Make a Request for Service (support coordination and recovery coach)

This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) will help you complete the Request for Service task in the NDIS Business System (System).

The Request for Service must be completed by the plan developer.

1. Recent updates

Date	What’s changed
June 2023	Note added at 3.2 reminding staff to use participant’s preferred name and their pronouns when adding additional comments in the Request for Service Proposal.

2. Checklist

Topic	Checklist
Pre-requisites	You have:

* confirmed the participant has support coordination or psychosocial recovery coach (recovery coach) funding in their approved plan
* confirmed consent for the NDIA to make the referral has been recorded in the participant’s record
* completed all planning tasks
* confirmed the participant's preferred communication method.

| | Actions | | | | 3.1 Check the participant has chosen their preferred provider | | 3.2 Create a Request for Service | | 3.3 Enter provider details into the Request for Service | | 3.4 Select providers using the Random System Selection option (support coordination providers only) | | 3.5 Review the Request for Service | | 3.6 Submit the Request for Service

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Standard Operating Procedure

For Internal Use Only

Checklist

3.7 Make a manual Request for Service
3.8 Next steps
4.1 What happens when a Request for Service is made
4.2 What happens when the participant changes providers during the plan period

3. Procedure

3.1 Check the participant has chosen their preferred provider

Check the participant has provided details of their preferred provider(s) to deliver support coordination or recovery coach services. This can be up to five providers in order of preference.
- If all preferred providers are registered providers, go to 3.2 Create a Request for Service.
- If all preferred providers are non-registered providers, go to 3.7 Make a manual Request for Service.
- If preferred providers are a mix of registered and non-registered providers, go to step 2.
- If there are no preferred providers:
  - for support coordination, go to step 3
  - for recovery coach services, go to step 4.
Is the participant’s first preference a registered provider?
- Yes:
  - Use the Request for Service task in the System to make the Request for Service. Use the guidance in 3.2 Create a Request for Service to do this. Include all registered providers in order of the participant’s preference.
  - Once all registered providers have declined the Request for Service, complete 3.7 Make a manual Request for Service.
- No:
  - You need to complete the actions in 3.7 Make a manual Request for Service.

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Standard Operating Procedure

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o If the non-registered provider declines the request and the participant has no other preferred non-registered providers, you need to complete the Request for Service task in the System. Use the guidance in 3.2 Create a Request for Service to do this.

Would the participant like the System to randomly choose support coordination providers?

Yes – go to 3.2 Create a Request for Service
No – go to step 4.

To assist the participant to identify and consider suitable options you can use:

the Provider Finder, or
your knowledge of services in the participant’s community.

If you need help to do this, refer to the Standard Operating Procedure – Use the provider finder.

Note: Staff can’t recommend a provider to the participant. It’s always the participant’s choice to select a provider. The NDIA cannot influence this in any way.

The participant may request more time to decide their preferred provider. You need to monitor and follow-up with the participant until you complete the Request for Service task.

Once the participant has chosen their preferred provider(s), go back to step 1 to find out what step to follow next.

3.2 Create a Request for Service

You must complete the Request for Service task to connect the participant with their preferred registered provider of:

support coordination, or
psychosocial recovery coach (recovery coach) services.

The task will generate detailed information about the participant’s individual needs and funded supports. This will be sent to registered providers via the myplace provider portal.

Note: Do not include any sensitive personal information within the Request for Service proposal. If the provider needs additional details, discuss these with the provider once they have accepted the proposal.

From Implement – Staff Tasks, select Request for Service.

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Standard Operating Procedure

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The My Request for Service Proposals screen opens. Select Add (plus sign).
The Create Proposal screen displays. Complete the fields using the followings steps.

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Complete the Purpose of Referral field.

Include:

whether the referral is for support coordination or recovery coach support
the reasons the participant has been funded and referred for support coordination or a recovery coach
whether there are particular things the participant needs a support coordinator or recovery coach support to focus on, such as exploring housing options
the expected outcomes from the support coordination or recovery coach referral
any other information the provider needs to understand how they might support the participant.

Complete the Type of Funded Support Coordination Request field.

