plan monitoring ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 22 V9.0 2023-06-20 Children living in a formal voluntary arrangement outside their family home Page 2 of 34 This document is uncontrolled when printed. Page 27 of 59

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• Reunification supports ……………………………………………………………………………………. 23
• Appendices ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 25
  • Appendix A: Transition to Adulthood Checklist ……………………………………………….. 25
• Supporting material ………………………………………………………………………………………… 33
• Feedback ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 33
• Version change control …………………………………………………………………………………… 33

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Purpose

This Practice Guide (PG) will support you as a children and young people’s planner in the Complex Supports Needs (CSN) Pathway through the considerations and sensitivities when planning (first plan or reassessment) for a child participant (child) living outside the family home in voluntary out of home care arrangements as acknowledged by the relevant state or territory authority and the National Disability Insurance Agency (Agency). For the purpose of this PG we will hereafter refer to these as voluntary arrangements.

Children who currently reside outside the family home either in full time or part time voluntary arrangements will be acknowledged by the relevant state and territory authority who will lead oversight of these arrangements.

Note: Under this arrangement parents or primary care givers continue to be responsible for all decision making relating to their child.

This PG is not a standalone document and should be used in conjunction with the following planning resources:

• Practice Guide – Participants streamed as Intensive or Super Intensive
• Our Guideline – Child representatives
• Our Guideline – Reasonable and necessary supports
• Standard Operating Procedure – Complete the determine funded supports task.

To be used by

Planners in the CSN Children and Young people Pathway who are trained to support children and young people and prepare plans where additional skills, knowledge or considerations are required.

Scope

Voluntary out of home care arrangements

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.

The voluntary arrangement is jointly coordinated and overseen by the relevant state or territory authority and the Agency. Under this arrangement, parents or primary care givers continue to be responsible for the decision making relating to their child.

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Under voluntary arrangements the child usually lives full or part time with an accommodation provider, however there may be cases where the child lives with other family or care givers or in temporary accommodation type arrangements. The planning approach is the same for all voluntary arrangements.

Only use this PG when planning for children living outside the family home under voluntary out of home care arrangements as acknowledged by the relevant state or territory authority and the Agency.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been developed with each state and territory that includes an agreed model for collaborative case coordination for children living or those at risk of living outside the family home. Under this arrangement states and territories have committed to lead case conferencing, with the exception of the Victorian Government who will work together with the Agency to coordinate regular meetings as required. The Agency will participate in state and territory led case conferencing.

Participants younger than 9

Families/carers of children younger than 9 will be supported by an early childhood partner. In the rare circumstance that a child younger than 9 requires voluntary out of home accommodation, the child will be s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies and the early childhood partner will remain as the child’s main NDIS contact.

The early childhood partner will collaborate with their state contact Assistant Directors within National Delivery to consider a referral to the Complex Support Needs Branch. Children are not eligible for referral to the Children and Young People pathway until 7 years of age. Consultation however can be provided to ensure the child and family receives the right early intervention. Request for consultation can be directed to CSN Children and Young People.

The Children’s Taskforce Partner Practice team will be available to provide advice regarding the disability-related capacity building supports relative to the participant’s individualised needs.

Note: Children that are 7 or older before 1 July 2023 will not be supported by an early childhood partner.

Crisis situations

A crisis can arise when a child’s parent indicates they urgently require accommodation for the child outside the family home due to their child’s complex disability support needs. It may also occur when a child already recognised under the arrangements for children living outside the family home experiences a breakdown in their accommodation arrangement.

Disability and mainstream supports will be used to make sure the child is able to return to their longer term or family home as soon as possible. Where a return to the family home is not possible in the short term, the Agency and the state or territory will work collaboratively

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with the parent to settle interim arrangements for new or ongoing accommodation outside the family home.

In a crisis situation it is important to act fast, so the child has all the support they need in a safe environment. This means you will:

• consider if the crisis is disability related. If not seek state/territory engagement to implement mainstream services as required.
• if the crisis is disability-related, make sure a planning meeting is held within 5 working days to determine the child’s disability support needs going forward. The child’s parent/s must be involved in this conversation Note: Planning must not progress without the child representatives. If the child representatives are unavailable, refer to your Assistant Director to raise with the relevant state or territory.
• check the current plan to see if immediate supports can be accessed with existing funds
• conduct a plan review where the current plan is not sufficient to meet the child’s changed needs
• make sure the child has access to a support coordinator or specialist support coordinator
• check the plan utilisation to see if underutilisation could have contributed to the crisis.

