Support Coordinators constantly need to manage and track their time when providing services to NDIS participants. We reveal what you can do to navigate this challenging environment.
By Mary Ingerton, Managing Director at Support Coordination Academy.
There is never enough time.
For Support Coordinators, that saying regularly rings true.
You are operating in a demanding landscape, balancing the need to adequately support participants while having to manage NDIS funding constraints.
The reality is the NDIS assessment of a participant’s need for Support Coordination often leads to inconsistent allocation of hours for this service.
More so, the assessment does not always account for the complex barriers a participant may be experiencing or the intensive level of Support Coordination services that are potentially required.
We understand your concerns.
So, we’ve created this insightful article that details what you can do to stay ahead of the game.
As we’ve already touched on, the current NDIS assessment of a participant’s support needs creates challenges for Support Coordinators due to the limited allocation of hours often not accounting for:
What do you do about it?
It starts with a proactive approach.
Despite these challenges, Support Coordinators have a professional responsibility to manage the limited hours available.
A Support Coordination provider must have clear systems in place to ensure:
When first accepting a referral to work with a participant, a provider must ensure it has systems in place to gather enough information to assess:
If a provider chooses to engage a participant with highly complex support needs with insufficient Support Coordination hours, they need to agree on a proactive strategy to manage the limited hours available.
This could involve supporting the participant to submit an NDIS change of situation form and using the limited hours to gather evidence to support the need for additional Support Coordination hours.
When a crisis occurs, a Support Coordinator’s assessment and planning skills come into play.
They must assess how many hours are available and how long the hours will last, considering the intense level of support required and the time it takes the NDIS to respond.
The key is to assess when an NDIS change of situation form needs to be submitted:
It is worth mentioning that notifying the NDIS and gathering evidence to substantiate a participant’s support needs can happen concurrently.
A Support Coordinator needs to plan ahead and be as proactive as possible to ensure there are enough hours to support a participant when a crisis occurs.
When supporting a participant through a review process, a Support Coordinator must provide evidence of how they will add value to a participant.
This includes how they will support a participant to build their capacity and increase the resilience of their support network. So, in effect, empowering a participant to achieve their life goals.
When Support Coordinators write their reports for the NDIS, they need to provide evidence of:
Undoubtably, managing the limited hours available to you is challenging.
While there is no easy answer to ‘beating the clock’, it is clear that having a proactive approach and being as prepared as possible for changing circumstances are vital requirements to performing your role to the best of your ability.
Do you have any questions about this important topic? Or do you require other assistance as a Support Coordinator? Then contact us today.
To help you to build your skills, Endeavour Foundation has partnered with Support Coordination Academy to offer free online professional learning sessions for Support Coordinators.
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Support Coordination Academy provides essential training and resources for Support Coordinators across Australia.