Choosing your own supports

Peta’s support workers assist her with some of her household tasks, keeping track of her emails and bills, going to appointments and getting out and about in her community. 
Peta says:

‘That’s been lovely.  Having someone to take you out. It makes me feel good and happy and be a complete new Peta’

​​Peta says that it hasn’t always been like that.  In the past, she had no say in who would be assisting her, or when they would come.  Often they were casual ‘fill ins’ that she didn’t know before they arrived, and they were often very late.  ​

Peta has worked with her Support Coordinator to identify what she would like in a support worker, when she would like them to come and what they will assist her with.  Peta interviews potential workers and then chooses the people she feels will be right for her:

​‘We had a talk after and we spoke about the support workers that we had just seen. I thought Pauly was very nice, and S, and L. No, not L.’

Choosing your own supports

​People tell us that their support workers are often involved in very personal parts of their lives.  They rely on them in very vulnerable times when they need assistance the most.  They can be the difference between a bad day and an awesome day.  
Support workers are often key tools in assisting with achieving goals and getting on with living our best lives. We know that people often spend a lot of time with a support worker, so having the right person is important.

Here are our top 7 things to think about when choosing your support worker:

1. ​Know what you want the support worker to do
2. Decide when and where you need supports
3. Decide what skills and qualities you want in your support worker
4. Know how much you are willing/can afford to pay
5. Know where to find and engage your support workers
6. Plan for meeting and interviewing
7. Know how to make an agreement.​

​1. Know what you want the support worker to do
​Many people use the funds in their NDIS Plan to engage support workers to assist with a huge range everyday activities including things like personal care, cleaning and gardening.  Some support workers also assist with getting out and about in the community and helping with building skills.

Perhaps you just want to be able to get out of bed in the morning.  Do you want to be able to pursue your hobbies, play sports, try new things or learn something new? Do you need a hand to help keep things organised, like your appointments or your bills?
Have a think about what your goals are; what do you want to achieve, what assistance you need and how a support worker might be able to help you to do that

2. Decide when and where you need support

• Do you need support every day or just a few days every now and again?  Morning, afternoon, overnight?
• Do you need someone who is flexible or do you prefer set times on certain days?
• Do you want an organisation to organise when your support workers come or do you want to do that yourself?
• Do you want support at home, out and about, in the library or the gym?
• If you are going out, do you need your support worker to drive you ​

 Also think about what you will do in an emergency or if your support workers calls in sick.

3. Decide what skills and qualities you want in your support worker
It is likely that you will spend quite some time with your support worker, so it’s important that they are the right fit for you and for your lifestyle.

• Do you want them to be younger or older?
• Do you prefer them to be talkative or quiet?
• Do you want them to share your interests?
• Do you want them to introduce you to new things?
• Do you want them to have lots of experience supporting people with disability or would you prefer to train them for what you need?
• Are there any specific skills or training that you need them to have (for example, will they need to be able to use a computer, to assist with bowel or catheter care etc)

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4. Know how much you are willing/
​can afford to pay

Look at your NDIS budget and work out how much funding you have available to pay your support worker.

• How much do you want to pay them and how much will the charge you?
• How much is the NDIS willing to pay?
• Is the provider open to negotiating the rate?
• How is your NDIS Plan managed?  

If your Plan is NDIA Managed, you will need to choose your support workers from organisations that are registered with NDIA.
  
If your Plan is Plan Managed or you are managing your Plan funds yourself, you have more choices about who you want to provide your support. You can also try to negotiate more easily.  If your support worker is inexperienced, you might not want to pay maximum amounts; or if your worker has loads of experience you might want to pay more.

Note, that for people who have their NDIS plan plan managed, there are upper limits that the NDIA will pay  (and they might change over time).

Remember that often there are different rates for different times of the day and week.
Remember that there is also an industrial award that sets minimum pay rates for support workers.

5. Know where to find and engage your support workers

• Do you want to be able to find and engage your support workers yourself, or do you want to use support workers provided by an organisation?  
• Do you want to directly employ your support workers or do you want contractors?

There are laws that set out responsibilities when engaging other people to do work. These laws outline obligations such as pay rates, tax, GST, insurances, what happens if someone is injured, superannuation etc.
These responsibilities change depending on if the person is working as an employee for an organisation or individual or if they are working as self-employed contractor.
It’s important to be clear about your legal obligations if you are engaging your support workers directly yourself rather than through an organisation.
​
Where to find support workers?
Traditionally support workers worked for disability support organisations and  you can find workers by contacting those organisations.
Now, lots of people prefer to find their support workers themselves.
Some places you can look for support workers may also include:

• university or TAFE student association
• ask your friends, extended family and neighbours if they know anyone
• people from your church or faith community, or a social group or club you go to
• ask your therapists or other support workers you know if they know anyone who might be interested
• through a platform such as HireUp, Like Family, Care seekers or Mable
• advertise on Gumtree, in your local paper, or through employment websites like Seek (be careful about how much personal information you share in your advertisement)​

6. Plan for meeting and interviewing 
Most people prefer to interview their potential support workers before agreeing to work with them.
You can organise to meet someone by phone, online (through face time, Skype or Zoom), email or in person.

This will give you the opportunity to ask them about:

• their experience with people with a disability
• their qualifications and other skills,
• maybe their find out about their hobbies and interests.  
• It also give you the chance to see if think you will get along.

Think about questions you would like to ask them beforehand and maybe write them down.
 
Also be mindful of things that are not ok to ask in an interview, because they might be considered private or could be seen as being discriminatory.
If you have decided to ask a disability support organisation to provide your support workers, ask the organisation about how you can meet and interview potential support workers before they commence working with you.
Some more tips for meeting, interviewing and deciding on potential support workers 

• Be careful when advertising and meeting people for the first time to keep yourself safe

• If you are meeting face to face - meet  in a public place the first time – for example, at a library, in a café or at the pub
• Think about questions you would like to ask them and what would you like to know about them.
• Ask for contacts for their referees – so you can find out a little bit more about them and what they are like to work with
• Check out if they have a current NDIS Worker Check , First Aid Certificate, drivers licence and car insurance (if you will be needing them to help with transport)
• Check if there have been any concerns with their work in the past or if they are not allowed to work as a support worker: 
• You might like to take a friend or someone you trust with you so that you can hear their thoughts on the person as well ​

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7. Know how to make an agreement
Once you’ve decided on your new support worker/s, it’s a good idea to have a written agreement in place between you and your support worker or their organisation that you both agree to and sign.
The agreement should set out things like:

• What the support worker will assist you with and when
• Any expectations about how you will treat each other
• How much you will pay them and how you will pay them
• What to do if things go wrong
• How to end or change the agreement
• Any contact details for you, the person and emergency contact
• Space for signatures and dates 

If you are directly engaging your support worker, it should also include things like:

• Who is responsible for paying income tax, GST, superannuation etc
• Any insurance arrangements and who is responsible for those

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Finally, do you know that all people who work with people with disability need to complete the NDIS Safeguard Commission’s Worker Orientation Module ‘Quality, Safety and You’?

The course is free and a Certificate of Completion is provided on completion. can ask your worker to show you their certificate. If they don’t have one, they can do the training for free.