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The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is described as insurance for the nation – insurance that’s helping to build inclusive communities for Australia’s 25 million residents and fund support for more than 500,000 Scheme participants.

A program of the size and scope of the NDIS requires a lot of different people to implement it, and it can be tricky to understand what they all do.

This article outlines five key roles in the NDIS and what they do to support you at different stages in your journey – from when you first discover the Scheme to when you have a plan reassessment.

NDIA planner

Who they are

A planner is a person who works for the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and is a delegated decision maker. They determine what funding you’ll receive in a plan.

What they do

AwarenessAfter you’ve gained access to the NDIS, you’ll be linked with an NDIA planner or Local Area Coordinator (LAC) to develop a plan in relation to your goals.
PlanningIf you’re initially linked with a LAC, after they’ve met with you at a planning meeting, gathered your information and submitted it to the NDIA, the LAC and the NDIA planner will collaborate by discussing the information gathered and reviewing any progress reports, quotes, and recommendations provided to determine plan funding. The NDIA planner will also approve your plan. A planner can play the role of a LAC as well. For example, many clients with more complicated supports deal directly with a planner instead of a LAC.
Using a planNDIA planners can help you to understand and implement your plan if you don’t have a LAC.
Plan reassessmentNDIA planners conduct participant check-ins, run plan reassessment meetings, and approve plans.

How to access an NDIA planner

If you decide you don’t need a LAC to apply for access to the NDIS, once you’ve met access requirements, the NDIA will either allocate you to a LAC who will send you an invitation to a planning meeting, or you may be allocated directly to an NDIA planner. If you’re allocated to a LAC, you can’t opt out to work with an NDIA planner instead.  

Local Area Coordinator (LAC)

Who they are  

Local Area Coordinators (LACs) are people with a deep understanding and knowledge of disability and its impact on individuals, families, and carers.

What they do

Pre-access to the NDISLACs hold a range of discussions to help you understand and access the NDIS. They talk to people who haven’t heard of the Scheme, who want to know more, or who want help applying.

If you’re thinking about applying for access to the NDIS and are aged seven to 64 years, the first step you can take is to contact a LAC. This is completely up to you.

If you’re not eligible for the NDIS or don’t want to apply, a LAC can link you to services in the community (like community centres and volunteer transport services) to help you participate in day-to-day life.
PlanningOnce you have access to the NDIS, your LAC will contact you to conduct a planning meeting where they will gather information to start creating a plan. They’ll send the plan they draft to an NDIA planner for consideration, and the planner will either approve it or recommend changes.

LACs cannot approve NDIS plans, but they can put forward recommendations in a draft. They can also connect you mainstream services to help you participate in day-to-day life.
Using a planIf a plan is approved and you don’t agree with what’s in it, or it doesn’t meet your needs, your LAC can help you to identify your review rights and next steps.

A LAC can also help you to understand and implement your plan.
Plan reassessmentA LAC will conduct a plan reassessment meeting where you and they will reflect on what’s working well for you, what you’d like to change, and how you can use your NDIS plan to achieve your plan goals.

They can help you prepare for a plan reassessment. If you don’t know what your goals are before your plan reassessment, you can develop new goals with your LAC in the meeting.

How to access a LAC

Click here to find the closest LAC office to you. There is zero out-of-pocket cost to access their services.

Early Childhood Partner (ECP)

Who they are

Early Childhood Partners (ECPs) deliver the early childhood approach and are funded by the NDIA. The NDIA’s ECPs have teams of professionals with experience and clinical expertise in working with young children with developmental delay or disability, as well as their families and carers.

What they do

AwarenessECPs can connect a child, their family and carers to local mainstream and community services like playgroups, childcare providers, parent support groups, education options and recreation. They may also provide practical information about a child’s development.

ECPs use observations and information from assessments or reports to understand the impact of a child’s delay or disability – but they don’t complete assessments for diagnosis.

They can identify if a child is likely to benefit from early support and, where appropriate, provide a short period of early supports to help a child and their family work towards goals.

ECPs can also assist a child’s parent or carer to apply to access the NDIS on the child’s behalf. They can help put together information and evidence to help work out if a child is eligible to access the Scheme.
PlanningOnce a child and their family have access to the NDIS, the ECP will contact them to conduct a planning meeting where they will gather information to start creating a plan.

They’ll send the plan they draft to an NDIA planner for consideration, and the planner will either approve it or recommend changes.
Using a planIf a plan is approved and a child’s family doesn’t agree with what’s in it or it doesn’t meet their needs, an ECP can help them to identify their review rights and next steps.

