These two supports sound similar, but they are not the same. If you are trying to understand which one may fit your situation, start by looking at Support Coordination and how it compares with the specialist level.
Standard Support Coordination helps you understand and use your plan, connect with providers and build confidence in managing supports. The NDIS says it is there to help participants use a mix of supports to pursue goals and manage service delivery tasks.
What Specialist Support Coordination adds
Specialist Support Coordination is a higher level of support for people with more complex situations. The NDIS says specialist support coordinators help address complex barriers, and where needed they can design a service plan for complex support needs so services can work together more effectively.
This can be important when there are multiple service systems involved, significant risk, crisis situations or barriers that make it hard to access or keep the right supports in place.
Who each service may suit
Support Coordination may suit participants who need help implementing a plan and building confidence.
Specialist Support Coordination may suit participants whose lives involve more complex barriers, risks or competing systems such as health, housing, mental health, justice or crisis responses. Taylor Made Outcomes’ current service page also positions this support around complex and competing needs in Wollongong and the Illawarra.
Questions to ask when choosing support
Ask:
- Do I mostly need help getting started and staying organised?
- Or do I have bigger risks, barriers or crisis issues affecting multiple areas of life?
The clearer this is, the easier it is to choose the right support level.
The three levels, in plain terms
The NDIS funds support connection work at three levels, and knowing which one is in your plan saves a lot of confusion.
- Support Connection is the lightest touch. Short-term help to build your own confidence in connecting with supports.
- Support Coordination is the middle and most common level. Ongoing help to understand your plan, find providers, set things up and keep them running.
- Specialist Support Coordination is the highest level, for situations with real complexity or risk, delivered by a more senior practitioner.
They are separate funding lines. Having one does not mean you have the others.
What complexity actually looks like
“Complex” is a word that gets used a lot without much meaning attached. In practice, Specialist Support Coordination tends to be the right fit when several of these are true at once:
- multiple services involved who are not talking to each other
- a situation where something could go seriously wrong if it is not managed
- housing, justice, health or child protection systems in the mix alongside the NDIS
- previous arrangements that have broken down more than once
- risk that needs actively managing rather than monitoring
One difficult provider relationship is not usually complexity. Three services, a hospital discharge and unstable housing at the same time generally is.
How to tell which one you have
Look at the Capacity Building section of your plan. The line item will name the level. If you cannot tell, your plan manager or the NDIA can confirm it, and it is worth knowing before you go looking for a provider.
For what the day-to-day work involves, see what does a Support Coordinator do. Our service pages cover Support Coordination and Specialist Support Coordination in more detail.
Can you change levels mid-plan?
Not by choosing to. The level is set in your plan, so moving between them means either a plan reassessment or a review of a decision. If your circumstances have changed significantly, that is the argument to make rather than simply asking for more.
For help working out what support fits your situation, contact Taylor Made Outcomes.
Official NDIS source: Specialist support coordination
