What is Support coordination?

Also known as: Coordination of Supports

Support coordination is a funded NDIS support in which a coordinator helps a participant understand and use their plan: finding and connecting providers, negotiating service agreements, building the participant’s capacity to manage their own supports, and resolving problems when supports break down.

It is funded under Capacity Building, not Core, and comes in three levels: Support Connection, Support Coordination, and Specialist Support Coordination for participants with complex or high-risk circumstances.

Coordinators bill in time increments against a budget that is usually tight, so accurate time capture against the right participant and the right support item is the whole commercial discipline of the role. Unbilled coordination time is the most common way a coordination business quietly loses money.

Related terms

Capacity BuildingCapacity Building is the NDIS budget category funding supports that build a participant’s skills and independence rather than assisting with daily tasks. It covers therapy, employment supports, improved living arrangements, and support coordination. Unlike Core, funding is allocated to specific sub-categories and cannot be moved between them.Service agreementA service agreement is the written agreement between an NDIS participant and a provider setting out what supports will be delivered, how much they cost, and the terms covering cancellations, changes and ending the arrangement. The NDIS Practice Standards expect one for each participant, agreed before supports begin.Support item numberA support item number is the code identifying a specific NDIS support for claiming, in the form 01_011_0107_1_1. It encodes the support category, the item, and the registration group. Every claimed line must carry a valid item number that matches the support actually delivered and sits within the participant’s funded budget.ParticipantA participant is a person whose access to the NDIS has been approved and who holds an individual, funded NDIS plan. The term is used in place of “client” or “patient” throughout the scheme, reflecting that the person directs their own supports rather than receiving a service allocated to them.

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