An ECP can also help to understand and implement a plan and connect a child, their family, and carers to mainstream services.
Plan reassessmentECPs conduct plan reassessment meetings where they reflect on what’s working well for a child, their family, and carers, what they’d like to change, and how they can use their NDIS plan to achieve their goals.

They can help prepare for a plan reassessment. If the goals are unclear before a plan reassessment, new goals can be developed in the reassessment meeting.

ECPs also conduct participant check-ins.

How to access an ECP

If you have concerns about your child’s development, you can first speak to your doctor, child health nurse, or other health professional. They’ll help you work out what supports you and your child may need, and they may connect you with an early childhood partner.

Support Coordinators

Who they are

A support coordinator is a plan-funded support delivered by NDIS providers (both registered and non-registered).

While a LAC is a starting point if you want to request access to the NDIS, seek help to gather information, or have a plan implemented, if you require extra support, that’s when you may turn to a support coordinator.

A LAC is free, whereas a support coordinator is funded in an NDIS plan and has a stronger focus on capacity building.

What they do

AwarenessA support coordinator comes into the picture later.
PlanningA support coordinator comes into the picture later.
Using a planIf a plan is approved and you don’t agree with what’s in it, or it doesn’t meet your needs, your support coordinator can help you to identify your review rights and next steps.

A support coordinator may assist you to:
• understand and use your NDIS plan to pursue your goals
• connect with NDIS-registered and unregistered providers, community supports, and government services
• build your confidence and skills to coordinate and leverage your supports
Plan reassessmentIf you have a support coordinator, they’ll support you in a plan reassessment meeting where you’ll reflect on what’s working well for you, what you’d like to change, and how you can use your NDIS plan to achieve your goals. They can help you prepare for the meeting.

If you think your goals need to be reviewed before your plan reassessment, you can develop new goals with your support coordinator.

How to access a support coordinator:

To access a support coordinator, you’ll need to have support coordination funded in your NDIS plan. A good NDIA planner or LAC will automatically identify this need when your plan is being developed – however, you may need to request this service to ensure you receive appropriate supports.

If you initially planned with a LAC and you have a plan approved that includes support coordination, your LAC will contact you and ask if you have chosen a support coordinator who you want to work with. If you haven’t, they can assist you to find one.

Here’s some information about finding a support coordinator.

Plan Managers

Who they are

A plan manager is a provider that supports you to manage funding in your NDIS plan. My Plan Manager is Australia’s largest (and leading!) plan management provider.

What My Plan Manager does

AwarenessWe come into the picture later, but you may see us out in the local community explaining how we can support you by taking plan management off your plate and letting you focus on what’s important – growing capacity to achieve your plan goals.
PlanningOnce you have access to the NDIS, your NDIA planner or LAC will discuss plan management with you in your planning meeting. If you tell them you want to be plan managed, they’ll put that forward to for approval by the NDIS.
Using a planAt My Plan Manager, we process your invoices, reduce time-consuming paperwork, and support you to quickly and simply track your NDIS plan spending. We also work with you to maximise your NDIS plan and ensure it includes the important items that really make a difference to achieving your goals.

We have a dedicated team of NDIS experts who can advise you on what supports, services and providers you can access through your funding, giving you the confidence and certainty to use your plan.

We can also help you to find the right providers and, if ever you happen to run out of funding in one category, we can show you the different categories you may be able to claim from.

We can help you to budget your plan to ensure you have supports in place for its entire duration.

And we check that providers aren’t charging you more than the rates set out in the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (formerly known as the NDIS Price Guide), which lists the maximum prices that registered providers can charge for specific supports.
Plan reassessmentHere’s our advice on how to prepare for a plan reassessment.

How to access a plan manager

An NDIA planner or LAC will first discuss plan management in a planning meeting once you have been approved to access the NDIS. If you tell them you want to be plan managed, they’ll put that forward for approval by the NDIS.

If you’re already funded for plan management and would like to join My Plan Manager, click here.

If you’re not happy with your existing plan manager, you have every right to change. Click here to switch to My Plan Manager.

If you have any questions, we’ll happily assist. You can email us at [email protected] or call us on 1800 861 272 from 8am-6pm (SA time), Monday to Friday to speak with our friendly team.

Finding a service provider that suits your needs can be a lengthy process, but once you find the right person/business it can change your life and help you achieve your goals faster.

