On this page:

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) Early childhood partners

Local area coordination (LAC) partners Remote Community Connectors

The NationalDisability Insurance Agency (NDIA)

The NDIA makesdecisions about whethersomeone is eligibleto become an NDIS participant and, if so, how much fundingthey will receive.This is based on legislation called the NDIS Act 2013 which sets out what supports and services are considered reasonable and necessary for the NDIS to fund.

Find out more about the NDIA.

Earlychildhood partners

The early childhood approach helps children younger than 6 who have a developmental delay or children younger than 9 with disability. Early childhood partners deliver the early childhood approach.

Early childhood partners employ early childhood educators and allied health professionals who help children and their families access supports and services that are tailored to the child’s individual needs and circumstances.

Early childhood partners also help with connection to other appropriate supports such as community health services, playgroups and educational settings.

Findout more about the early childhood approach.

Local area coordination (LAC) partners

Local area coordination partners are community-based organisations that we fund to help deliver local area coordination services in some parts of Australia. Local area coordination partners work with people with disability aged 9 to 64. For most people in this age range, a local area coordinator will be their main point of contact for the NDIS.

Local area coordination supports people with disability to create and work towards their goals, build capacity to make their own decisions and choices and access the supports they need tolive the life they choose. Local area coordination also supports communities and multiple levels of government to create a more inclusive society and deliver improved outcomes for all people with disability.

Learn more about Local area coordination partners.

Remote CommunityConnectors

Remote Community Connectors, also known as NDIS Connectors, play a key role in helping to deliver the NDIS in remote and very remote communities.

This includes First Nations people with disability and those from a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse background.

NDIS Connectors work together to improve the lives of people with disability, their families and community.

They do this recognising diverse cultures and unique approaches needed to support these communities.

Learn more about how NDIS Connectors can support all people with disability to access the NDIS.

On this page:

About the early childhood approach How the early childhood approach works What if my child is older than 9?

Reviewing how we support young children and their families Quality supports for children

OurGuidelines

About the early childhood approach

The age range is changing for the NDIS early childhood approach.

From 1 July 2023, the early childhood approach changed to include children younger than 9. This change is being rolled out over the next 2 years.

Our early childhood approach is how we support children younger than 9 and their families.

The early childhood approach helps children younger than 6 with developmental delay or children younger than 9 with disability and their families to access the right support when they need it.

Children younger than 6 do not need a diagnosis to get support through the early childhood approach where there are concerns about their development.

The early childhood approach was developed based on evidence- based research with the help of leading experts in early childhood intervention.

The approach supports best practice in early childhood intervention because it helps the child and family to build their capacity and supports greater inclusion in community and every day settings, meaning each child will be provided with opportunities to grow and learn.

It is about giving children and their families the right supports to enable them to have the best possible start in life.

A child’s early years are very important as they set up how they will learn and develop later in life.

Our early childhood approach focus on being both family-centred and strengths-based. We do this by acknowledging that as parents and carers you know your child best.

Families are at the centre of all services and supports.

Early childhood intervention should fit in as much as possible with your child and family’s daily activities.

To learn more about early childhood intervention, watch this family perspectives video . Our early childhood approach aims to:

provide timely support to ensure that you are able to access the supports you need

give you information about best-practice early childhood intervention supports and how you can help your child

increase your confidence and capacity to manage and respond to your child’s support needs

increase your child’s ability to do activities they need or want to do throughout their day

increase your child’s inclusion and participation in mainstream and community settings like childcare or recreation

give you information about, and referrals to, other support services if needed, like parent support groups.

How the early childhood approach works

In many areas around Australia, early childhood partners are available to help you get the support your child needs through the early childhood approach. Early childhood partners are local organisations we fund to deliver the early childhood approach.

What if my child is older than 9?

The NDIS also supports children who are over 9 through our local area coordination partners.

An early childhood partner, Local area coordination partners will work with you to understand your child’s needs and connect you to mainstream and community supports in your area.

They can also help you see if the NDIS is right for your child.

Reviewing how we support young children and their families

The NDIA is implementing improvements to the way we are supporting young children and their families early, to reach their full potential.

Read the latest update on how we’re progressing with the ECEI reset.

If your child has NDIS funding for early childhood intervention, therapy supports or behaviour support, you want to know your provider uses quality practices.

We partnered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission to develop a guide to explain what quality practices do and don’t look like, and help you choose the right provider for you and your child.

Go to the quality supports for children page to read the guide.

Our Guidelines

Find more resources in accessible formats on the booklets and factsheets page.