A crisis during business hours

Where a crisis occurs during business hours, the Agency can be contacted through the support coordinator directly if known, and if not the Agency MoU Business Manager. The Agency will:

• confirm a child’s participant status
• verify current plan funding levels
• assist the parent in identifying emergency short-term accommodation providers. After the crisis has been dealt with, follow up with the parent for a more detailed discussion about the plan.

A crisis outside business hours

The Agency has an after-hours phone number to call if a crisis occurs outside business hours. Agency staff can use this number to:

• confirm a child’s participant status

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• verify current plan funding levels
• provide a list of emergency short-term accommodation providers to the parent.

The after-hours contact would then internally flag the need for a more detailed follow up (as with the parent during business hours).

Note: This after-hours number is not for general circulation and is provided to relevant stakeholders via the MoU Business Managers Committee. Speak to your Assistant Director before giving this number to a stakeholder.

3.3.3 When the crisis is disability-related

If the crisis is disability-related you will:

• conduct an initial assessment of disability support needs
• work with your state or territory counterpart and the parent to implement new arrangements outlined in the MoU
• conduct a plan review if required
• uplift the plan where reasonable and necessary to maintain informal supports.

If required, the NDIS provider will complete a critical incident report template and provide it to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.

3.4 Parenting Agreements

Parents or guardians will have the opportunity to develop and negotiate a Parenting Agreement with their child’s provider of 24/7 staffing. This parenting agreement will assist parents to maintain their role as primary decision-maker for their child and assist the child’s provider to carry out day-to-day care of the child.

The Parenting Agreement outlines the rights and responsibilities of parents or guardians in relation to the care and support of their child, including responsibility for decision making and an agreed pattern of ongoing contact to ensure the child remains connected to their family and culture.

Note: Where a child or young person does not have an engaged parent, consideration may be given to enact a referral to child protection. A Parenting Agreement is between the parent/s and the accommodation provider.

4 Pre-planning

During pre-planning, rich information is gathered to support the planning process and make sure a high quality plan is developed, allowing the child to achieve their goals and outcomes. This section will guide you through additional considerations for children living under voluntary arrangements.

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Verifying identity and recording consent

When having discussions regarding the child you must verify and record the identity of the person you are talking to and ensure they have formal consent. Appropriate consent must also be recorded prior to giving information to or receiving information from a third party in relation to the child or family. For more information and guidance, refer to:

• Standard Operating Procedure – Use evidence to confirm identity
• Standard Operating Procedure – Complete a security check
• Standard Operating Procedure – Check third party consent or authority.

Pre-planning checklist

• Following confirmation the child is living in a voluntary arrangement, add an interaction to the NDIS Business System (System) explaining how this was determined.
• Attach any relevant documents to the System: for example, temporary care agreements or correspondence from states and territories.
• Add an alert to the System stating:
  • The child is living in a voluntary out of home care arrangement outside the family home for (insert number of nights) nights per week. Refer all enquiries to CSN Branch Children and Young People planner (insert your name) and include your user ID.
  • Details relating to any specific considerations or risks associated with contacting family members and/or planning for the child.
• Identify who has parental responsibility for the child and who needs to be involved in the planning meeting or given the opportunity to contribute. For example, this may include the child, parent/s, guardian, other family members or provider/s. Make sure all parties who hold parental responsibility (for example separated parents) are given an equal opportunity to contribute to the planning process. This may require sensitive questioning and potentially separate meetings for shared parental arrangements.
• Check all contacts are entered correctly in the System.
• Make sure the child’s address is recorded as primary residence and the parent’s address/es are recorded separately for receipt of information and communication purposes.
• Understand and respect any cultural sensitivities or barriers to communicate effectively with the child and their family. Refer to Practice Guide – Aboriginal and

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Torres Strait Islander planning support and Practice Guide - Assisting Communication.

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4.3 The planning conversation

The planning conversation allows you the opportunity to gather detailed and concise information regarding the family’s capacity to care for their child and the reasons why the child is living outside the family home some or all of the time. This is also a great opportunity for the child to tell their story and voice their goals and aspirations where possible.

The following points can support you to have a high quality conversation:

• Questions should always be directed to the child where appropriate and where the child is able to understand and respond to questions. When questions are not able to be directed to the child they must be directed to the parent/s or child representative/s.