At My Plan Manager, we like to keep the choice and control firmly in the hands of our clients, so we don’t like to recommend providers. But we can definitely help you to find all the information you need to make your own decisions about providers.

One of the best things about being plan managed is that you can use any provider, whether they are registered with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) or not. This means you could search on Google or Yellow Pages to find a mainstream provider, like a local cleaner. This might mean you can negotiate cheaper prices. Or you may prefer a provider that is familiar with the NDIS.  

My Plan Manager has sourced the best of the many NDIS provider search engines and support worker online platforms to help you find service providers and workers in your local community. 

NDIS provider directories

We have found that there are some great NDIS provider directories that can connect you with providers in your area, both registered and unregistered. Some of these handy platforms will even give you free assistance to help you to find a provider that will work best for you. 

Clickability, Disability Support Guide, Karista and My Care Space are free online directories where you can search for NDIS providers, both registered and non-registered. Simply choose the type of service or product you are looking for and pop in your postcode to be able to see their extensive list of providers in your local area. You can also see what other people have thought of a provider’s service through their reviews.

Clickability Logo

Clickability offers free over the phone or email support to help you find providers in your local area. When searching for providers you can use additional filters such as access method and age group to find the right provider for you.

Disability Support Guide Logo

Disability Support Guide offer their free online directory Australia-wide. They are also a print and online publication about all things NDIS where you can find a wealth of information.

Karitsa Logo

Karista allows you to seek more information and pricing from providers that you may like to use and, if you wish to, pass your details on to the provider for a call back.

My Care Space Logo

MyCareSpace is an easy-to-use search engine with the ability to find both registered and unregistered providers in your local area. You can choose a distance from your postcode to find providers closer to your home. Or if youd like some assistance, you can tell MyCareSpace what service you are looking for and they can do the searching for you.

Hire your own support workers

Hireup, Mable and Mobility are platforms where you can hire and manage your own support workers. By using these platforms you are in control of choosing who you want and managing their shifts. The prices charged are usually lower than the NDIS price guide.

hireup Logo

Hireup is simple and easy to use. You can find local support workers in your local community and pay for them directly with your NDIS funding. Hireup workers are all paid at a standard rate set by Hireup which are well below the NDIS price limits and the support workers don’t require their own ABN. Hireup are NDIS registered and can work with all NDIS participants.

Mable logo

Mable’s platform is also user-friendly and helps you to make connections with workers in your community. Mable users can find workers for both the disability and aged care sector. On Mable you set what price you would like to pay your support worker per hour. Mable is not NDIS-registered, which means they can only work with you if you are self or plan managed.

Mobility’s platform is available to anyone in the community wanting to access services, with babysitters, support workers, aged care workers and therapists all listing their services. Workers on can decide what they charge but it has to be above the award rates and can not be higher than the NDIS price guide limit.

See what others think

Some of the options listed above show reviews from other clients, which is a great way to get more information and learn from the experience of others.

Kinora logo

My Plan Manager has created an online community called Kinora, where people with disability and their support network can connect with each other. You can ask questions or share thoughts with the Kinora community, including about service providers. You can also respond to questions and share your knowledge and experience. Kinora is built on inclusiveness, kindness and support, and we make sure it’s a safe space, free from judgement or negative behaviour. Find out more about Kinora.

Getting set up for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plan management is easy – you just need to ask your NDIA planner or Local Area Coordinator (LAC) to set up your plan as plan managed and include plan management funding in your budget at your initial planning meeting or review meeting. If your plan has already started you can contact the NDIS to ask for a light touch review.

You can access our guide to plan management here.

Getting your first NDIS plan

This is the perfect time to learn about plan management and how it can help you once you have your plan. Here are some tips for getting your NDIS plan if you haven’t applied for the NDIS yet.

Once you start the planning process you’ll need to do some preparation – My Plan Manager’s budget calculator can help you to work out how much funding you may need. When you attend your planning meeting with your NDIA planner or LAC, to have plan management included in your plan all you need to do is ask. Plan management is free to you and your planner will include funding in your plan to cover our fees.

Getting ready for your next plan

Your current plan is about to finish and you now have to reflect on what went well in your last plan and what you might like to change. You might want to consider what providers you want to use in next plan to achieve your goals. Being plan managed will give you access to all providers and businesses across Australia. If you want to be plan managed simply ask your planner or LAC to include funding for plan management in your budget.

Part way through a plan

Have an NDIS plan that is agency or self managed?

