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About the NDIS | How we can help | SchemeWise Support Coordination | NDIS Plan Reviews
National Disability Insurance Scheme
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been set up as a new way to manage funding in the disability sector. Instead of providers receiving funds an NDIS participant is approved funding if they have met the access requirements. 
The NDIS is managed by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) whom appoint Local Area Coordinators (LAC’s) to assist them at the local or regional level.
People with disability who are eligible for support under the NDIS will generally meet with a LAC or NDIS planner to put in place a support plan. NDIS Plans consider a range of things and include goal-setting to work towards things which improve your capacity or allow you to gain new skills to participate in work or community life. To help you get started and think about you plan the NDIS has made a workbook - the link is below.
The NDIS works with two very important concepts and its important you also understand these terms.
The first concept is about permanent and significant disability and is about how the disability you live with affects you. The word permanent means that your disability condition is likely to be lifelong.
The second concept is reasonable and necessary requirements and is bout the services and supports you need - whether that be a service, a support, equipment or some other thing for you or your carer/family to help you.
The following resources and videos may help you to understand how the NDIS works and how to set up your NDIS plan – remember to include Support Coordination from someone like SchemeWise if you wish to use any of our core services.
Learn about the NDIS reasonable and necessary criteria used to make an NDIS plan in the video below
Starting your NDIS plan
Watch about starting your NDIS plan here
People living with mental health problems may also find this video helpful in understanding NDIS perspectives around psychical disability. The video comes from trials in the NSW Hunter region.
Learn about an NDIS plan in the below video
How SchemeWise can help with the NDIS
SchemeWise are your local NDIS experts for Support Coordination, complex planning and therapy supports. To use these services with us you need to make sure you talk with your NDIS planner about including support coordination in your plan OR a therapy service SchemeWise offers.
We also believe firmly in choice and control. We are here to help you. It is totally your CHOICE which services you choose to use from SchemeWise and how you want us to work with our service too. That's because YOU are in CONTROL and get to have your say!
SchemeWise can also tell you about our services when you ask, but you choose and decide always. We will also help you understand how each of our services works. We also love working with other services and supports to help you achieve YOUR GOALS!
A further thing you need to consider is how you want your NDIS funding to be managed. This is best done during your pre-planning meeting or plan reviews. This is an important consideration and there are four options, in each option we explain how SchemeWise can help you:
1. Self-managing your NDIS plan funds – with this option you are responsible for employing your own staff. You must pay superannuation for staff and manage taxation and other matters. You can also hire a plan manager and/or support coordinator like SchemeWise to assist you.
2. Have NDIS funds managed on your behalf – known as Plan Managed. Under this arrangement the NDIS allows your funds to be managed by a third party provider called a plan manager. You must ask for your NDIS plan to include this service. When you get your plan it will be under an item called Improved Life Choices (CB Choice and Control). You will then need to find and engage a plan manager so other services and support can be paid, by the plan manager, through your plan. A SchemeWise Support Coordinator can help you find a plan manager...right for you!
3. Agency-Managed / NDIA-managed plan funds - Under this category the NDIS manages your funding for you AND you can only use a registered NDIS provider - like SchemeWise. We can help with support coordination, complex planning and therapy services.
4. A combination of the above – under this option you choose which funds you want to manage yourself and which you want the NDIA to manage on your behalf or those you want help managing. Under this option you must also identify and ask for Support Coordination, from SchemeWise, to be included in your plan so that we can help you get started.
Learn about the NDIS Outcomes Framework
Our customers are at the centre of everything we do!
Start your NDIS plan with a SchemeWise Coordinator
- Factsheet - Starting your plan - Support Coordinator (DOCX)
- Factsheet - Starting your plan - Support Coordinator (PDF)
- Checklist (DOCX)
- Checklist (PDF)
Learn more about Support Coordination in the video below
SchemeWise provides support coordination in Canberra, Queanbeyan, Wagga Wagga, Albury/Wodonga.
We can also help in places like Goulburn, Young, Cowra and Orange as long as you have sufficient funding.
Yes... we can help with all the places in between the above areas too.
Remember: Ask the NDIS or an LAC partner to include Support Coordination in your NDIS plan. 40 hours is a good amount.
Guidance: Approximately 10 hours of coordination funding MUST BE put toward mandatory NDIS processes like reporting and review processes. If you get 40 hours, this means that you have 30 hours avaialbe for YOUR use. This time is used for meeting and helping you, indirect office work to engage providers, manage service agreement development or help you in other ways, for phone calls with you (or your providers) and emails, for service monitoring and helping with problems, as well as coordinator travel.
If you get less than 40 hours (the lowest amount is usually 24 hours and can be quite common), than 10 hours is still required for mandatory NDIS processes. Leaving only 14 hours for everything else. It is YOUR obligation to self-advocate or obtain support from a disability advocate to ensure YOUR coordination needs can be met. While not required, SchemeWise is happy to issue a coordination quote based on our internal benchmarking of various disabilities, and does so automatically with our reporting for existing customers. Our quotes are ALWAYS based on an understanding of YOUR ACTUAL NEEDS.
Access a disability advocate from the Disability Advocacy Network Australia webpage (click here).
Other advocacy options include advocating for your own rights, having a family member or friend(s) help you, or ensuring you have relevant information provided by your doctor about your needs.
What happens if support coordination is NOT provided to you despite asking?
If you do NOT get coordination in your plan, a common problem for people using LAC partner for their review (as they are incentivised to NOT provide this support), and despite a quote being provided this outcome can be reconsidered under a review of decision (appeals) process which you can seek in the first three months of a new plan ONLY. There are also other ways to obtain a coordination-like service under CORE or CAPACITY BUILDING funds. This means SchemeWise can still help you in certain ways while your appeal is considered.
NDIS Plan Reviews
Once your NDIS plan is in place, each year you are required to review your plan. During your review with either an NDIS Planner or a Local Area Coordinator (LAC) partner you will go through your last year's plan and look at your goals and how you achieved them. From this process, the LAC will then help you develop a new plan for the next 12, 18, 24 or 36 months.
It is REALLY important to consider the length you plan runs for. While you can appeal a bad planning decision in the first three months, or seek and early plan review in the final three months, you can only ask for a plan review in the middle time under the 'change of circumstance' process and related rules. A SchemeWise support coordinator can help you to determine the right plan length for your needs.
SchemeWise can help you with your plan review. If you use our plan management or support coordination services (or both) we will collect information as you progress and give it to you to take to your review. We might also tell you to ask for things we believe you need and provide reasons for this to help you.
Learn more about NDIS plan reviews in the video below
At SchemeWise...
We can help you get started and keep going with the NDIS!
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