Support coordination – the delicate art of balance – Q2

Panel members

• Elizabeth Hickey (EH) – Support Coordinator, AFA Support Coordination
• Sera CrichtonAita (SC) – Support Coordinator, Australian Regional & Remote Community Services
• Kate Read (KR) – Founder/CEO, Inspires & Co
• Zena Dyson (ZD) – Specialist Support Coordinator/Team Leader, Esteem Care Services
• Danni Bament (DB) – Managing Director, Aspire Recovery Connection

In mid-2022, the NDIA froze price limits for Level 2 and Level 3 support coordination for the third year in a row. How has that decision impacted you and/or your peers, and what effect (if any) has it had on the relationship between support coordinators and the NDIA?

EH – Currently, the impact on myself and other support coordinators is the same – we feel that we are constantly being asked to do more with less. In our industry there seems to be two types of support coordination services:

1. The service that focuses on individualised support and providing the support a participant and their supports need.
2. The support coordination service that provides a cookie cutter service that is the same for all and doesn’t really meet individual needs – yes, they may help with implementing a plan, but they don’t deliver the level of support that is needed to really achieve great things.
   
   The impact of the current price freeze is that we will see less individualised service and more cookie cutter services. This then means that the relationship between the NDIA and the support coordination industry will sour further. Without real change to both the price and expectations for support delivery on less and less hours and the requirements for registration, I truly don’t know how long many providers will be able to sustain – me included.

SC – No impact – as a support coordinator, you continue to show care, the provider can handle the finance side of things, you continue to work with the participant until further notice.

KR – It has made me reconsider continuing with the business. As a company that only offers support coordination, we were made to give our employees a salary increase through the SCHADS Award, yet we were not compensated for these changes. There is not a lot of profit in support coordination, so sometimes we wonder why we are doing this.

ZD – For me, as I work for an NDIS-funded provider, I don’t believe this has had any effect on me or the organisation as a whole. Maybe, if I was working for myself as an independent support coordinator, I may have a different view and it may have affected my relationship with the NDIA.

DB – It hasn’t really affected us. The majority of what we do is recovery coaching. We were pleased to see the price of recovery coaching increase and believe it should be on par with support coordination. Recovery coaching does the same role, plus they have to have expertise and skills in mental health and recovery.

Click here for question 3.