• The parent or child representative must be included in all conversations and decisions.

• At no time should a service provider or support coordinator be given any decision making power in relation to the child’s plan.

• If the parent is identified as not being a suitable child representative refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Determine or revoke a child representative. Do not continue planning without a child representative in place.

• Be aware this is a sensitive conversation and you are asking very personal questions. You may feel resistance. Make sure the family understand this is a confidential conversation and they can choose who does and does not attend the meeting.

• Never presume to know what the family is going through or why they are unable to care for their child.

• Encourage the family to explain how the child’s disability is impacting their capacity to care for their child in the family home.

• If this is a plan review, discuss how supports in the current plan have been used to support the child to remain in or return to the family home.

• Ask the family to identify supports which they feel could help them to care for their child in the family home.

• Refer to Disability Snapshots and Disability Navigator for further and specific guidance relating the child’s disability.

You must complete the Planning Conversation Tool (PCT) when planning for children living in a voluntary arrangement. Complete all sections of the PCT with as much detail as possible to support the planning process and provide comprehensive information to the delegate during the plan approval process.

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Refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Complete the planning conversation tool.

Participant goals

When completing the Participant Statement and recording the child’s goals, family engagement should be a primary goal. There may be circumstances where we would not expect a child to be able to return to the family home to live full time. Where possible the child should be supported to maintain visits to the family home on a regular basis and maintain good family relationships and contact. Goals must be achievable over the course of the plan.

Goal examples:

• ‘I would like to continue to spend time with my family because having my family in my life is important’.
• ‘I would love to go to school every day’.
• Sam would love to see more of his family and enjoy visits to his family home.
• Sam would love to visit the beach and explore new social opportunities in his community.
• ‘I would like to be understood by my family and those who support me’.

Streaming

s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies

Plan duration

Children living in voluntary arrangements should have a plan duration no longer than 12 months as there is a high likelihood that their circumstances and support needs may change as they and their family build capacity. Refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Complete the risk assessment task and Our Guideline – Creating your plan for more information.

Child Representatives

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In most cases when the child is living under voluntary arrangements, the parent/s retain parental responsibility and will be recorded as the child representative/s. However, there are limited circumstances where it may not be considered appropriate for those with parental responsibility to represent the child for the purposes of the NDIS.

In these situations, an alternate child representative may have been identified elsewhere such as by the family court or via a kinship arrangement. If no alternative child representative has been identified, you will need to identify and appoint an appropriate person to be the child representative. Refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Record the child representative request.

Note: A child who is under statutory orders cannot be in a voluntary arrangement. These arrangements are overseen by child protection. Refer to Practice Guide – Children at risk of requiring accommodation outside the family home and Practice Guide – Children Living in Statutory Out of Home Care.

Any decision to appoint a child representative or revoke an appointed child representative must be made by an Agency staff member with appropriate delegation. The decision to revoke the role of an appointed child representative is not a reviewable decision.

For more information refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Determine or revoke a child representative and Our Guideline – Child representatives.

Family Outcomes Questionnaire

The Family Outcomes Questionnaire must be completed for children living under voluntary arrangements. The responses will allow the Agency to see the impact community, mainstream and funded supports in a participant’s plan are having on the family’s capacity to care for their child over time.

Be aware that answering these questions is voluntary and the questions were not designed with this cohort in mind and do not need to be asked word for word. You should be able to gather the required responses as part of a high quality planning conversation.

Refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Complete Update the Family Questionnaire task.

Planning

Include reasonable and necessary disability-related supports in the child’s plan as guided in the Our Guideline – Reasonable and necessary supports.

The guidance below will guide you through the additional considerations for funded supports when the child is living outside the family home.

For children formally agreed as living in a voluntary arrangement outside the family home, the NDIS will be responsible for funding:

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• 24/7 staffing (except during hours when the child is attending school)
• disability-related supports
• assessment for Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) and Supported Independent Living (SIL) eligibility from the age of 16
• specialist support coordination. The individual state or territory will be responsible for:
• funding board and lodging
• working collaboratively with parents and support coordinators to find appropriate board and lodging
• providing case coordination of relevant mainstream services where needed and working with support coordinators to ensure a holistic approach tailored to the needs of individual children and families.