On this page:

Support for carers from other agencies Department of Social Services (DSS) Carer Gateway

Carers Australia Services Australia

Support for carers from other agencies Department of Social Services (DSS)

DSS provides information and links to a range of services available locally and across Australia,

including services for people with disability and those who provide care. You can find more information on the DSS website about these topics:

Disability and Carers

Programs and Services

Supporting Carers

Carer Gateway

Carer Gateway provides in-person, phone and online services and support nationally to help you in your caring role.

Carers can contact their local Carer Gateway service provider by calling1800 422 737 (select option 1), Monday to Friday, between 8am and 5pm.

Supports and services include, support planning, counselling, peer support and coaching

tailored support packages (which may include access to planned respite, domestic assistance and support to participate in employment and education, information and advice help with accessing emergency respite, assistance with navigating relevant, local services available to carers through federal, state and local government and non-government providers.

Note: Assistance to access Emergency Respite is available 24 hours a day and seven days a week by calling 1800 422 737 .

The Carer Gateway website also offers:

an online peer support forum self-guided coaching and skills courses, access to the national phone counselling service, advice and information on other services available from the government and carer support organisations.

CarersAustralia

Carers Australia is a national organisation that supports Australia’s carers. They work to improve the health, well being, resilience and financial security of carers.

You can find more information on the Carers Australia website

Services Australia

Services Australia have payments and services available to help carers and the person they’re caring for.

You can find more information on the ServicesAustralia website about:

caring for someone

services and payments for carers

other support

getting support if you’re living with disability.

On this page:

What do I need to do? What to expect from us Links for further help

We recognise the importance of supporting family, carers and support networks when a participant dies. The NDIA has a Bereavement support team who are trained to provide the best support we can during this difficult time. They can help you work through any outstanding NDIS matters with sensitivity, empathy and speed.

What do I need to do?

It’s important you tell us when a participant has died. Anyone can notify the NDIS of a participant's passing. You can do this by: Calling the National Contact Centre (NCC) on 1800 800 110 We will take your details and ask you to provide: The participant’s name, address, date of birth and NDIS number (if you know it).

.

What to expect from us

The Bereavement support team member will work with you to resolve any outstanding NDIS matters, including stopping any NDIS funded supports and services, as well as answer any questions you may have.

This can usually be completed in a single phone call. When contacted, you can ask for a different time if it’s not convenient.

In some cases, we may need more information to confirm the participant’s passing. If we do, we will let you know what we need.

Links for further help

Services Australia has put together some key information for what do when someoneclose to you dies. This information can be found at Services Australia Death and Bereavement information .

We understand this is a difficult time. Remember to take care of yourself and look after your mental and physical health.

To access confidential counselling services 24 hours, 7 days a week, call:

Lifeline Australia on 131 114

Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

MensLine Australia on 1300 789 978.

Griefline on 1300 845 745 from 12pm to 3am AEST, 7 days a week.

How Can We Help Carers

Families and carers provide help and support that could otherwise be provided by formal services or paid support workers. They are often one of the greatest advocates for people with disabilities, providing practical and emotional support to help them live their best life.

Moreover, if the person they care for wants it, carers play a vital role in supporting them to join the NDIS, set their goals and use their NDIS plan effectively.

In addition to the government-funded programs available to support carers, an NDIS participant might use funding in their plan to facilitate respite.

Respite supports participants and their carers by giving carers short breaks from their caring responsibilities. It also gives participants time away from their families.

For a participant, this might mean, joining a new community group, having a short stay out of home to try new things, make new friends or develop new skills. Temporary periods of extra personal supports so that the participant can remain at home when families and/or carers are not available

support to participate in community activities, resulting in a break for carers.

For carers, taking some time off can help them better manage their own health and improve their wellbeing.

In deciding whether to fund or provide a support, we will take into account what is reasonable to expect from families, carers, informal networks and the community.

More information for carers and how to include respite in an NDIS plan is available on the Carers Australia website We also encourage you to talk with your local area coordinator or planner on what supports might be available in your local community.

ShortTerm Respite

Short term accommodation is now called short term respite.

Short term respite gives you time apart from your usual care arrangements. It also gives your primary informal supports, a chance for a short break so they can continue in their caring role.

Find out more about short term respite .

Guardians and Nominees explained

On this page:

What is a nominee under the National Disability Insurance Scheme? Duties to the participant and the NDIS

Guardianship Information NDIS participants under 18 Our Guidelines

Further Information

What is a nominee under the National Disability Insurance Scheme?

People with disability are presumed to have capacity to make decisions that affect their own lives. This is usually the case, and it will not be necessary to appoint a person or a nominee where it is possible to support, and build the capacity of participants to make their own decisions for the purposes of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

However, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (NDIS Act) recognises that there may be circumstances where it is necessary for a person to be appointed as a nominee of a participant to act on behalf of, or make decisions on behalf of a participant. It is important to remember that this is a last resort measure.

