NDIA CEO, Martin Hoffman said of NDIS Plans in April, “We’ve heard from participants that the NDIS can be complex and unclear so we are committed to making the Scheme simpler and easier to use, ensuring that people can more easily access the supports they need,”.
The tangible result of a comment like this?
Well, it may not be a surprise that it was the result of a long process of investigation and listening to feedback, and hopefully it’s also no surprise that the NDIS has already begun acting on what Mr. Hoffman is talking about…
They have released new operational guidelines and a statement of the underlying principles used to develop participant NDIS plans, which are part of a number of improvements being made to the NDIS and specifically Participant’s NDIS Plans.
Reading between the lines, the idea behind it is what’s referred to as “Plan Utilisation”, which refers to how easily and effectively a participant can use their plan funds. In theory, if you have an NDIS Plan, it’s there for you to use in full to aid you in achieving your goals. The issue is that a HUGE percentage of NDIS Participants aren’t actually using their funding to its full capacity (as of December 2020, just 67% of Participants are using their NDIS Plan to it’s fullest).
You might actually find yourself in this position, and its changes like these that could mean a major shift in your ability to access supports and use your plan to its full potential so you can in fact achieve the goals you set as part of the application process.
These discussions resulted in the NDIS releasing operational guidelines that help you assess how they would fund or not fund a particular support. The guidelines include:
- Creating your plan – this explains what you can expect from the NDIA when your plan is created, what happens during your planning conversation and how to prepare.
- Reasonable and Necessary– This is a big one that provides detail about how the NDIA makes decisions about funding for reasonable and necessary supports.
- Your Plan– outlining what happens when your plan is approved and how you can start using your plan.
These guidelines are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, with more than 50 other improvements being made via the “Service Improvement Plan” released in late 2020.
Crucially, all of these improvements are guided by the idea that they should use less “jargon” and be clearer on what “reasonable and necessary” means in reality. It means they’re designed to be digestible, not difficult to understand. They include case studies and examples that might help you put yourself in those scenarios or at least see how parts of the case study might apply to you.
It’s important to note here – The guidelines and changes aren’t in fact changes to the planning process, but are designed to give you more simplified and understandable detail about the Planning process and its outcomes so you can;
A: Plan more effectively and
B: use your Plan more effectively.
A pretty great outcome if you ask us.
To access the guidelines, head here and do some reading:
https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/operational-guidelines
Ideally, you’ll find the information you need, but if something is still a little too confronting or confusing, you can either contact the NDIS directly, or you can get in touch with one of our NDIS experts ( or call 1800 63 63 77) – we’re here to help guide you on your NDIS journey.
NDSP Plan Managers is a NDIS registered provider specialising in NDIS Plan Management. If you are a NDIS Participant looking for the right Plan Manager, CLICK HERE to get in touch with our friendly team today.
