Rural Lifestyle Options Australia Magazine Issue 12

What to expect and what is the difference? what to expect and what is the i

Support connection / Support coordination / specialist support coordination / plan management

The NDIS introduced us to some new roles and terminology; the one that appears to have confused most of us has been Plan Management and Supports Coordination. Whilst the titles themselves could be seen as slightly misleading, the expectation of the roles are also often assumed and not accurate. The key difference between Supports Coordination and Plan Management is the Plan Manager is only able to assist you tomanage the financial side of your supports. They do not manage or organise your supports, they do not negotiate staff with providers; they simply manage and pay invoices from providers on your behalf and budget your NDIS funds. The benefit of having a planmanager is that it allows you to access services or supports that are not registered with the NDIS, giving you the flexibility to pursue smaller providers or services not typically registered with the NDIS to support yourself or the person in receipt of the NDIS plan. On the other hand Supports Coordination has three levels of support; Support Connection, Support Coordination and Specialist Support Coordination.

Depending on the complexity of the participant, types of supports required and your needs, you might get none of these supports in your NDIS plan, you might get one or even two of these supports in your plan. Supports Connection is a light touch support to assist in implementing your plan, connecting you with informal, community and funded supports. Supports Connection is typically only a few hours per month and therefore once the bulk of the work has been completed by assisting you to connect with your community and funded supports, your Supports Connection supports will decrease to minimal communication with yourself until the end of your plan when they can assist you to prepare for your NDIS review. Supports Coordination is a more involved support with the primary focus on helping you understand your plan and to build the skills to implement and manage your own NDIS plan in the future. Supports Coordination is typically a few hours per week, with the majority of this time used in the initial set up of your supports. Once your supports and Service Agreements are in place, the Supports Coordinator will communicate briefly with you from time to time to ensure you are still happy with your supports and to ascertain if there is any additional supports required.

14 Rural Lifestyle Options Australia Magazine

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