Appointments of nominees will be justified only when it is not possible for participants to be assisted to make decisions for themselves. Appointments of nominees usually come about as a result of a participant requesting that a nominee be appointed. More information on the appointment process is set out below.

It is only in rare and exceptional cases that the NDIA will find it necessary to appoint a nominee for a participant who has not requested that an appointment be made. In appointing a nominee, the NDIA will have regard to the participant’s wishes and the participant’s circumstances (including their formal and informal support networks such as carers, family and guardians). The NDIS Act (section 80) and Nominee Rules (Part 5) set outs the duties of nominees to ensure that participants have every opportunity to participate in the decision-making process for their plans.

Under the NDIS, there are 2 types of nominee:a plan nominee and a correspondence nominee. A single person can be appointed as both plan nominee and correspondence nominee.Either type of nominee can be appointed either indefinitely or for a specified term. The NDIA will issue an instrument of appointment which sets out the type of nominee being appointed, what actsand decisions they can do, the length of the appointment (if any) and any other relevant matters such as whether there are other nominees appointed.

Duties to the participant and the NDIS

As a nominee,under the NDIS Act you have:

duties to the participant

duties to the NDIS.

Duties to the participant

Duty to understand the participant’s wishes, and promote the participant’s personal and social wellbeing

As a nominee, you must:

find out what the participant would like to happen

act in a way that supports the participant’s personal and social well being.

Sometimes the participant may not be able to let you know what they want. When this happens, you must try to work out what they think the participant would like to happen. You might do this by, looking back on other decisions the participant made, thinking about the experiences you’ve had with the participant, talking with other people

who know the participant well.

Duty to consult

Before making an NDIS decision, you must also talk with other people in the participant’s life. These people include, any other appointed NDIS nominee the participant has any court-appointed, decision-maker the participant has any other decision-maker the participant has appointed

any person who helps the participant manage day-to-day activities and make decisions, for example a support worker.

Duty to develop the participant’s capacity

As a nominee you must help build the participant’s skills to make decisions. Ideally, to a point where the participant can make decisions for themselves. This would mean they no longer need a nominee.

The NDIS must help you with this duty.

Duty to avoid or manage conflicts of interest

As a nominee you must tell the NDIS about any conflict of interest you have in relation to the participant. For example, if you provide the participant with services that you get paid for, NDIS needs to know You must also tell the NDIS how you will manage this conflict of interest.

For body corporate nominees only

A body corporate nominee is an organisation or company appointed as the participant’s nominee.

For each participant they are the nominee for, they must, make sure there is a person (officer or employee) who is involved with making the nominee decisions, tell the NDIA who that person is

tell the NDIA if that personchanges.

Duties to the NDIS

Notices

We may send you or the participant a notice. A notice, usuallya letter, will tell you when you need to complete an action or provide us with information.

As a nominee, you need to give us the information the notice asks for in the timeframe we tell you, unless you have a reason.

Correspondence nominees

We send all notices to the correspondence nominee. When we send a notice to you, as the correspondence nominee, we treat this as giving notice to the participant.

Sometimes we contact the participant directly and give them a notice.If we do this, we will tell you that we gave the participant a notice and provide you with the details.

Plan nominees

We must tell plan nominees when we send a notice to the participant about the preparation, management or review of their plan. This includes the details of the notice.

Noticea bout the nominee’s ability to act

We will send a written notice to you asking you to tell us of any event or change in situation that may affect,your ability to act as a nominee, your ability to comply with notices we give them our ability to give you notices.

Notice about use of the participant’s NDIS funding

We may send plan nominees a notice asking them to tell us how the participant has used their NDIS funds.

Notices asking the participant to do something personally

When the notice asks the participant to do something personally, the participant must do this. You can’t do it on the participant’s behalf. For example, the notice asks the participant to complete an allied health assessment. The participant must attend the allied health assessment personally. This is not something you can do for the participant. But, the participant could ask you to go with them if they want. You should check with the person doing the assessment that this is okay.

Guardianship Information

Guardianship is different from nominees. Guardianship is the authority to manage the legal and non-legal affairs of a person such as power of attorney or Centrelink nominations. Guardians are not nominees under the NDIS and there is no automatic process for guardians to be made nominees. Where it has been identified by the NDIA that the participant requires a nominee and there is a guardianship arrangement in place, the presumption is that the guardian will be appointed as the nominee.

Guardians being appointed as nominees.

As part of the appointment process for nominees the NDIA will have regard to whether the participant has a guardian, and will take the views of the guardian into consideration. There is a presumption that a guardian should be appointed nominee where their responsibilities are comparable to the duties of a nominee.

