What is a Support Worker?

A Support Worker or Disability Support Worker is a person who provides support to people with disability in their daily lives. 

They are often the frontline professionals when it comes to NDIS support, working directly with people with disability to implement support plans and support people with disability to maintain choice and control in their lives.

Support Workers have a range of responsibilities, including:

• Personal care, i.e. assisting with daily tasks, such as showering, dressing, etc.
• Community and social belonging, i.e. supporting people to participate in their community
• Access to work/hobbies/recreational activities, i.e. supporting people to attend work or partake in sports or other activities
• Goals, i.e. working with people to achieve their goals, such as learning or improving a skill
• Transport, e.g. supporting people to travel to appointments

Read more: Unpacking the Changes to NDIS Legislation

Support Workers typically are employed by disability service providers, or they can be independent contractors. They work on an agreed schedule determined by a person’s needs and NDIS plans. This might include shifts, overnight support, or regular daily support.

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What is a Support Coordinator?

Per the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), a Support Coordinator is a person who helps a person with disability understand their NDIS plan and connects them with supports and services.

Key responsibilities of Support Coordinators include:

• Helping a person with disability understand their NDIS plan
• Planning and coordinating supports
• Connecting a person with supports and services
• Establishing and maintaining your supports
• Monitoring plan budgets and support effectiveness
• Reporting to the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)
• Support with capacity building for independence
• Preparing for unexpected events
• Crisis management, e.g. planning for situations, preventing/mitigating them and acting on/responding to such situations
• Acting in the best interest of a person with disability

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The primary responsibility of a Support Coordinator is safeguarding the safety of a person with disability. Often, Support Coordinators are the first to become aware of any concerns about the quality and safety of a person’s supports and services. If they identify any risks to a person’s safety and wellbeing, they must give an early warning and report to the NDIA.

There are three levels of support coordination:

• Level 1: Support connection: helping a person understand their plan and connecting them with NDIS providers and the community.
• Level 2: Coordination of supports: increasing a person’s capacity to maintain relationships, manage tasks, live more independently and be included in their community.
• Level 3: Specialist support coordination: for more complex needs, usually involving assistance with managing challenges in the support environment and ensuring consistent support delivery.

Learn more: Support Coordination 101, part of our NDS Workforce Essentials course.

As with other supports and services, people with disability have the right to change their Support Coordinator at any time.

Note: A plan manager and a Support Coordinator have different roles. A plan manager pays providers for supports delivered, i.e. they tend to support a person with their NDIS fund/money.

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What’s the difference?

Let’s summarise the key differences between a Support Worker and a Support Coordinator.

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Support Worker

• Support offered: Direct, hands-on support
• ‍Support relationship with person with disability: Regular, ongoing, often daily contact  with person with disability‍
• Expertise: Practical supports‍
• Decision-Making: Implements supports outlined in a person’s NDIS plan

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Support Coordinator

• Support offered: Support with NDIS plan and access to supports
• ‍Support relationship with person with disability: More intensive at the start, then with periodic meetings and check-ins‍
• Expertise: NDIS-approved supports and services knowledge and navigation‍
• Decision-Making: Helps participants make informed choices about supports and services

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Transition to support navigators

Following the 2023 NDIS Review, Support Coordinators will slowly phase out and evolve into support navigators.

This comes from feedback highlighting concerns over the difficulty of navigating the NDIS and the supports/services covered. The Review suggested introducing navigators to fill in these gaps.

The NDIS legislation has yet to confirm exactly how this will look like and when it will come into effect, but initial recommendations suggest that there would be two types of navigators:

• General navigators: they would help people with disability connect with mainstream and foundational supports. They would also help participants find and coordinate services.
• Specialised navigators: they would help people with more complex needs who need more support connect with the appropriate supports.

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Summary

• Support Workers provide direct support to people with disability
• Support Coordinators help people with disability understand their NDIS plan and connect them with supports and services
• There are three levels of support coordination: support connection, coordination of supports, and specialist support coordination
• Plan managers and Support Coordinators have different roles: a plan manager typically assists with NDIS funding and payment of services
• Support Coordinators will eventually transition to navigators, following recommendations outlined in the 2023 NDIS Review