Property damage

The NDIA is responsible for funding damage to property when all of the following criteria are met: s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies

The NDIA will not fund repairs for property damage where there is no evidence the property damage is related to the child’s disability. This includes where:

• the damage relates to ongoing maintenance and minor damage repairs to properties as a result of normal wear and tear
• reasonable steps have not been taken to provide appropriate board and lodging (including making reasonable adjustments to support the needs of the child)
• evidence (for example incident report and pre and post inventory description or photos of the extent of the damage) is not provided
• there has been repeated instances of property damage and the additional supports provided through an individual’s plan to address the issue have not been appropriately implemented.

Preventing property damage

The types of funded supports which can be included in a participant’s plan to reduce the risk of property damage are: V9.0 2023-06-20 Children living in a formal voluntary arrangement outside their family home

Repairs to property damage

The process for managing and paying claims for property damage is:

• The relevant state or territory Business Manager emails a claim for property damage to the Agency’s MoU Business Manager. The claim must include:
  • an incident report
  • details of what occurred prior to the incident
  • evidence of the behaviour support plan followed, and supports being implemented
  • photos of property damage
  • an invoice.
• The MoU Business Manager reviews the claim and either accepts or rejects the claim.
• Acceptance or declined email sent to the provider (with parent/s and SC cc’d) including next steps:
  • Declined: workflow ends here. A declined claim can be contested by emailing the MoU Business Manager.
  • Accepted: the provider will be instructed to claim the invoice amount from the child’s Core – Assistance with Daily Life budget.

Core supports

Include core support funding in the child’s plan to support with:

• daily living skills such as self-care, personal care (including supervision of disability-related behaviours of concern) and meal preparation
• access to community, social and recreational activities
• overnight supports including passive (sleep over) and active (awake) staff. Can be a combination of both if evidence supports this

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Note: overnight supports are considered from midnight to 6am.

24/7 staffing

24/7 staffing is defined as support provided by a disability support worker to support a child with their disability supports needs. Consider the following when including 24/7 staffing:

• 24/7 staffing should not be included during school hours, assumed to be 9am to 3pm for 41 weeks per year with 12 weeks school holidays. An exception to this is where the child is unable to attend school – in this case, the child should have sufficient funding included in their plan to cover staffing at all times and to allow the specialist support coordinator to support parents to negotiate a return to school plan with the child’s school.
• Where more than one child is living in the same house, overnight staffing may be funded through pooled funding, which allows the funds in a participant’s plan to be pooled to pay for shared staffing costs.

Determine the levels or ratio (for example, 1:1, 1:3 or 2:1) of staffing based on your discussions with the child representative/s and the assessment of the functional impact of the child’s disability.

Short Term Accommodation (STA), including respite

Children living under a voluntary arrangement either full time or part time are not expected to have STA including respite in their plan. An exception to this would be a 16 or 17 year old trialling accommodation as they prepare to transition to an independent living option.

STA including respite can be included in a plan for a child who is not currently living outside of their family home and has been identified as requiring additional supports to maintain the family as the primary carer. STA including respite can be included where the child will benefit from early intervention supports that will support the family to minimise the risk of the child entering or requiring alternate accommodation and supports.

In these instances, short term accommodation should not be considered in isolation to other supports which may be required to build the family capacity to maintain care. These other supports may include providing support in the family home and/or funding for supports which provide a respite effect such as in-home personal care (including supervision of behaviours of concern) and social and community participation activities.

Social and family participation

When including 24/7 staffing for children living outside the family home, consider any support hours the child may need to engage with their family or the community. This will promote family relationship building and engagement and help to maintain contact between the child, their family and community. Supports can be linked to the child’s goal of returning to live in the family home or any social participation goals.

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Example 1: A child may only need 1:2 support within their accommodation setting but may require 1:1 or 2:1 support to spend time in the family home or attend family outings such as visits to the zoo or attending a family occasion.

Example 2: An indigenous child living in an accommodation setting in the city may require additional support to ‘return to country’ to spend time with their family and community and remain connected with their culture.

Maintaining current family support

In voluntary out of home care arrangements parents or primary care givers continue to be responsible for the decision making relating to their child. In recognition of this role as child decision maker, parental engagement is vital. Parents have a valuable ongoing contribution to make to the lives of their children and to the decisions about how to protect children’s well-being.

