Work Pathways and Funding Clarity: Navigating NDIS and IEA Employment Supports

The key is not choosing a single “right” pathway but understanding where the participant is right now and what they need next.

Support Coordinators should assess:

• The participant’s goals and what employment actually looks like for them
• Current capacity, confidence, skills and independence
• Work readiness and previous experience

A practical lens is:

• If the participant needs skill development and capacity building, the NDIS is the starting point
• If they are ready to find and maintain a job, Inclusive Employment Australia (IEA) is more appropriate

In some situations, a combined or staged approach is most effective, where NDIS builds capacity, and IEA supports job outcomes.

Finding and Keeping a Job within the NDIS, is designed to support capacity building so the person is ready to explore employment, not an actual job placement.

In practice, it can be used to:

• Build communication, social, and workplace skills
• Develop routines, reliability, and independence
• Provide on-the-job support if a person’s disability and functional capacity impacts on their ability to perform their employment role.

If a participant is already engaged with IEA or employed, Finding and Keeping a Job supports should:

• Complement, not duplicate, IEA supports
• Focus on disability-related barriers and reduced functional capacity that impacts on a person retaining their employment or progression

This ensures both systems work together effectively rather than overlapping.

Refer to these resources on the NDIS website:

• NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits – Capacity Building – Finding and Keeping a Job
• Finding, keeping and changing jobs
• Delivery capacity building employment assistance

In practice, Finding and Keeping a Job capacity building funding can absolutely support maintaining employment, where the need is linked to the impact of the participant’s disability. This may include:

• Building workplace skills (communication, behaviour, routine, problem-solving)
• Supporting adjustment to a new role or workplace expectations
• Providing strategies to manage disability-related barriers on the job

Key limitations to be aware of:

1. Capacity building vs employment outcomes

Finding and Keeping a Job funding must focus on building the participant’s capacity, not:

• Job placement
• Recruitment activities
• Employer responsibilities

These sit within mainstream employment systems like IEA.

2. No duplication of supports

If a participant is engaged with an IEA provider:

• Finding and Keeping a Job funding should complement, not duplicate, those services
• It should focus specifically on disability-related barriers, not general job search or employment support

3. Must be reasonable and necessary

All supports must:

• Be directly related to the barriers a participant experiences due to the impact and reduced functional capacity caused by their disability
• Support their employment NDIS plan goals
• Demonstrate value and effectiveness

Supports that fall outside this (e.g. general workplace tasks not linked to the impact of a participant’s disability) should not be funded.

4. Support Coordinator role boundaries

Generally, Support Coordinators do not deliver Finding and Keeping a Job supports. However the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits state “A Support Coordinator who has an existing relationship with a participant can contribute to employment success by ensuring the voice of the participant is heard in choosing employment options, helping a participant to understand their obligations to an employer and their new workplace and coordinating supporting services to facilitate their ongoing employment.” The funding for this support would come from the Level 2: Coordination of Supports funding not Finding and Keeping a Job capacity building funding.

Support Coordinators:

• Research and facilitate the right supports and service providers
• Monitor outcomes and effectiveness
• Ensure funding is used appropriately and aligned to a participant’s NDIS goals

Simple way to explain it in practice:

• If the support is helping the participant build the skills to keep the job → Finding and Keeping a Job funding is appropriate
• If the support is about getting the job or employer engagement → that sits with IEA

This distinction is critical to avoid duplication, stay within funding rules, and ensure the participant receives the right support from the right system at the right time.

The participant directs how funding is used, supported by informed decision-making.

Support Coordinators ensure appropriateness by:

• Reviewing service agreements and proposed supports
• Checking alignment with NDIS plan goals
• Ensuring supports are reasonable, necessary, and value for money
• Monitoring outcomes and adjusting supports if needed

A useful check is to ask - Is this support building capacity (NDIS) or delivering an employment outcome (IEA)? This helps maintain clear funding boundaries.

The NDIA is increasingly focused on outcomes, not just activities.

Useful evidence includes:

• Progress toward employment goals
• Functional improvements (e.g. confidence, independence, work readiness)
• Description of supports delivered and their impact
• Barriers and how they were addressed

Reports should clearly show:

• What has changed for the participant, and
• How supports contributed to that change

Strong evidence is gathered and built over time, not just when there is a review of a participant’s NDIS plan.

Effective strategies include:

• Regularly collecting provider progress reports
• Tracking measurable outcomes (e.g. increase in hours worked, skills gained, resilience, independence etc.)
• Including participant and family statements
• Using assessments where relevant (e.g. Occupational Therapy Functional Capacity Assessment or an OT update to demonstrate progress)

When presenting evidence:

• Link outcomes directly to funded supports
• Demonstrate what is working and what is not
• Clearly justify future support needs
• Focus on functional impact and progression toward employment goals

This aligns with the NDIA’s increasing emphasis on evidence-based planning and outcomes-focused reviews.