Resources
The following resources have been put together as a result of our work with people who are participants in the NDIS.
You might find them useful.
Below you will find resources on:
You might find them useful.
Below you will find resources on:
- Advocacy and Speaking up
- NDIS Resources
- General Information
- Info for families
Speaking up
At home, in community, with services or at your NDIA review meeting, speaking up and saying want you think and want can be hard. Below links to three excellent, easy read, tip sheets you can use to support you with speaking up.
Advocacy
Having access to independent advocacy can be important if you are trying to find out about your rights, or maybe to give you some help speaking out.. Here are a few useful links to advocacy information:
Disability Advocacy Finder:
You can search advocacy services by postcode - not bad if you are looking for a local service.
https://disabilityadvocacyfinder.dss.gov.au/disability/ndap/
Disability Advocacy Network Australia, DANA:
They have great information on advocacy and also a list of advocacy organisations.
http://www.dana.org.au/
advokit- NDIS
This is a website specifically to support NDIS participants with advocacy and other information.
http://www.advokit.org.au/
Disability Advocacy Finder:
You can search advocacy services by postcode - not bad if you are looking for a local service.
https://disabilityadvocacyfinder.dss.gov.au/disability/ndap/
Disability Advocacy Network Australia, DANA:
They have great information on advocacy and also a list of advocacy organisations.
http://www.dana.org.au/
advokit- NDIS
This is a website specifically to support NDIS participants with advocacy and other information.
http://www.advokit.org.au/
General Information
Wow, where to start? This is a wild environment with loads of new start ups and existing organisations.
Here are a few:
Disability Gateway
A site maintained my Department of Social Services has information and services to help people wiht disability, their family, friends and carers, to find the support they need www.disabilitygateway.gov.au or 1800 643 787
Council for Intellectual Disability (NSW CID)
If you are after quality information in relation to anything to do with intellectual disability, we recommend their very personalised service. They are great on the www.cid.org.au or call them on 1800 424 065
NDIS Portal
If you are a NDIS Participant you might like to 'play' with the "find a serivce provider" tile in the My Place NDIS Portal. You will need to log on before you can use it. Apparently improvements have been made to make this more user friendly.
Here are a few:
Disability Gateway
A site maintained my Department of Social Services has information and services to help people wiht disability, their family, friends and carers, to find the support they need www.disabilitygateway.gov.au or 1800 643 787
Council for Intellectual Disability (NSW CID)
If you are after quality information in relation to anything to do with intellectual disability, we recommend their very personalised service. They are great on the www.cid.org.au or call them on 1800 424 065
NDIS Portal
If you are a NDIS Participant you might like to 'play' with the "find a serivce provider" tile in the My Place NDIS Portal. You will need to log on before you can use it. Apparently improvements have been made to make this more user friendly.
NDIS Resources
Where to start?
Because information changes all the time we think you should keep an eye on the NDIS website
We also recommend that you sign up for the NDIS e-newsletter
If you are a user of facebook you might like to check out the NDIS grassroots discussion facebook page. It's a very active page (over 55,000 members), very popular, mostly has great information, but sometimes it gets very angry and sometimes diverse views are not so well respected. We recommend you check it out and see if this is for you.
Also for great and often entertaining info you can't go past our colleague Sam from The Growing Space in South Australia. Her facebook posts, the blog and especially her NDIS tips are ace!
And below are some links to documents many people have asked about , but PLEASE check that they are not out of date by checking the NDIS website
Accessing the NDIS:
If you are new to the NDIS and are checking things out and how to apply and access the NDIA to apply, start with this page.
Just so you know, once the NDIS has received your access request, they must respond within 21 days. For more information check out the NDIS Service Charter
What does the NDIS mean by "reasonable and necessary"?
You can find a bit of a video here https://www.ndis.gov.au/understanding/supports-funded-ndis/reasonable-and-necessary-supports
Once you've got a NDIS plan:
Starting your Plan
Managing your funding and plan
Step by step guide to accessing the My Place NDIS portal
The NDIS provides information about the maximum amounts that can be paid for support that you can buy using the funds in your Plan. NDIS updates these on 1st July each year, so make sure you have the most current list.
Here is the current pricing guide for 2021/2022
Making Service Agreements with service providers
Employing your own staff
If you really want to understand how the NDIS works and what the guidelines are, we recommend you read the Operational Guidelines and/or the NDIA legislation
When things with the NDIS are not right:
There are different things you can do, and different actions might be required at different times.
There are administrative reviews, desk-top reviews, unscheduled reviews, reviews of reviewable decisions, internal reviews, external reviews, AAT reviews, etc. Some of them even mean the same thing. It is messy, it is confusing and it is changing all the time.