For support coordination select the relevant level of support coordination included in the participant’s plan. You can find information about the levels of support in Standard Operating Procedure – Include Support Coordination in a plan and Standard Operating Procedure – Include Psychosocial Recovery Coach support in a plan.

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Standard Operating Procedure

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The options are:

Support Connection
Coordination of Supports
Specialist Support Coordination
Flexible (only select this option where the level of support coordination in the participant’s plan is not ‘stated’).
- For recovery coach select Flexible.

Complete the Participant Contact field. Do this if the participant needs the support of their authorised representative to work with a support coordinator or recovery coach. If the provider should contact the participant directly, leave this field blank.

Select the Participant Contact field to search for and select the participant’s plan nominee or child representative. The address, phone and email details of their authorised representative will be included on the Request for Service.

The Post Implementation Report Due Date automatically shows eight weeks from the day of entry into the System. Change this if required.

This due date will show on the Request for Service in myplace. The provider will not receive reminder notifications.

The Additional Implementation Reports Due On field is optional.

You can select from the drop down list to suit the participant’s circumstances. For example, the participant’s circumstances may require more frequent reports to monitor and track the participant’s plan implementation progress. Where you require additional reports this should be factored into the participant’s support coordination or recovery coach budget. Generally, for recovery coach support the level of hours suggested in the Standard Operating Procedure – Include Psychosocial Recovery Coach support in a plan covers reporting requirements. Only where you require additional reports would you need to add extra funding.

The options are:

Monthly
Quarterly
Semi-Annually.

Update the End of Plan Report Due Date. Add the date when the NDIA expects the support coordinator or recovery coach to submit the End of Plan Report.
Complete the Participant Context field.

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Standard Operating Procedure

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Include specific information to help the support coordinator or recovery coach understand the participant’s individual circumstances. Include how these circumstances may affect how the participant is able to implement their plan, and how they might affect the delivery of recovery coach or support coordination services.

For recovery coach support you need to state the Request for Service is for recovery coach support, not support coordination.

You don’t need to include details about the participant’s daily life, goals or plan budget in this field. This information will auto-populate from the System in the next step.

Select the RFS NDIS Contact field. Search for and select the staff member who the support coordinator or recovery coach can contact with any queries about the Request for Service. This person’s first name, and last initial will be included on the Request for Service.
Leave the Support Budget and Plan End Date fields. They will auto-populate from the plan details when you save the Request for Service proposal.
Complete the Referrals for Assessments field if the participant requires connection to a provider for assessments during their plan. For example, assistive technology and home modifications. If the plan doesn’t include funded supports for assessments include ‘No referrals for assessments are required in this plan.’
Complete the Additional Comments field. Include any other information the support coordinator or recovery coach needs to know to support the participant. This may include:

Request for Service NDIS contact details
information about additional implementation and progress reports and the email address to send these to
information on other services or systems the participant engages with, such as education, justice, health or aged care
for flexible support coordination, include details of the supports to be provided
for recovery coach, state the Request for Service is for recovery coach support, not support coordination
for recovery coach, describe the level (number of hours) of recovery coach support to be provided. The plan includes hours at the weekday daytime rate. It’s up to the participant to discuss with their recovery coach when it suits them best to use the support. A recovery coach will

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Standard Operating Procedure

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The NDIS states that you can claim a weekday daytime, evening, night, weekend and public holiday rate. Refer to NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (external) for further information.

For Restricted Access participants, you must include details about the Restricted Access status. The provider needs to know that the NDIA will need to create service bookings for agency managed services. Providers cannot initiate service bookings for Restricted Access participants. A Restricted Access Officer can use the Request for Service process to connect the participant with their support coordinator or recovery coach.
Details of any handover process. You may need to schedule an appointment for the planner to introduce the participant to the support coordination or recovery coach provider and discuss the plan implementation or recovery coach process. You need to include information about how the appointment will be scheduled.

Note: Make sure you refer to the participant using their preferred name and their pronouns. If you’re not sure what pronouns someone uses, please ask.

At Are there any in-kind arrangements included in the participants plan field, slide the button to Yes, if required.

