When a person receives support coordination funding in their NDIS plan, it is a sum of money to last the length of the plan. Sometimes more is needed, other times it is not all consumed. Sometimes, a crisis may arise, and a huge amount will be used in a short period of time.
Here’s an example of a coordination of supports budget.
$7000 for the year. The hourly rate is $98.06, as stated in the NDIS price guide.
This means there is approx 72 hours for the year. We could even break that down further to say, approximately 1.4 hours per week. Sometimes, breaking the budget down can help manage expectations for everyone, and helps the CoS keep on track.
However, THIS DOESN’T mean, that 1.4 hours will get used every week.
Support Coordination is a dynamic support. Some weeks 5 hours gets consumed, and some weeks 15 minutes gets consumed, or maybe even nothing at all!
We are hearing many stories from participants and workers alike, that some organisations are claiming coordination money automatically each week, even if the support is not provided. This is NOT OK!
Some organisations have even set up their billing system to do this!
We also know that some organisation’s support coordinators are put on KPI’s, and have to make a certain amount of billable hours a day.
These same support coordinators are expected to refer internally, and are often ‘questioned’ when they don’t.
Some organisations have been charging the coordination from the minute the coordinator leaves the office. Ummm that’s really NOT OK! Only since July 2019 have the NDIA agreed to allow support coordinators to charge any travel time.
So our take away message to everyone is this.
Your support coordinator works for you, and with you. They are there to meet YOUR needs, NOT the needs of their organisation. Shop around, make some calls, ask questions, and change organisations if you are not happy.
Get in touch with us here to learn about how we do things.
