What does being in charge of your life mean to you NDIS

The NDIS allows you to have as much choice and control as possible over the supports funded or provided in your NDIS plan.

Índice Show

What's in your plan?
Information about you
Family and friends
Services and community groups
Funded supports
How your early childhood partner, LAC or Support Coordinator can help you use your plan
We encourage you to practice decision-making skills, whether you get an NDIS plan or not.

Your early childhood partner, LAC or Support Coordinator will help you start your NDIS plan.

What's in your plan?

Your NDIS plan will be based on the discussion you had in your planning meeting.

Your plan will include the following information:

Information about you

This section includes basic information about your disability, your day-to-day activities, where you live, who you live with, or who cares for you.

Family and friends

This section includes information about the support you get from family and friends that is not funded but will help you pursue your goals.

Services and community groups

This section includes information about services and supports funded and delivered by community or other government services like support groups, health centres, libraries and public transport.

Your goals

This section includes the current goals you would like to pursue as part of your plan and the long-term goals you have identified for your life. Goal-setting is an important part of the NDIS. The supports you receive may help you pursue the goals in your NDIS plan.

Funded supports

This section tells you what funding you have been allocated in each support category and what this funding is for. You may not have all the support categories funded in your plan. Some people might have one or two support categories funded and others may have more.

This will depend on your individual needs and may change from plan to plan based on the supports and services you need. Your funding is based on what is reasonable and necessary for your needs, in addition to the support provided by family, friends and other community and government services that you need to live your life. You must only use your NDIS funding on supports and services that are related to your disability.

Find out more about support categories in your support budgets in Managing your budget.

How your early childhood partner, LAC or Support Coordinator can help you use your plan

Your early childhood partner, LAC or Support Coordinator will help you start your NDIS plan.

They can help you:

understand your plan and what supports and services you can pay for with your NDIS funding
learn what is the responsibility of other services, such as the health or education systems, or your state or territory government
connect with community and other government services
find providers who meet your needs and will help you achieve your goals
put service agreements and service bookings in place with your providers
as point of contact if you have questions, concerns or something in your life changes.

There are around 4.3 million Australians who have a disability. Within the next five years, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will provide more than $22 billion in funding a year to an estimated 500,000 Australians who have permanent and significant disability. For many people, it will be the first time they receive the disability support they need.

The NDIS can provide all people with disability with information and connections to services in their communities such as doctors, sporting clubs, support groups, libraries and schools, as well as information about what support is provided by each state and territory government.

One important principle of the NDIS is about giving you CHOICE and CONTROL. Having the power to choose means you can reimagine your life and have control of your decisions.

For more information on decision-making, check out this short activity:

✎ LEARNING ACTIVITY

Decision making: skills for your NDIS Journey

We encourage you to practice decision-making skills, whether you get an NDIS plan or not.

Some people find making decisions easy and others find it much harder. This may depend on how often you make decisions and if the decisions are difficult.

Some decisions need time and for some decisions, it’s helpful to talk it over with others. What counts as a big decision can be different for each person.

For example, for some people deciding to take public transport to an appointment is something they do every day. For other people this can be a scary and complicated decision.

So, when we think about decisions we should take our time, consider our options and decide if we need support. Don’t forget, it’s OK to make a decision and then change your mind later.

Next time you need to make a decision, you might find this tool helpful:

You have the right to make your own decisions

It is okay to learn by trying different things

It is okay to talk to other people for advice

You can change your mind

It is okay to make decisions that other people don’t like

You can make your own decisions that are different to other people’s decisions.

As you explore the 6 steps to accessing the NDIS, you will be guided to activities in the Reimagine Your Life Workbook, where you can complete questions and activities to support your application.