NDIS participants under 18

For a participant under 18 years of age child representatives instead of nominees can be appointed. A child representative is only appointed where the NDIA is making a determination that a person other than the person or persons with parental responsibility should be the child representative. There are rules about who has parental responsibility for a child participant and when a child representative can be appointedby the NDIA. Further information can be found at:

Chapter 4, Part 4 of the NationalDisability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (sections 74–77)

National Disability InsuranceScheme (Children) Rules 2013

Our Guidelines

Appointing a nominee

Find more resources about guardians and nominees in accessible formats on the booklets and factsheets page.

Further Information

You can find further information on nominees:

Chapter 4, Part 5 of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (sections 78 – 98)

National Disability InsuranceScheme (Nominee) Rules 2013 (NomineeRules)

Transitioning from residential aged care

The aged care system is designed to support the needs of older people and is generally not designed for younger people.

The NDIA is committed to making sure no NDIS participant under 65 years (under 50 years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples) lives in residential aged care unless there are exceptional circumstances.

This means, supporting participants to know about and understand various alternative home and living options, providing funding in participants’ NDIS plans to help them move out of residential aged care, helping participants connect with providers who can help them achieve their home and living goals and supports, making sure participants who live in residential aged care continue to be supported with the right funded supports.

As a carer, nominee or family member of a participant in residential aged care, we know you want them to live in accommodation which is appropriate for their age and needs.

You can encourage them to contact their support coordinator or NDIS planner to find out about and explore alternative home and living options.

Younger people in residential aged care - Toolkit for support coordinators

The Australian government recognises people currently living in aged care under the age of 65 years is not ideal and the opportunity to explore alternative, age-appropriate accommodation should be provided.

To address this issue, proactive work with younger people in residential aged care (YPIRAC) is undertaken to consider other housing solutions.

The YPIRAC Toolkit has been developed to support this initiative in consultation with various government bodies, participants and their families and provider networks. The YPIRAC Toolkit provides information and support to help younger people access age-appropriate housing, care, and services.

An interactive toolkit is available to help younger people in residential aged care understand their housing options and steps involved with leaving residential aged care.

Visit the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website to download, the toolkit, an accessible version of the toolkit, Easy Read summaries of the toolkit and each chapter.

Connecting with us early

It is important to connect with us as early as possible if a participant is at risk of entering residential aged care.

Please contact the specialist YPIRAC team by emailing aged.care.advisory.team@ndis.gov.au.

The specialist YPIRAC team can help the participant to explore alternative home and living options so they can continue to exercise choice and control over where and how they live, with the right funded supports.

More Information

Living in and moving out of residential aged care | NDIS

The Our Guideline – Younger People in Residential Aged Care (YPIRAC) explains what we can fund and how we can support participants move out of residential aged care. Home and living supports funded by the NDIS

NDIS Guidelines

On this page:

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) Early childhood partners

Local area coordination (LAC) partners Remote Community Connectors

The NationalDisability Insurance Agency (NDIA)

The NDIA makes decisions about whether someone is eligible to become an NDIS participant and, if so, how much funding they will receive.This is based on legislation called the NDIS Act 2013 which sets out what supports and services are considered reasonable and necessary for the NDIS to fund.

Find out more about the NDIA.

Early childhood partners

The early childhood approach helps children younger than 6 who have a developmental delay or children younger than 9 with disability. Early childhood partners deliver the early childhood approach.

Early childhood partners employ early childhood educators and allied health professionals who help children and their families access supports and services that are tailored to the child’s individual needs and circumstances.

Early childhood partners also help with connection to other appropriate supports such as community health services, playgroups and educational settings.

Find out more about the early childhood approach.

Local area coordination (LAC) partners

Local area coordination partners are community-based organisations that we fund to help deliver local area coordination services in some parts of Australia. Local area coordination partners work with people with disability aged 9 to 64. For most people in this age range, a local area coordinator will be their main point of contact for the NDIS.

Local area coordination supports people with disability to create and work towards their goals, build capacity to make their own decisions and choices and access the supports they need to live the life they choose. Local area coordination also supports communities and multiple levels of government to create a more inclusive society and deliver improved outcomes for all people with disability.

Remote Community Connectors

Remote Community Connectors, also known as NDIS Connectors, play a key role in helping to deliver the NDIS in remote and very remote communities.

This includes First Nations people with disability and those from a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse background. NDIS Connectors work together to improve the lives of people with disability, their families and community. They do this recognising diverse cultures and unique approaches needed to support these communities.

Learn more about how NDIS Connectors can support all people with disability to access the NDIS.

NDIS Guidelines

This section contains information about what we consider when we make decisions under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Our guidelines set out some of the NDIA’s operational information. They are based on the NDIS Legislation and Rules. They explain what we need to consider and how we make decisions based on the legislation. We are working to update all of our guidelines to make them simple, clear and easy to use. For all would we fund it documents, please visit would we fund it.