Billable Hours: What's Within and Out of Scope for the Support Coordinator Role

If a Support Coordinator has consent to act on a participant’s behalf when contacting the NDIS about their plan, the time spent completing these activities is billable time. This includes time spent on hold. 

But it’s best practice to manage this time efficiently. For example, while on hold, you could complete other relevant documentation or tasks related to that participant’s support – sending emails, writing case notes, etc.

This ensures that the participant’s limited Support Coordination hours are used in the most productive and efficient way possible. 

No. Transporting a participant to a GP appointment and/or attending that appointment with them is not billable time as part of a Support Coordination service. These activities fall outside the scope and professional boundaries of the Support Coordinator role. 

If a participant requires this level of assistance, your role is to identify and link appropriate supports to meet that need.

This might include helping the participant use their NDIS funding flexibly to engage a Support Worker for transport and to assist the person to attend the appointment or connecting them with a community transport service. 

A Support Coordinator’s role is to focus on building the participant’s capacity and connections, not providing direct support themselves. 

There is an important distinction between a Support Coordinator engaging, managing and rostering independent support workers on behalf of a participant and supporting a participant to build their own capacity to take on these tasks independently. 

A Support Coordinator’s role is to build capacity, not to create ongoing reliance on the Support Coordinator to manage a participant’s supports. When you are actively working with a participant to develop the skills and confidence to engage, manage and roster their own support workers, this is considered a billable activity, as it is a time-limited intervention with a focus on capacity building. 

But if a participant requires ongoing support to engage and manage independent support workers and is unlikely to develop the capacity to perform these tasks themselves, it would be more appropriate to connect the participant with a service provider that can take responsibility for these activities on their behalf. 

If a participant chooses to leave a Support Coordination service, the provider should already have a clause in their service agreement that clearly outlines the required notice period – for example, two weeks’ notice.

During this notice period, it is best practice to ask the participant whether they would like your service to complete a handover to their new Support Coordination provider.

If the participant provides consent, the time spent preparing and carrying out a thorough handover to the new provider is considered billable time, as it directly supports the participant’s continuity of service. 

Activities such as creating email summaries of meetings with a participant’s support network, writing case notes and completing action plans or risk assessments are all billable activities.

These tasks form part of how a Support Coordinator documents and evidences the support provided to a participant.

Recording this information is not only good practice but also a professional responsibility, ensuring transparency and accountability in how participants are supported. 

If the activity relates to direct service provision or broader organisational responsibilities, such as creating an emergency disaster management plan or a site safety checklist, then no, this would not be considered billable time for Support Coordination. 

These types of documents form part of an organisation’s policies, procedures and compliance framework, rather than activities that directly build a participant’s capacity or support the implementation of their NDIS plan. 

If referring to emergency callouts outside normal working hours, then no – this is not a billable activity and falls outside the scope and professional boundaries of the Support Coordinator role. 

Your responsibility is to build the participant’s capacity to have appropriate supports and plans in place to manage these situations independently, rather than creating a reliance on you to respond directly in an emergency. 

This includes helping the participant to develop a safety plan or linking them with a service or support person who can assist in creating one, ensuring they have the right strategies and contacts in place to manage emergencies effectively. 

If a participant is under an adult guardian who has the authority to make decisions on their behalf (similar to the role of a nominee), then communicating with the guardian on the participant’s behalf, with the participant’s consent, to discuss their support needs is billable time. This forms part of the Support Coordinator’s role in coordinating and communicating supports that align with the participant’s goals and NDIS plan. 

But if a participant requires support to apply for or participate in tribunal processes (for example, lodging an NCAT application), it would generally be more appropriate to link the participant with a formal advocacy service.

Advocates are best placed to assist with tribunal matters, ensuring the participant receives independent and specialised support through that process. 

If a formal advocate is not available or does not have capacity to support a participant through this process, then it is advisable to link the participant with a community legal service or other community service that may be able to assist them.

The NDIS provides only high-level guidance about the activities a Support Coordinator can claim for. It does not specify the exact tasks involved in each activity or place time limits on how long these activities should take. This is particularly so for non-face-to-face work such as writing case notes, action plans or risk assessments. 

In practice, this means you should claim for the actual, reasonable time it takes to complete these activities, ensuring the time billed accurately reflects the support provided to the participant. 

Given the limited number of Support Coordination hours typically available in a participant’s plan, it’s considered best practice to have efficient systems and processes in place. This includes Support Coordination Software to streamline your documentation, reduce administrative time and clearly evidence how the participant has been supported. 

It really depends on what activities are being completed within that two-hour period. For example, time spent reading the behaviour support plan, discussing it with relevant service providers and ensuring that those implementing the plan have the skills and understanding to execute the strategies to keep the participant safe from harm are all legitimate billable activities. 

But if a Support Coordinator is taking two full hours purely to read a single behaviour support plan, this may indicate that the plan is overly detailed or complex to the point of being difficult for providers to interpret or implement. In such cases, it would be reasonable to raise this with the behaviour support practitioner and suggest that the report be refined or simplified to ensure it remains practical and useful for those supporting the participant day to day. 

Ultimately, the time billed should always be proportionate and reasonable, reflecting the genuine work involved in understanding and supporting implementation of the plan.