Support Coordination vs. Plan Management: What’s the Difference?

NDIS support coordination in Perth is a very important role in helping people with disabilities. However, most people tend to confuse this role with NDIS plan management. If you have an NDIS plan, your personal goals, you will need to make all of these work. This is why you need a support coordinator and your plan manager. They are both present in Perth to help you and care passionately about your success. But they do very different jobs. Since they are both here to help you succeed with using your NDIS plan, it is easy to mix them up.. However, it should be noted that support coordination and plan management have unique roles. In this guide, we will explain the differences between both roles. 

What Is support coordination?

Support coordination is when someone helps you find and manage services and supports that suit your needs. They help you put your NDIS plan into action and act like a guide who walks beside you and shows you where everything is. In this case, you don’t have to figure everything out by yourself. With a support coordinator you can easily do the following:

• Understand your NDIS plan
• Choose the best service providers based on your needs
• Set up your supports
• Solve problems if something goes wrong

In this case, your support coordinator as like your project coordinator as they keep everything on track and running smoothly.

Three levels of support coordination

Not everyone needs the same amount of help. That’s why the NDIS offers three levels of support coordination. This is based on your needs as a person living with disabilities in Perth. These three levels are:

1. Support Connection: This is the basic level of support coordination. It is their job to help you connect with services, but you do most of the work. This is useful for people who need a little help getting started. The aim of this level of support is to build your confidence to manage things yourself

2. Support coordination: This is the standard level of support coordination. In this level, the coordinator works closely with you to set up and manage services. It is their role to help you choose supports, make a plan, and monitor your progress. However, you still get to make decisions, but your support coordinator guide you along the way.
3. Specialist support coordination: This is the third level of NDIS support coordination and it is created for complex cases where things are harder. The specialist support coordination is meant for people with serious challenges like mental illness or unstable housing. In this level, the coordinator works with lots of services to make sure everything works together.

Why you may need support coordination

You are not automatically assigned a support coordinator. You will have to ask for it in your NDIS planning meeting. Before asking for it, you will need to be eligible by meeting the following conditions:

• You have multiple needs
• You find it hard to manage your plan alone
• Your life situation is complicated

If the above conditions apply in your case, then the NDIS will decide if you need support coordination and which level is right for you.

What your support coordinator can help you with

There are many things that your support coordinator can help you with. These include:

• Helping you to understand and use your NDIS plan
• Finding and connecting with services providers
• Helping you to coordinate your appointments and services
• Setting goals for you and monitoring your progress
• Dealing with issues or service changes on your behalf.
• Preparing for plan reviews

Now your support coordinator will never manage your money or pay your bills. It is because someone else has been assigned to do all of that. 

All about plan management

Plan management is all about the money side of your NDIS plan. A plan manager helps you to do the following: 

• Keep track of your NDIS budget.
• Pay invoices and service providers to ensure that you continue to get quality supports.
• Make sure that you do not overuse or under-utilize your funding. 
• Provide you with regular reports so that you know where your money is going

A plan manager works like a banker or bookkeeper for your plan. They will never help you pick services, but they make sure your funds are used properly and the way it should. 

What can your plan manager help you with?

There are many things that you Plan manager can help you with in Perth. These include: 

• They pay your support providers on your behalf
• It is their role to help you budget your plan funding
• Send you monthly reports about how your money is being spent to support you.
• Deal with all the documents and paperwork. 

What are the key differences between support coordination and plan management