At all times respect the rights and dignity of parents and support their inclusion in the planning process. Develop funding aimed at promoting family engagement and supporting the family to build and maintain relationships and caring responsibilities. s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies

Capacity Building supports

Include reasonable and necessary disability-related capacity building funded supports in the child’s plan as guided in the Our Guideline – Reasonable and necessary supports.

The information below will guide you through the additional considerations for capacity building supports when the child is living outside the family home.

Support Coordination

Children living in a voluntary arrangement could have coordination of supports, specialist support coordination or a combination of the two included in their plan.

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A participant may have specialist support coordination as well as coordination of supports funded in the same plan. This could be in situations such as where immediate complex barriers have been addressed and the participant still requires more general coordination of supports for the remainder of their plan period. Others may have specialist support coordination in one plan, and coordination of supports in subsequent plans.

Coordination of supports

The role of the support coordinator is to assist with and strengthen the child’s (family’s) ability to implement and coordinate the supports they require in their everyday life relating to their disability. These supports include informal, mainstream and community supports as well as their NDIS funded supports. It aims to support the child to participate more fully in the community.

Specialist support coordination

The role of a specialist support coordinator is to assist the child to manage challenges in their own support environment and ensure consistent delivery of service. This support is time limited, focusing on specific outcomes such as:

• identifying housing solutions to support a young person to transition to adulthood
• assisting a participant to manage challenges in their own support environment and ensure consistent delivery of service
• capturing any required data for the Agency
• Identifying strategies and solutions for managing risks such as school expulsion or non-attendance over extended periods. This includes the coordination of bringing family, education and stakeholders together to develop and implement programs and practices to build relationships that link to the child’s learning/education
• Identifying and sourcing relevant assessment and associated service design for participants with behaviours of concern (inclusive of unauthorised restrictive practice reporting to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission)
• reporting on Parenting Agreements/engagement. This includes monitoring to ensure parents are included and actively participating in their child’s daily life (school visits, medical appointments, sibling contact).

Include specialist support coordination in the plan as a stated support unless there are identified risks such as limited availability of specialist support coordinators in the area.

Parent/s maintain their guardianship role by fulfilling responsibilities including for example, acting as their child’s key decision maker, ensuring ongoing family and community connections and advocating for their child’s best interests. Refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Include Support Coordination in a plan for further information.

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Behavioural intervention support

Some children may require supports to address behaviours of concern (risk to self or others and/or 1:1 [or higher] funded supports that are greater than 30% of the day). Behaviour intervention and support is a vital inclusion if there are behaviours of concern that have impacted on the family dynamic and have resulted in the child not being able to live in the family home.

To build capacity within the family and encourage family engagement, the inclusion of strategies to support behaviour intervention is key for children residing outside the family home. In some cases, the behaviours of concern are significant and have resulted in the child not being able to spend time with family without high levels of support. Consideration needs to be factored in planning to ensure that behavioural supports are included to the level that the child can maintain contact with their family on a regular basis.

These supports are recommended to:

• support the child’s safety and wellbeing
• promote options for increasing the child’s capacity, community and mainstream connections to achieve plan goals
• ensure long term sustainability of the child’s plan and informal support systems.

As a child’s capacity increases overtime, you would expect to see a reduction in the intensity and level of 1:1 (or higher e.g. 2:1) supports (greater than 30%) however, this will depend on the individual circumstances.

Refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Behaviour intervention supports.

Building family relationships and capacity

The plan should include disability-related capacity building and training for the child’s parents to support their child to engage with the family.

If the child is already spending some of their time in the family home, consider any capacity building supports which can be included in the plan to maintain and/or increase this amount of time:

• Behavioural intervention supports: may already be in the plan and should include training for family members
• Assessment, recommendation, therapy and/or training (including assistive technology): For example, occupational therapy assessment and training to identify equipment and train the participant and their family in the use of the equipment in the family home.

Capital supports

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Transition planning for 16 to 17 year olds

As a young person prepares to leave school and move to employment or day time community activities, additional supports may be required to support them with their transition from education. For children living in a voluntary agreement outside the family home this transition also involves:

• transitioning out of their voluntary living arrangement into an alternative living arrangement
• transitioning to the disability support pension (DSP) and contributing to their board and lodging costs.

Consider the following when planning for 16 to 17 year olds living in accommodation outside the family home:

• Complete the Transition to Adulthood Checklist.
• Establish if an independent specialist assessment will be required if there is unclear or insufficient evidence about the young person’s functional capacity or current and future support need requirements.
• Determine the capacity building supports that will develop independent living skills.
• Assess assistive technology and home modification needs in relation to any changes in the young person’s living arrangement.