If you’re mid-way through your plan and you’re agency or self managed but want to make the switch to plan management, you will have to contact your planner or LAC and request they do a ‘light touch’ review to add plan management.

Already have an NDIS plan with plan management included?

If plan management funding is included in your NDIS plan, you can go ahead and sign up with a plan manager. My Plan Manager offers quick and easy online sign-up. You’ll need to fill in all your details, then read and accept our service agreement. You can also sign up over the phone with one of our Welcome team members. It’s really helpful if you can give us a copy of your NDIS plan so we can make sure your budget allocations are right when we set up your account.

Switching from another plan manager?

If you are switching from another plan manager during the dates of your current plan, there are some steps you need to take first:

  1. Contact the NDIA on 1800 800 110 to advise them that you want to switch to My Plan Manager.
  2. Contact your current plan manager and ask them to cancel their service booking and reduce their available funds to zero.

Then, to sign up with My Plan Manager: Call us and we’ll get you set up over the phone or quickly and easily register online.

By Belle Owen

There is plenty of information on how to start your National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plan off right, setting up supports and allocating budgets. There’s also plenty of advice on what to do when your NDIS plan is coming to an end, but what about those of us that are somewhere in the middle?

Here are our top tips:

Do a halfway health check on your plan:

Ideally, around the six-month mark of your plan (or year mark if it’s a two-year plan) you should be around halfway through your total budget. There may be reasons for being off the mark, like larger home modifications or expensive technology purchased in one half of the plan, but generally you want to have about half of the money left to receive consistent and ongoing supports. Spending too much is a problem – but so is not spending enough! Your plan is designed to allow you to reach your potential and live your best life, so make the most of it. If you have a plan manager, they should be helping you with a budget plan that gets you as much value from your plan as possible.

Make use of the tools available:

Use technology to keep up to date with your spending as it happens: many plan managers offer a client portal, and clients of My Plan Manager also have access to a mobile phone app. Ideally you want to be able to view your total amounts, the amount you have spent and show you past invoices so that you can plan for future spends. Monitoring over the life of your plan keeps the choice and control in your hands. If you don’t have access to an app or client portal, get regular updates from your plan manager or the NDIS portal.

If possible, when you plan or review your spending, keep a small percentage aside as an ‘emergency’ fund to help you avoid running out. You can use My Plan Manager’s budget calculator (free for all NDIS participants to use) to help you to work out your spending and make sure you won’t overspend. If you’re with My Plan Manager, our budget conversations and milestone checks will also help keep you on track.

Keep up to date with NDIS announcements:

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) makes frequent changes to rules around spending, and regularly updates their price guide. These announcements can impact the amount of support you receive and it’s a good idea to stay informed.

Following the NDIS on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter is one of the simplest ways to make sure you’re in the know. There are also great resources like the Clickablog and The Growing Space which break down these often-confusing rulings into easy to understand language. The My Plan Manager blog is also updated regularly with useful information. If you are confused about any NDIA announcements, your plan manager should be able to help you to understand the information.

Choosing your supports:

If you’re doing a halfway health check and are feeling concerned about your budgets, there are some ways you can be more creative with your spending. NDIS price guides are a maximum amount you can be charged for a specific support, service or product. If you can find a similar service that will charge under the price guide amount, you can make your NDIS money go further. Try searching on Clickability! For mainstream services like cooking or gardening, self or plan managed participants can use any service provider, not just NDIS-registered ones. Check with the NDIA or your plan manager if you’re unsure, but if you’re able to pay out of pocket and be reimbursed, you can avoid disclosing that you’re an NDIS participant and can sometimes receive cheaper services. Be sure to compare before you commit to any providers.

But… what if something unavoidable happens and your plan will no longer meet your needs?

Sometimes things just happen, and your budget won’t be enough to last until the end of your plan. This is why it’s so important to keep an eye on your spending. If this happens, contact the NDIA or your LAC to let them know things have changed. If you’re plan managed, your plan manager should help you to go through this process. You need to do this as soon as you become aware: don’t leave it until the last minute.

See the NDIS website’s page, “I have a significant or urgent change in circumstances, and my plan no longer meets my needs”.

And if you end up with the opposite problem – money left at the end of your plan – then you need to read our other blog article, which will tell you exactly what to do!


Belle Owen is a writer, consultant and disability advocate with over ten years experience living and travelling overseas. She is passionate about social justice, human rights and disability representation in popular culture.

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My Plan Manager acknowledges the objectives of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

My Plan Manager acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to Elders both past and present.
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