If you can, talk to your Local Area Coordinator (LAC), your NDIA planner or your Coordinator of Support, if you have one.
You can try and ring the NDIS 1800 800 110.
You can speak with one of the advocacy organisations (above).
And of course you can fill in this form to make a complaint directly to NDIS or through the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission or by calling 1800 035 544.
Because information changes all the time we think you should keep an eye on the NDIS website
We also recommend that you sign up for the NDIS e-newsletter
If you are a user of facebook you might like to check out the NDIS grassroots discussion facebook page. It's a very active page (over 55,000 members), very popular, mostly has great information, but sometimes it gets very angry and sometimes diverse views are not so well respected. We recommend you check it out and see if this is for you.
Also for great and often entertaining info you can't go past our colleague Sam from The Growing Space in South Australia. Her facebook posts, the blog and especially her NDIS tips are ace!
And below are some links to documents many people have asked about , but PLEASE check that they are not out of date by checking the NDIS website
Accessing the NDIS:
If you are new to the NDIS and are checking things out and how to apply and access the NDIA to apply, start with this page.
Just so you know, once the NDIS has received your access request, they must respond within 21 days. For more information check out the NDIS Service Charter
What does the NDIS mean by "reasonable and necessary"?
You can find a bit of a video here https://www.ndis.gov.au/understanding/supports-funded-ndis/reasonable-and-necessary-supports
Once you've got a NDIS plan:
Starting your Plan
Managing your funding and plan
Step by step guide to accessing the My Place NDIS portal
The NDIS provides information about the maximum amounts that can be paid for support that you can buy using the funds in your Plan. NDIS updates these on 1st July each year, so make sure you have the most current list.
Here is the current pricing guide for 2021/2022
Making Service Agreements with service providers
Employing your own staff
If you really want to understand how the NDIS works and what the guidelines are, we recommend you read the Operational Guidelines and/or the NDIA legislation
When things with the NDIS are not right:
There are different things you can do, and different actions might be required at different times.
There are administrative reviews, desk-top reviews, unscheduled reviews, reviews of reviewable decisions, internal reviews, external reviews, AAT reviews, etc. Some of them even mean the same thing. It is messy, it is confusing and it is changing all the time.
If you can, talk to your Local Area Coordinator (LAC), your NDIA planner or your Coordinator of Support, if you have one.
You can try and ring the NDIS 1800 800 110.
You can speak with one of the advocacy organisations (above).
And of course you can fill in this form to make a complaint directly to NDIS or through the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission or by calling 1800 035 544.
Resources for Families
With over 10% of NDIS participants being children under the age of 7 and loads more young people, resources for families are critical. There is a lot out there, but here a list of links and resources we found useful:
Family Advocacy
has been working with families to promote and defend the rights and interests of people with developmental disability for over 30 years. they work to strengthen families, communities and advocacy so that families striving for a socially valued life for their family member does and will create a richer society whereby people with disability are seen as valuable societal contributors.
Kindred
is a community of families – for families with children with disability. They provide peer support, connection, education and resources. . There is loads of info and you can subscribe to a newsletter
Reframing Autism
Run by Autistic people including Autistic mums and dads, this organisation provides Autistic-led education, Autistic produced resources, and Autistic leadership. There is loads of info and you can subscribe to a newsletter.
Carer Gateway
is the national network of support services for carers. Their services include counselling, coaching, peer support, Carer directed support packages, access to planned and emergency respite.
Plumtree blog great opinion pieces from our friends over at Plumtree on independence, NDIS, Peer supports, parent perspectives and more. There is also other info on their page that you might find useful.
Family Advocacy
has been working with families to promote and defend the rights and interests of people with developmental disability for over 30 years. they work to strengthen families, communities and advocacy so that families striving for a socially valued life for their family member does and will create a richer society whereby people with disability are seen as valuable societal contributors.
Kindred
is a community of families – for families with children with disability. They provide peer support, connection, education and resources. . There is loads of info and you can subscribe to a newsletter
Reframing Autism
Run by Autistic people including Autistic mums and dads, this organisation provides Autistic-led education, Autistic produced resources, and Autistic leadership. There is loads of info and you can subscribe to a newsletter.
Carer Gateway
is the national network of support services for carers. Their services include counselling, coaching, peer support, Carer directed support packages, access to planned and emergency respite.
Plumtree blog great opinion pieces from our friends over at Plumtree on independence, NDIS, Peer supports, parent perspectives and more. There is also other info on their page that you might find useful.