This can be funded in a young person’s plan and would be conducted by a qualified assessor such as an occupational therapist, registered nurse or psychologist who is independent to the current provider’s process. It would be anticipated that specific questions would be forwarded to the assessor, with this process being led by the support coordinator.

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• Will additional specialist support coordination hours be required to support the young person to plan for appropriate accommodation if a different living arrangement is required? Refer to Practice Guide – Identifying Housing Solutions for further information.
• Include an assessment for SDA and SIL in the young person’s plan noting that in most cases this is not the best option for children under 18. Only in exceptional circumstances should this be included for children 15 and under and will require General Manager approval.
• Consider arrangements for the appointment of a plan nominee if required once the young person turns 18 (as child representative roles will cease at this point). In some cases, the child representative/s will become the nominee and in others they will support their child without being officially assigned as a nominee.

Legal guardianship arrangements may also be explored by the young person’s family. While the NDIS does not have a formal role in this process, it may be helpful to raise this issue with the young person’s representative so they are aware of their options in this area.

• Determine if transport funding (additional to school transport) may be deemed reasonable and necessary if the young person is unable to use public transport.
• Consider if STA (including respite) may be reasonable and necessary as part of a formal transition plan to support the move to a new living arrangement.

For example, spending trial nights funded as STA (including respite) at the home they will transition to can support the participant to build capacity and prepare for the transition.

• Once the young person has a plan in place that incorporates transition to adulthood considerations such as SIL and is nearing 18 years or is 18 years of age, they will no longer be included in the Children and Young People team and will be transitioned to either Complex Supports Needs or Service Delivery and Performance for allocation as an adult. The process for transition is via the Complex Support Needs Triage Team.

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In some cases, it may not be appropriate for a parent to self-manage NDIS funding for a child living outside the family home due to risks identified. Below are the considerations in relation to risks for self-management and/or using a Registered Plan Management Provider (RPMP): s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies

Self-managed or plan-managed

If plan or self-management is approved for children living outside the family home:

• Include an interaction detailing your justification for the decision.
• Make sure the child representative/s understand that it is highly recommended the accommodation provider is a registered provider. This will ensure they adhere to the quality standards and safeguards that minimise risk to participants and others.

Refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Complete the Determine Plan Management task.

Plan implementation

After plan approval, the approved plan and plan approval letter are automatically sent to all child representatives. It is important that the contact roles are updated if the child’s circumstances change and correct addresses are recorded to ensure the right people receive a copy of the child’s plan.

Refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Complete the Implement the Plan task and Our Guideline – Your plan.

Handover to specialist support coordinator and/or coordinator of supports

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When sending your Request for Service form to the specialist support coordinator and/or coordinator of supports chosen by the parents/child representative/s, make sure you include your contact details and request the specialist support coordinator and/or coordinator of supports contacts you to arrange a handover.

The process for referral will depend on whether the provider is registered or unregistered. All specialist support coordinators will be registered, however some coordination of supports providers may be unregistered.

For registered providers, refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Make a Request for Service (support coordination and recovery coach) and for unregistered provider refer to Form Request for Service – Non-registered Support Coordination Providers.

Arrange a face to face (where possible) handover to the specialist support coordinator and/or coordinator of supports with the parents/child representative present. Make sure you cover:

• how the plan was developed
• who they need to liaise with to implement the plan and the responsibilities of all parties
• how the plan can be used flexibly to meet the child’s goals and how to monitor plan utilisation and make sure the plan can be fully utilised for the period of the plan
• the roles of the specialist support coordinator and the coordinator of supports
• arrange regular checkpoints, in advance, to track progress and to make sure the plan is being implemented in line with the child’s goals. This will provide opportunity to address any concerns the family or coordinators may have but will also promote effective plan utilisation.

Plan monitoring

The support coordinator will work with the child representative to monitor plan usage, resolve any issues that arise, and liaise with providers, other government services and the Agency as required.

Advise the support coordinator to notify you of any issues regarding utilisation of plan funds. This will allow you to be fully prepared for any implementation meetings with states and territories.

At the 12 week check in meeting, you will be able to monitor the plan usage and talk through any concerns with the child representative/s and the support coordinator.

