Your client’s access request to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is successful. What next?

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been discussing National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) access and eligibility on Kinora – our free online platform for NDIS participants, their families and supports.

A question that frequently pops up from clients is ‘I’m in the NDIS – what's next for me?'. Here’s a simple answer.

Often after a person is approved to access the NDIS, they will receive an invitation to a pre-planning meeting with a Local Area Coordinator – or LAC. LACs help many people with disability to develop, review and implement their plans. 

During the 90-minute catch-up, the LAC will gather information and work with the person to determine what to put in their plan. 

Their first plan will set the tone for the rest of their journey in the NDIS and how their budgets are structured in the following years. That’s why it’s important to prepare for this meeting. 

How a person with disability can prepare for their pre-planning meeting 

If a person receives an invitation to a pre-planning meeting with a LAC, they will also receive information to help them prepare to prepare for the meeting. When preparing, they may want to consider:  

• what current supports they have in place – like therapies and support workers; 
• how they rely on other people day-to-day, including friends and family; 
• past therapeutic recommendations, and what they want to achieve from their plan; and 
• if there is any assistive technology or any home modifications that would support them to grow their capacity or make their life easier. 

Making a list of things a person wants to potentially claim for from the NDIS can help the LAC in their assessment. When writing this list, they may want to ask ‘are the items on it reasonable and necessary?’. If the answer is yes, they can keep them in.  

Blocking time out to answer these questions can help people to prepare and achieve better plan outcomes. They can ask their current providers to help them, or even to join in their pre-planning meeting.

For example, one of our Kinora community members has a daughter who is on the autism spectrum. The clinical psychologist who diagnosed her daughter specialises in supporting children on the spectrum and, by joining the pre-planning call, they were able to suggest many inclusions and goals that our community member may not otherwise have thought of.   

We are here to help 

If your client has a question about applying for the NDIS or the pre-planning phase, they can log on to Kinora to connect with a coach, who can point them in the right direction.  

On Kinora, people with disability can: 

• tap into free expertise from coaches, and a large number of resources to simplify the Scheme and make their NDIS path clearer and easier; 
• be part of a community of people with disability, their supporters and service providers; 
• unpack important topics like how to set goals to maximise funding, and what kind of spends the Scheme will cover; and
• identify and connect to service providers in their local area and get detailed information about their services. 

For service providers, Kinora can open your services up to new clients. This can be done through:  

• a customised business profile and service listings (describing what you do in detail) on Kinora that service users can search in Kinora by keyword or service category; 
• answering questions from the Kinora community; and 
• taking booking requests for your services.   

To learn more about Kinora, and the value it can add to your business, click here.