Support coordination is an NDIS-funded service that helps you understand your plan, choose providers and organise your supports. It also builds your confidence to manage services and make decisions about your care.
Getting a plan approved is an important step. Putting it into action can involve comparing providers, arranging appointments and understanding service agreements. A support coordinator helps you work through these tasks while keeping your choices and goals at the centre.
Support Coordination Helps You Put Your Plan Into Practice
Support coordination is a capacity-building support. Its purpose is to help you use your NDIS plan and develop the skills to manage your supports.
The assistance you receive depends on your circumstances. You might need help finding suitable providers, resolving a service gap, or keeping several services working together. Your coordinator can also connect you with community and mainstream services outside the NDIS.
Support coordination does not replace therapy, personal care or community support. It helps you organise those services and understand your options. You remain in charge of your decisions.
What a Support Coordinator Does
A coordinator’s work should reflect what you need to put your plan into action. Common tasks include:
- Explaining your funding: Helping you understand your budgets, permitted spending and any restrictions in your plan.
- Finding providers: Comparing services based on your preferences, needs, location and budget.
- Arranging support: Assisting with enquiries, referrals and service agreements.
- Connecting your team: Helping providers communicate about shared goals, with your consent.
- Working through problems: Addressing missed services, unsuitable arrangements or difficulties changing providers.
- Building your skills: Helping you ask questions, organise appointments and manage provider relationships.
For example, you may need an occupational therapist to assess your daily living needs and a support worker to help at home. Your coordinator can help arrange both services and clarify how they will work together.
They should explain available choices rather than make decisions without involving you.
The Three NDIS Support Coordination Levels
There are three levels of support coordination. Your plan identifies which level has been funded.
Level 1: Support Connection
Support Connection helps you understand your plan and connect with funded, community and mainstream services.
It focuses on building your ability to make and manage these connections. This may include learning how to contact providers, discuss your needs and organise services.
Level 2: Support Coordination
Level 2 support coordination helps you organise a range of supports, maintain provider relationships and work through problems.
Your coordinator helps you make practical use of your plan while building your confidence to direct your own support. This can include reviewing whether services suit your needs and planning what to do if an arrangement changes.
Level 3: Specialist Support Coordination
Specialist support coordination provides more intensive assistance when complex circumstances create significant barriers to accessing or maintaining support.
The focus is on addressing those barriers and establishing more consistent arrangements. Having several providers does not automatically mean you need this level; the challenges within your support environment also matter.
Eligibility Depends on Your Circumstances
Support coordination is not automatically included in every NDIS plan. The NDIA considers your individual needs when deciding whether to fund it.
If you think you need support coordination, explain what makes managing your services difficult. You might struggle to understand agreements, coordinate appointments or maintain support when your circumstances change.
Useful examples could include:
- Services stopping because you cannot organise replacement providers.
- Difficulty understanding what your funding allows.
- Several providers giving conflicting information.
- Changes in your living arrangements or informal support.
- Barriers to contacting providers and arranging suitable services.
Being new to the NDIS does not guarantee funding. A request is more useful when it explains the assistance you need and how it would help you use your plan.
Your my NDIS contact can discuss your options. Relevant reports and examples of unmet needs may help explain your circumstances.
How Support Coordination Funding Works
Support coordination funding sits within Capacity Building. It has an allocated budget, separate from the funding used to purchase daily support or therapy.
Capacity Building categories are stated supports. This means you cannot freely move money between them. Support coordination is also usually funded for a defined period rather than guaranteed indefinitely.
Before you agree to services, ask the provider to explain:
- Their hourly rate.
- How the available budget will be used.
- Which activities outside appointments may be charged.
- Whether permitted travel attracts additional costs.
- How often you will receive spending updates.
- Any cancellation fees or notice requirements.
Current NDIS maximum prices apply to NDIA-managed and plan-managed funding. These price limits do not apply in the same way to self-managed funding. Providers can agree to charge below the maximum; the limit is not a compulsory rate.
Phone calls, provider liaison and other work outside meetings may be billable when permitted under the applicable rules and agreed with you. Ask for clear invoices so you can understand how your funding is being used.
Support Coordination and Plan Management Have Different Roles
A support coordinator helps you find, organise and manage services. A plan manager handles financial administration, including paying provider invoices and helping you track expenditure.
You can have both funded in your plan. Having plan management does not automatically mean you have support coordination. Neither role gives a provider authority to approve additional NDIS funding.
Getting Started With a Support Coordinator
Start by checking your plan for support coordination funding and the level approved. If you cannot find it, ask your my NDIS contact to clarify what is available.
If funding is included, compare providers before signing an agreement. Ask about their experience, availability, and approach to communication.
If your support coordination funding is NDIA-managed, you need a registered provider. With plan-managed or self-managed funding, you can generally choose a registered or unregistered support coordinator.
Once you have chosen someone, agree on your priorities. These might include finding a therapist, replacing an unsuitable service or getting support started after a move.
You should also know who to contact, how often you will meet and how progress will be reviewed.
Choosing a Coordinator Who Listens and Follows Through
A good coordinator explains information clearly, respects your preferences, and completes agreed tasks. During an introductory conversation, ask:
- Have you supported people with similar needs?
- How often will we communicate?
- Who covers your work when you are away?
- How will you help me compare providers?
- How will you keep me informed about spending?
- Do you have relationships with any providers you recommend?
You should feel comfortable asking questions and choosing a different provider from the one suggested.
If the arrangement is not working, you can change coordinators. Check the notice period in your service agreement and arrange a handover so outstanding tasks and relevant information are transferred with your consent.
Preparing for Plan Reviews and Changing Needs
Keeping track of your supports throughout the plan makes it easier to explain what is working and where gaps remain.
Your coordinator can help gather provider reports, record service difficulties and organise information for an NDIS plan review or reassessment.
Useful information includes changes in daily functioning, support that has helped you progress, and needs your current arrangements do not meet.
A coordinator can assist with preparation, but the NDIA makes funding decisions. Additional funding is not guaranteed.
Get Support With Hyre Support Coordination
At Hyre Support Coordination, we help participants understand their plans, connect with providers and work through difficulties as their needs change.
Our support coordination in Melbourne focuses on your choices, priorities and confidence in managing support.
If you need help putting your plan into action, contact our team to discuss your circumstances and available options.