If you identify an over-utilisation of funding which may put the child at risk of running out of funding in one or more areas of their plan, work with the child representative/s and support coordinator to identify why there is an over-utilisation. Arrange regular check-ins as required.

Critical incidents and safeguarding

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FOI 23/24-0256

If you are advised of risks of abuse/neglect related to a child you are expected to take action. Evidence of risks of abuse/neglect may in some circumstances be considered a participant critical incident. Action taken must be consistent with the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (which limits the circumstances in which the NDIA can disclose information) and agreed working arrangements with states and territories.

Discuss your concerns with your manager and agree on the appropriate action to take. Record the details of the crisis circumstances and actions taken in an interaction and add an alert if required. Ensure the specialist support coordinator and/or support coordinator is aware of the situation and is also responding to support the child.

Refer to the Participant Critical Incidents Framework for further information on the actions you should take and how to report a participant incident. If you are unsure about making the notification, contact the National Participant Incident Team.

Change of circumstances

Where there is a significant change in circumstances which means the child may require additional funding based on their disability-related support needs, the specialist support coordinator and/or support coordinator is expected to support the child representative to request a plan review. The Agency may commence an Agency initiated plan review where there are concerns, for example, about plan utilisation or other matters concerning the child’s disability support needs.

A change of circumstances plan review may be requested where for example, there has been a change of residential setting or accommodation provider, an extended hospital stay or significant or repeated school suspension. A child entering accommodation outside of their family home, may also instigate a change of circumstance review.

Refer to Standard Operating Procedure - Create a plan reassessment (or variation) request (PRR).

Reunification supports

If the voluntary agreement is part time and the child is sharing their time between their family home and the accommodation provider, consider any supports the child and family may need in the home to maintain this arrangement, increase the amount of time the child spends living in the family home and reduce the risk of the child moving to full time out of home care. This could be:

• in home personal care supports (including for supervision of behaviours of concern) and community access

• behaviour intervention support

• other therapy such as occupational therapy or speech therapy

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• core and capacity building funding in the home and community to support the family while they build capacity.

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Appendices

Appendix A: Transition to Adulthood Checklist

To be completed by the Children and Young People planner for participants residing outside the family home aged 16 years and above eligible for SIL. Transition planning to independence for participants in the Complex Support Needs Children and Young People planning team should start from the age of 16 to allow enough time to prepare for any changes of living arrangements and additional support required once they reach the age of 18.

Action	Pre-planning	Tasks	Checklist
Participant aged 16 to 17	Questions Is the participant residing outside the family home in a formal arrangement? Does the participant have an adult independent living goal for when they turn 18? Is the participant eligible for SIL? Is the participant able to continue to reside in the current placement now and after 18 years of age?	Tasks Liaise with participants’ family in relation to the child’s adult independent living goals for when they turn 18 years. Arrange for assessment of SIL eligibility. For SDA arrange for assessment of home and living support needs and complete a Housing Application in the ACE Business System. The Operational Housing team will assess eligibility. Discuss adult living accommodation options with the participant and their family and explain the transition process.	Other information Consultation with state or territory in relation to transition to adulthood requirements including

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Action	Pre-planning	Tasks	Checklist
Handover	Will the participant transfer to Complex Support Needs Team or Service Delivery and Performance once aged 18 years? Make sure you include all relevant information in the handover and transition plan.	Complete Complex Support Needs Suitability Checker – follow Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for process.
A referral for all participants transitioning out of the complex stream for handover and apply the Standard Operating Procedure, plus the Triage Team process.
Provide a brief background of CSN Children and Young People team engagement to date:

• Strategy for inclusion of, and consultation with, the young person and their family in the transition process.
• A clear timeline that outlines key milestones and dependencies such as: - the participant’s 18th birthday
• current plan end date
• handover date to pre-determined pathway
• engagement commencement date with the participant, their family, decision maker, support | |

11. Supporting material

• NDIS Act 2013 (external)
• National Disability Insurance Scheme (Restrictive Practices and Behaviour Support) Rules 2018 (external)
• Planning Operational Guideline (external)
• Our Guideline - Specialist Disability Accommodation (external)
• Our Guideline – Child representatives (external)
• Including Specific Types of Supports in Plans Operational Guideline (external)
• NDIS Quality and Safeguard Commission (external)
• National Principles for Child Safe Organisations (external).

12. Feedback

If you have any feedback about this Practice Guide, please complete our Feedback form.

13. Version control

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