Support Coordination
Walking alongside you to achieve your goals.Support Coordination at Forsight
Our team will put your needs first to help you move toward the quality of life you desire. Our services are available for people in Sydney and across New South Wales.
Our experienced team have an in depth understanding of the reputations of companies and services currently available to NDIS participants to ensure our clients get the most suitable supports for them without having to wait for long periods of time.
Contact our team
If you would like to find out how our friendly Support Coordinators can help you, please call our Support Office on (02) 8892 1000 or email us on contactus@forsight.org.au
What is Support Coordination?
Support Coordination aims to build the capacity of a person with a disability to live independently as possible.
Often, it is time-limited support that will help equip participants with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage their NDIS funds independently in the future.
Who can be funded for support coordination:
- People with complex and high needs
- People on their first NDIS plan
- During a major life transition, such as moving into supported accommodation or moving from school to work for the first time
- Lack of informal supports (such as family) to help manage a person’s NDIS plan
Services Support Coordinators provide:
- Assess the funding and services available to you, including mainstream, community, informal, and provider options;
- Help you to choose your preferred support options or providers
- Negotiate your preferred services and prices, as well as develop service agreements and create service bookings with preferred providers;
- Arrange any assessments required to determine the funding available to you
- Help decide on a budget for each support type
- Help participants to understand their personal responsibilities under service agreements, resolve problems or issues that arise, and change or end service agreements
What do support coordinators do?
A support coordinator can help you to develop knowledge, experience and connections with your community and extended systems of support.
When building your supports, a support coordinator will:
- Work with you to understand plan funding and its purpose
- Understand your level of confidence and skills, and help you identify what you want from services
- Develop and design support solutions to meet the outcomes of your NDIS plan
A support coordinator can assist you to identify and consider a wide range of support options in your community
A support coordinator can coach you through challenges that come up and help you prepare for your review by reporting on what outcomes you have achieved as you’ve indicated in your NDIS plan.
Examples of how a support coordinator can help you
A high school leaver has turned 18 and decides she wants to move out of her parents’ home for the first time to gain some more independence. Her parents start to look into Supported Independent Living group accommodation with her. During school, the participant has expressed she wants to start working in an office.
How can a support coordinator help?
- A support coordinator can work together with the client and their family to determine what the client wants in their home (e.g. location, day programs, and facilities surrounding the area).
- Following this, they can provide them a list of choices of suitable accommodation providers based on their criteria.
- To support the participant’s goals for employment, the support coordinator can look into options that will help support her employment journey. They can recommend applying for School Leavers’ Employment Supports or provide options for skill-building programs.
A man sets his NDIS goal to improve his communication skills so he can communicate with his parents in a more robust way. He does not know where to start, what services are suitable for him, and how to use the funding in his NDIS plan.
How can a support coordinator help?
A support coordinator can connect him to relevant allied health services, considering their credibility, wait times, and how accessible they are to the client (e.g. based on funding, location, and proximity). In this case, the support coordinator would look into speech therapy services.
Following deciding on a service, the support coordinator will continually monitor the use of his funds and check in to see if he is satisfied with the services provided.
They will continually work with him to understand his needs, see how his goals are tracking and whether or not his supports of suitable for him.
A woman receives $30,000 of Core Supports funding, but currently uses half that amount. If she doesn’t use all her funding, she may lose that funding following her next NDIS plan meeting that is in four months.
She lives in group accommodation and sees the same Active Support Workers weekly. She has expressed she would like to see and meet new people. She goes to work three times a week and on her days off, she tends to stay home. She loves getting creative and painting pots with her key worker.
How can a support coordinator help?
- A support coordinator will understand the needs and goals of the client. They know what different categories of funding can be used for.
- In this instance, they will look into how the woman can maximise her funds based on her goals. Core Supports funding can be used for assistance with daily life, transport, consumables, and assistance with social and community participation.
- To meet new people, the support coordinator may recommend funding for support workers from an external company to go out into the community and engage in different activities.
- Since the client enjoys getting creative, the support coordinator can recommend her options for classes that can build upon her art skills, like painting.
Don’t have Support Coordination funding in your NDIS plan?
Below describes the standard procedure for applying for Support Coordination funding.
You can apply for Support Coordination funding at your NDIS planning meeting using the following steps:
- Determine your situation: You will need to demonstrate how this funding will help you reach your NDIS goals.
- Contact a Local Area Coordinator or the NDIS to set up your NDIS planning meeting. You will explain your situation to them and they will help guide you through the next steps.
- Attending your NDIS planning meeting: Ensure you bring appropriate documentation to help support your case.
- The outcome of your request: It can take up to 3 months to assess and process your application. If you are approved for Support Coordination funding, you will receive a database of support coordinators from the NDIS to choose from.
For more details, please contact our Support Office on (02) 8892 1000 and ask to speak to our Support Coordination Team!