How Plan Managers and Support Coordinators working together can better support participants.

What’s the difference between a Plan Manager and a Support Coordinator? 

Support Coordinators connect participants to the supports and services they need to achieve their goals and assist participants to implement these supports. On the other hand, plan managers take care of the financial aspect of the funding to pay for the supports, keeping within the budget of each participant's NDIS funding. Both play an important role in supporting participants to reach their goals and get the most out of their NDIS funding to live a happy and comfortable life. 

A plan manager is a provider who takes care of the financial side of your NDIS funding for you. 

They work as your own personal accountant and bookkeeper, monitoring and managing your budget, paying invoices quickly and generating monthly reports. Having a plan manager allows you to use both registered and non-registered support providers and is fully funded by the NDIS, so having a plan manager is of no cost to you. 

A support coordinator is there to help connect you with, coordinate and manage all of your supports. 

They will design and implement a plan for you to get the most out of your NDIS funding. Support coordinators help you choose your supports and providers, arrange and prepare assessments, connect with community services, help manage your service agreements and assist you when preparing for plan renewal or plan reviews. 

Why is it important to have both?

On your NDIS journey, it is important to have a supportive and functional team around you. Any participant can be plan managed. However, for participants to have a support coordinator, it must be deemed reasonable and necessary. If this is you, then building the right team will make for healthier and happier relationships and also ensure that you’re set up to continually set and achieve goals. It is important to have both a support coordinator and a plan manager that have your best interests at heart. 

How can support coordinators and plan managers work together? 

Together, an experienced support coordinator and plan manager can provide you with a full spectrum of expert advice, support and guidance. Support coordinators and plan managers also assist each other in working in your best interests. Support coordinators connect, manage and negotiate with your providers, and an important part of this is working within your budget. A plan manager will assist support coordinators in best managing their participant's budget and maximising the amount of support available to them. Monthly budget reports and analyses can help a participant and their team stay up to date. Plan managers and support coordinators can also work together to construct and implement service agreements with providers and manage relationships. Plan managers ensure that all invoicing is kept paid and up to date and that the budget is accurately managed. 

"It's so helpful to have plan managers who look to the budget reports in details, highlight the overspending and save you the time to calculate it yourself." 

- Ruby Halaseh, Support Coordinator

At All Disability Plan Management, we provide Support Coordinators with access to their client's online dashboard, monthly budget reports and extensive budget review analysis so that Support Coordinators can easily see the progress of their participant’s funding. 

We believe it is important for all of our clients to be surrounded by a solid team that works together, so each client is assigned their own personal plan manager. This means that Support coordinators will always speak to the same person in relation to their client. 

If you feel like you, or one of your clients are not getting the most out of your current plan management, we’re here to help. 

Get in touch to find out more about how we can work together to provide you with a personal and comprehensive plan management arrangement that helps you get the most out of your NDIS funding to achieve your goals.