Your NDIS plan will outline a range of supports which are aimed to help you reach the goals specified in your plan. These supports can come from:

• Family and friends – also known as informal supports
• Services and community groups
• NDIS reasonable and necessary funded supports

Reasonable and necessary supports are those funded by the NDIS, which will help participants to:

• pursue their goals, objectives and aspirations
• increase their independence
• increase social and economic participation, and
• develop their capacity to actively take part in the community

In order to be considered a support which is reasonable and necessary, it must:

• be related to the participant’s disability
• not include day-to-day living costs that are not related to a participant’s disability support needs
• represent value for money
• be likely to be effective and beneficial to the participant, and
• take into account informal supports given to participants by families, carers, networks, and the community

Daily Livings relates to four different support categories: Assistance with daily life, Transport, Consumables and Assistance with social and community participation . In an NDIS plan, the description under Daily Livings will refer to two or more of these support categories.

This support category funds to assist/supervise personal tasks of daily life to enable you to live as independently as possible. This can include:

• personal care
• household tasks
• cleaning
• laundry
• meal preparation/delivery
• gardening

This also includes assistance for people living in a shared environment

Funds to help purchase everyday use items. This can include:

• continence products
• Home Enteral Nutrition (HEN) products
• interpreting
• translating

Funds to enable a participant to engage community/social or recreational activities. This may include the provision of care as well as activity costs. Activities can include:

• camps
• vacation
• outside school hours’ care
• course or membership fees

This can also include funding to document the process and expected outcomes.

Stated supports – not flexible

Any services listed as ‘stated supports’ are not flexible. This means funding has been allocated for a specific support or service, and you can’t use this funding for something else. You cannot swap ‘stated supports’ for any other supports.

In-kind supports – pre-paid

If there are supports in your plan that are listed as ‘in-kind’, it means the service has already been paid for by your state, territory or the Australian government. You must use this provider as they have already received payment and will provide all services that are booked. This means you cannot choose a provider for that service, however if you have a concern about using a specific in-kind provider, you are encouraged to raise your concerns with your ECEI Coordinator, LAC or NDIA planner.

As the NDIS roll out continues across Australia, it is expected that in-kind supports will be phased out and you will have choice and control over the providers you use.