What Does a NDIS Support Coordinator Actually Do?

The NDIS is paperwork, phone calls and decisions galore. Most recipients understand that their funded plans are intended for accessing supports and that they’ll need providers, but beyond that, everything from service agreements to maintaining organization gets tricky.

That’s where support coordinators come in. They exist between creation and execution, helping bridge the gap of knowing what to do and helping people do it (or at least access doing it). But it’s not as simple as facilitating immediate services or helping fill out the right forms. There’s research, troubleshooting, advocacy and a lot more, including who you know to call at 3 PM on a Friday when a service isn’t working out.

Understanding the Support Coordination Role

Support coordination is found, essentially, among those who need help executing their NDIS plans. Support coordinators help turn those categorized options into actual supports that benefit recipients daily.

But where do support coordinators start? With their clientele. It’s not just a matter of knowing what’s disability-based and what’s helpful, but also understanding the recipients’ goals and preferences, their living arrangements, what’s working and what’s not working. This nuance makes all the difference for recommendations later down the line.

For example, if one of a support coordinator’s recipients has a pet but is allergic to some animal fur, a recommendation toward animal therapy may not be appropriate. However, someone with long-term back pain through medical procedures might actually find more mental health benefits in service dogs than in talk therapy.

From there, they essentially build a blueprint. What must happen first? Who is a suitable provider and is actually capable of rendering efficient services? Is funding sufficient or will it have to be split into different categories for adequate support? These are not easy decisions that anyone can make. There are limited resources and wait lists to contend with, which is why bringing in someone who specializes in help for support makes the process easier for everyone involved.

Once a NDIS support coordinator learns the ins and outs of the NDIS plan in question, they’ll get down to business finding providers.

Searching and Vetting Providers

Finding disability service providers is not a process where one can pull out a directory, pick names and cross fingers. The quality varies tremendously; availability fluctuates and not every provider is suited for every participant.

Support coordinators have ongoing networks of prospective providers separated into various categories for service. They have a general idea of who’s looking for clients now, who has long wait lists for longer programs and who specializes in different disabilities or age groups. They also know who provides high-quality services consistently and who have red flags for new clients.

When searching for a quality provider, coordinators consider things that participants would likely not consider up front. How does this provider communicate? How do they respond to complaints? What’s their turnover? Will they work with an existing team?

They also take all the necessary first steps. They make the initial phone call, explain the situation, see who’s available and willing or able to provide quotes to satisfy the NDIS. This saves participants from having to reach out to hundreds of no-names who ultimately lead them nowhere.

Navigating Service Agreements

These agreements outline what services will be provided, how much they will cost and what happens if things don’t go according to plan (spoiler: sometimes nothing good).

These agreements are often complicated in language, but coordinators will review them with participants before they sign on any dotted lines, finding loopholes for ambiguous language or fees that contradict what’s been previously discussed.

They essentially serve as protection long before protection is needed. Participants may think that disreputable service providers are acting above board—but coordinators will empower their participants to see what’s at stake and flag anything unreasonable or unacceptable.

Protection like this matters more than people think. A poorly written service agreement could send a participant into a frenzy when they’re told they’re ineligible to switch services after no services were rendered or they’re disputing fees with another provider claiming it’s too late to stop services because they haven’t learned how to stop things on paper beforehand.

When Things Go Wrong

Life rarely goes according to plan. Providers pull services mid-operation, funds dry up quicker than anticipated, needs grow and conflicts arise regarding what was supposed to be rendered versus what happened.

This is where support coordinators step up. They mediate between conflicting parties; they pitch replacement services when providers pull out; they help bill when numbers don’t add up; they document concerns that must be noted during NDIS plan reviews.

The troubleshooting aspect is highly underrated. It’s not always feasible for people to jump from provider to provider until they find their niche. It’s difficult when expectations turn out to be wrong; coordinators help navigate without losing steam toward a goal.

Capacity Building

Finally, good support coordinators are not there to make their participants dependent on them but instead build their capacities over time to gain confidence in more natural settings moving forward.

This means having sit downs along the way to explain why certain actions will benefit them more as opposed to others; learning how to read their plans before going into meetings; understanding questioning fodder before meetings; giving them the tools they need, along with confidence, to ask for themselves instead of remaining silent while everything goes on around them.

The goal is for less coordination support with time, not more. Ultimately, as participants grow comfortable with the system, their funds and reliable resources, they’ll feel more comfortable down the line managing all on their own, or at least needing less intense support coordination.

Different Levels of Support Coordination

Not all support coordination is created equal; there are three levels funded through the NDIS for different situations.

Support Connection is the lightest, it’s primarily facilitation of connections, or necessary for a few months. Standard Support Coordination is ongoing facilitation once established, and maintenance of what comes next (problem-solving, execution). Specialist Support Coordination involves high risk circumstances that extend beyond the NDIS realm; it requires multiple systems involved or those whose complex needs require additional supportive services.

The higher level requested through someone’s plan indicates how complex their needs are and how much assistance they should receive in managing their supports. Participants may appeal for an adjusted level during their planning meetings if there’s been substantial change.

What Support Coordinators Don’t Do

Support Coordinators do not do certain things, primarily provide hands-on care and avoid decision-making facets that participants would otherwise like to own.

Support coordinators do not schedule day-to-day needs (that happens naturally with a roster and appropriate scheduling); they do not force anyone else to take on new clients if they’re at capacity.

Support coordinators work at the conceptualized level above where daily logistics operate; as long as supports are efficiently running, keeping track of minutia should not be supported through this level unless offered by access through other levels.

If anything, making support coordination work best comes from an effective level of communication from the start accompanied by well-meaning suggestions along the way. If something isn’t working, a weekly check-in isn’t taking place; appropriate expectations aren’t being set, the relationship will falter quickly.

Support participants can expect an efficient response time from support coordinators who are driven by success; support coordinators should always ask questions before making suggestions and give options, not just tell people what they need to do without explaining their reasoning why.

Ultimately this should be a collaborative relationship, not one-sided. Support participants know better than anyone how they want to live their lives; support coordinators know better than anyone how the NDIS operates, and how best to implement it practically for real life growth.

When people are invested in their roles, voicing wants and needs consistently, the ultimate transition between coordinated services will almost seamlessly blend into normal functioning expectations with valuable plans that render effective supports no matter what we’re doing in our daily lives.