What’s the deal with ‘stated supports’?
Why on earth does the NDIA Keep Moving the Goalposts on Stated Supports?!
If you work in the disability sector, you’ll know how confusing this year has been. I liken the NDIA to my local Aldi checkout cashier, throwing changes thick and fast at participants and providers alike, seeing who can manage to keep up with the changes and who crumbles under the pressure. One of the areas the NDIA have changed their minds on, what feels like countless times, is Stated Supports.
Stated supports are different from other types of funding because the legislation means that the funding becomes completely tied down for a very specific use. This means the money can’t be easily shifted, even if you find another support that meets your needs more effectively. While flexible supports give you room to make decisions, stated supports are locked in, and the NDIA’s explanations about how they should work seem to change from month to month.
This has been particularly tricky for us to manage when considering the professional overlap in scope between Exercise Physiology and Physiotherapy – for some of our participants, Exercise Physiology services are most appropriate when the client’s disability symptoms are stable, but they may require Physiotherapy during a symptom flare up, and these stated supports just do not allow us to be responsive!
Over the past year, the guidance on stated supports has been anything but consistent. On July 16th this year, the NDIA suggested participants could use stated funds more broadly within the same category. Phew! We cried a massive sigh of relief, but unfortunately that relief was short-lived because on the 17th of July, that written confirmation was removed from the NDIA website. Not long after, that message flipped back to the opposite — funds must be spent exactly as worded in the plan. Then, just as people were adjusting, the guidance shifted again. For participants and providers, this constant back-and-forth creates unnecessary stress and makes it harder to deliver services with confidence.
At the time of writing this piece, the NDIS FAQ page literally does not mention the term ‘stated support’ once, which is very confusing given this is one of the most frequently asked questions we hear from our participants everyday. There is a new question on the NDIS FAQ page that seems to confirm that the process of ‘unstating a support’ is…not something that would generally be changed in the planning process”. However, some of our participants have had success seeking variation for Stated Supports.
If the way a support is written down no longer reflects your needs, you have the right to ask for a plan variation or review. If you’re unsure, start by contacting the NDIA or talking to your trusted family or advocates about what might be best for you!
If you want to read more about the chaos that has been Stated Supports this year, DSC wrote an excellent long form article on this that you can access here.
Hopefully the NDIA will release some clearer information about Stated Supports and therapy in the future.