If you select Yes, a field will appear for More Information relating to in-kind support. Update this field to include information about the in-kind supports provided in the plan. This includes which plan supports and budgets are in-kind, and details of the in-kind provider the participant is using.

Select Save. The Request for Service proposal will now populate with information from the participant’s plan.

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A success message displays. Select OK.
The Review Proposal screen displays.

If the participant:

Provided details of their preferred provider(s), go to 3.3 Enter provider details into the Request for Service.
Would like the System to randomly choose support coordination providers, go to 3.4 Select providers using the Random System Selection option (support coordination only).

3.3 Enter provider details into the Request for Service

From the Review Proposal screen, select Edit.
The Create Proposal screen displays. In the Provider Selection section, select Number.
The Select: Provider screen displays. Search for the provider by typing the Provider ID, Legal name, Trading name, or Head Office email in the Provider Name field. Select Go to search.
The Select: Provider screen displays the results. Check the following fields to make sure you have the correct provider:

trading name (not their Legal name)
Provider ID

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Standard Operating Procedure

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head office address (if address is not suppressed)
email
distance from the participant’s home address.

Select the button next to the correct provider. This will add the provider to the Request for Service.

Select Add (plus sign) to add more providers in the participant’s order of preference. To delete a provider from the list, select X on the far right side of the provider details.
Once you have recorded the provider details, select Save.
A success message appears. Select OK.
Go to 3.5 Review the Request for Service

Select providers using the Random System Selection option (support coordination providers only)

Complete this procedure when, in exceptional circumstances, a participant is unable to choose their preferred provider(s). The System can randomly select suitable providers within 20kms (or up to 50km) of the participant’s home address.

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Standard Operating Procedure

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You should first attempt to assist the participant to consider suitable providers using:

the Provider Finder, or
your knowledge of services in the community.

If you need help to do this, go to 3.1 Check the participant has chosen their preferred provider.

From the Review Proposal screen, select Edit.
The Create Proposal screen displays. In the Provider Selection section, select Random System Selection.
Provider details automatically populate in the Provider Selection field.

The Source field will show the letter S (System generated) or letter M (manually generated). This is for internal reporting purposes.

To add more providers select Add (plus sign). To remove a provider, select the X on the far right side next to the provider details.
Once you have recorded the provider details, select Save.
Go to 3.5 Review the Request for Service.

3.5 Review the Request for Service

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Standard Operating Procedure

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Use this procedure to check the information is correct before you submit the Request for Service proposal to providers.

Some information will be transferred into the Request for Service proposal from the participant’s plan. If any of these details are incorrect, you need to correct these in the participant’s plan.

Other information will be manually entered into the Request for Service. If any of these details are incorrect, you need to edit the Request for Service.

Check the Details and Provider Selection sections to make sure the information is correct.
Check the details that have automatically generated under each of the headings in Part A: Request for Service are correct. Review the following:

Part 1 & 2 shows the participant’s details and contact information (System generated).
Part 3 & 4 shows the details of the support coordination or recovery coach request.

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• Part 5 shows the referrals for assessment.

• Part 6 shows the participant context information including:

- disability information (System generated)
- participant’s daily life (System generated)
- living arrangements, relationships and supports (System generated)
- participant context information (entered when you created the Request for Service proposal).

• Part 7 shows the participant’s goals from their plan.

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• Part 8 shows the funded supports from the participant’s plan, listed under each support category.

3. Go to 3.6 Submit the Request for Service.

3.6 Submit the Request for Service

Once you review the Request for Service proposal and confirm it is accurate, select Submit.
A message will appear asking you to confirm you have consent to submit the Request for Service on the participant’s behalf. If you have a record of this consent, select OK. If not, contact the participant and record the details of this consent before proceeding.

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Standard Operating Procedure

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you need help to do this, refer to Standard Operating Procedure – Check third party consent or authority, and the Standard Operating Procedure – Record third party consent.

A success message displays. Select OK.
To return to the My Request for Service Proposals screen, select Cancel.
Go to 3.8 Next steps.

3.7 Make a manual Request for Service

Complete the following steps for non-registered preferred providers.

