You've made the choice to pursue a career as a support coordinator. Maybe you've worked in the disability or mental health fields and are now looking to transition into helping clients manage their funding.
Drawing from your past roles, you bring valuable transferable skills such as building rapport, comprehending disabilities, and navigating the intricacies of the sector. However, the one concern looming over you is your level of knowledge about the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
Here are some tips on how to start navigating the complex world of the NDIS.
NDIS Legislation and Policies:
The foundations of the NDIS are implanted in the Disability Insurance Scheme Act of 2013. The act has been drawn up to include and set out the following principles:
· How the NDIS will operate
· How a person can become a participant
· What the NDIS deems as reasonable and necessary
· The Governance of the NDIS
· How internal and external reviews are handled and how decisions can be made under the NDIS Act.
How a person becomes a participant:
General knowledge on the participant pathway from looking at access, to the planning stage, plan implementation of a new plan to being part of reviews.
This can be researched online. Your first starting point is the NDIS website, that goes through the steps and rules on how to become a participant.
Disability Types and support needs:
We have discussed in a previous post (How research can build better outcomes) the importance of research and how having an understanding of the various disabilities and diverse support needs of an individual are important. The NDIS website has guidelines which can serve as useful starting point for your research.
Local Service Providers:
One of the main supports you will provide is sourcing providers for your customers. When you are starting out, this can seem overwhelming. Which is the right provider, will they be suitable, how do I know if they are any good?
The answer to these questions is research, networking, building relationships and asking questions.
Example:
You have a customer who lives with a vision impairment, and they need an assessment. While searching online, you'll find various organisations specialising in assisting visually impaired clients. However, simply relying on online information may not be enough to endorse them to your customer. It's advisable to make a call, schedule a meeting or ask a colleague. This way, you can bring a bit more certainty that the organisation is a suitable match and possesses the expertise required.
Person Centred Planning:
If you have worked in the disability sector, perhaps as a support worker, you will have the skills to transfer this to your current role. You will understand your ability to collaborate with your customers to identify their goals and preferences. Working on what suits your customer and knowing that it is person centred. Your role as the coordinator is to not be in charge but walk along side your customer.
The NDIS plan and budgeting:
You will need the ability to read a customer’s plan. There are sections that include the goals and some social and personal information about your customers. Following these we come to the financial aspects of the funding.
There are four support main categories of funding:
CORE
Catergory | Usage |
Assistance with Daily Life | Assistance with everyday tasks including cleaning and yard maintenance |
Consumables | Continence products, low cost assistive technology, hen/peg feeding as examples |
Assistance with Social and Community Participation | Support worker to ass a customer out in the community |
Home and Living | Assisting your customer to live independently including medium and short-term accommodation (MTA & STA) |
YPIRAC | Specialist Disability for younger people living in aged care |
RECURRING
Transport Funding | This type of funding is fortnightly and deposited into your customer's bank account directly |
CAPACITY BUILDING
Improved Daily Living | CB Daily Activity | Assessment, training and Therapy. Group or individual |
Improved Life Choices | CB Choice and Control | Plan Management |
Finding and Keeping a Job | CB Employment | Employment-related support and training. Assessment to help your customer find a job and school leaver supports (SLES) |
Improved Living Arrangements | CB Home Living | Find, obtain and maintain housing. It can be used in support to find a home or maintain a tenancy. |
Increased Social and Community Participation | CB Social and Community | Development and training to increase your customers, skills, social abilities and recreational activities |
Improved Relationships | CB Relationships | Assisting your customer to develop positive behaviours that may have an impact on their relationships with others. |
Improved Health and Wellbeing | CB Health and Wellbeing | Included under this catergory is funding for a dietician, including exercise and advice due to the impact of your customers disability (NDIS does not fund gym memberships) |
Support Coordination | | Funding to assist and develop your customers understanding of their funding and support them to find suitable providers, community engagement and services |
CAPITAL
Assistive Technology, repairs and maintenance | Funding for your customer's equipment, personal care, communication and recreational. This can include wheelchairs, hoists, vehicle modifications and prosthetics |
Home Modifications | Installation of disability aids, such as railings, enabled bathrooms or modifications such as ramps. |
Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) | A range of housing designed for your customers with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. |
More can be found here:
Understanding the difference between stated and not stated supports.
On your customers plan under a category, you may see “stated supports”. Whilst most of your customers core supports are flexible and can be used over the different categories, stated supports are not flexible.
This means that the funding can only be used for specific purposes for which they were allocated. Some examples of these are plan management, support coordination, meal preparation, assistive technology, and behavioural supports.
Flexibility between Supports
Core supports - are the most flexible and can be used, unless stated over the wide array of subcategories.
Example: Your customer runs of the allocated amount of Daily Living supports, but has a lot of funding under the line item for Social and Community support. You can use these funds interchangeably.
NB: There are exceptions to the rule of the core budget if there are stated supports or funding for transport.
Capacity Building Supports - the budget cannot be moved from one support category to another.
Example: Your customer has exhausted their therapy budget allocated for CB Daily Activity. As a result, they are unable to utilise their Improved Relationships budget even if it remains unused.
Capital or Assistive Technology - These supports have been nominated for their specific purpose and cannot be used to pay for anything else.
Documentation and reporting
Recording daily notes is part of the job description and allows you to track your customers progress towards goals and shows what you have been doing. You will also need to understand your reporting requirements to the NDIS and other bodies such as Justice or Communities in an appropriate manner.
Community Resources
You may already have contacts/networks in the disability sector that you can pass on. It is always a good idea to keep informed with what is happening in the community and what activities may benefit your customer.
Training and professional development
If this is your first role, you may want to invest and commit yourself by attending relevant training, workshops, networking opportunities and stay updated on the industry best practices.
Some of the training we love:
Resources
There are many resources online that can help you to understand a situation or the NDIS better. You can join support coordinators Facebook pages or be added to mailing lists from places such as the DSC, NDIS, Kinora and even plan manager web pages. They all have excellent resources and can assist you in developing your skills.
Price Guide
One of the handiest tools you can download and have on your desktop for reference is the price guide. It gives a huge amount of information on pricing, rules, and guidance.
If you are starting your journey as a Support Coordinator it can both rewarding and challenging.
However, the good news is that you can learn and improve your expertise.
As support coordination providers ourselves, we have had to learn from the ground up.
The nature of the NDIS is that no individual can grasp all the knowledge that is required.
It’s a gradual process and with diligence, you can gain so much, develop transferable skills and watch your customer’s flourish.
The Lama Care Team
Opmerkingen