This form doesn’t currently have information to make a referral to non-registered recovery coach providers. Until it does, state that the request is for a recovery coach not a support coordinator. Do this in the Requested support coordinator details and the Monitoring and reporting sections of the form.

Complete the manual Request for Service - Non-Registered Support Coordination Providers Form.
Send the form to the participant’s preferred non-registered provider.
Upload the form to Inbound Documents.

3.8 Next steps

For information about what happens when a Request for Service is made refer to Appendix 4.1.

Once the Request for Service task is finalised and a support coordinator or recovery coach is appointed, you must finalise the implementation process. To do this complete the final steps in the Standard Operating Procedure – Complete the Implement the Plan task. This includes:

• recording the Interaction templates – Implementation – Implementation Conversation • confirming the support coordination or recovery coach arrangements.
Monitor the plan.

For information about what happens when the participant changes providers during the plan period refer to Appendix 4.2.

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Appendices

4.1 What happens when a Request for Service is made

The first provider on the list will automatically receive:

• the Request for Service proposal in their myplace provider portal for action.
Providers have four business days to review and respond to the Request for Service. The System will automatically extend this due date to reflect national, state, and territory based public holidays.
The provider will:

• assess their ability and capacity to support the participant • consider factors such as the participant’s specific needs, and the skill set and capacity of the organisation • accept or decline the request.
When a provider accepts the Request for Service referral, they can immediately contact the participant to begin providing support coordination or recovery coach support. They will work with the participant and their NDIS contact to complete all plan implementation tasks. To do this they will use the resources in the myplace provider portal and myplace provider portal and resources (external). For example, support coordination or recovery coach progress reports, additional implementation reports, and referrals for assessment.
If the provider declines the referral or the referral expires, the System will make a referral to the next provider on the list. The System will continue to do this until either:

• a provider accepts the request, or • all listed providers decline the referral. If this occurs, the RFS NDIS Contact will get a work item sent to their inbox in the System. The RFS NDIS Contact will need to consider alternative solutions.

4.2 What happens when the participant changes providers during the plan period

Sometimes the participant will change support coordination or recovery coach providers mid-plan. When this happens, the original support coordinator or recovery coach should help with the handover and transition, as much as possible. This includes completing their own referral on the participant’s behalf. If it’s not possible for the support coordinator

Standard Operating Procedure

For Internal Use Only

The NDIS will provide additional support for the participant to connect to the new support coordination or recovery coach provider.

myplace provider portal and resources (external)
Standard Operating Procedure - Interaction templates - Implementation
Standard Operating Procedure – Check third party consent or authority
Standard Operating Procedure – Record third party consent
Standard Operating Procedure – Include Psychosocial Recovery Coach support in a plan
Standard Operating Procedure – Include support coordination in a plan
Standard Operating Procedure – Complete the Implement the Plan task
Standard Operating Procedure – Use the Provider Finder
Request for Service Form – Non-Registered Support Coordination Providers
Standard Operating Procedure – Monitor, edit, cancel a Request for Service (support coordination and recovery coach)
Standard Operating Procedure – Assist the participant with their preferred method of communication

6. Feedback

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

If you have any feedback about the Request for Service System functionality or questions about the way we engage with registered or non-registered providers, please email the Intermediaries team.

7. Version control

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Standard Operating Procedure

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Version	Amended by	Brief Description of Change	Status	Date
1.0	CW0032	Class 2 approval	APPROVED	2021-02-22
2.0	MBO0056	Class 2 approval. Request for service should be completed by partners if they developed the plan.	APPROVED	2021-10-07
3.0	EMN960	Note added to ensure someone’s preferred name and correct pronouns are used when recording information about a participant.	APPROVED	2023-02-03

The Standard Operating Procedure – Request for Services has been split into two:

Request for Service – Make a request
Request for Service – Monitor, edit, cancel a request.

Existing guidance has been reformatted into the following step-by-step procedures, to make the process clearer:

Check the participant has chosen their preferred provider
Make a manual Request for Service.

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Make a Request for Service (support coordination and recovery coach)