Your Choices - Catholiccarechoices

The NDIS brings a new level of choice in how you arrange and secure the services you need and want.

Where in the past you have largely lacked control in the decisions made about services and funding, you are now able to exercise choices and take full control if you want to.

The most proactive of your choices is when you self manage your NDIS plan and engage and implementation your plan with your chosen service providers and staff.

To give you ultimate choice, our services are available to NDIS participants as a menu or complete package. You can also purchase these services on a 'fee for service' basis if you are not an NDIS participant.

The most obvious advantage of managing your own plan is that you are in total control. In some ways, you are running your own business that is focused on buying the services you want.

It’s entirely up to you to determine your needs and choose services to meet those needs. You can do this with a view to your immediate needs and your long-term aspirations.

Based on your funding package, you manage your own budget, control your spending and account for the use of your funds.

Importantly, you select the organisations and people who support you. If you are not satisfied, you can simply terminate the service. After all, it’s you who pays the organisation or staff.

As said, taking the choice to manage your plan is like running a business.

So, all the matters that a business needs to attend to will be in your control.

You will be on your own as you negotiate with service providers. You will also need to advertise and recruiting individuals if you chose to self employ your workers.

Often you will need to organise and supervise the training of staff. You will also need to negotiate their wages and manage their timetables and attendance.

Like any business, you will need to manage their annual and sick leave and organise replacements as required. Similarly, you will be responsible for other Human Resource matters such as workplace health and safety and conflict resolution.

Like any business, you will find the task involved will be time intensive and leave you with less time to pursue other activities you enjoy.

If you are a person with disability who wishes to participate in the NDIS, your first step is to check the access requirements. These can be found at http://www.ndis.gov.au/ndis-access-checklist

If you do meet the requirements, you will access the individualised planning processes through the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) who will also be able to provide you with information about other supports that could be of benefit to you and assist in referral to these.

The NDIS is all about you making choices that best fit your needs and lifestyle.

This choice is about you working with us to organise and manage your plan so that it blends the things you would like us to look after and the things you still want to control.

For instance, you may want to make the final decisions on who your personal assistants are, but have us manage the recruitment process and day to day management including all the normal HR requirements.

You may wish to manage certain aspects of your plan but have us handle others. For example, you might like to hold the funds associated with your therapy supports, but have us manage the funds for your cores supports.

In simplest terms, this choice is about you and us working together to implement your plan and make it happen.

This choice is probably best suited to people who want to have control and flexibility but with less demand on their time.

You will have full support from us while you pick and choose the aspects of your care that are most important to you.

Potentially the biggest advantage will be around the access to HR and administrative support that we can provide as you implement your plan.

Importantly, you will have the ability to compare and choose the service that best meets your needs and is best value for money.

While this choice means less time than full management of your plan, you will still need to devote your time to work with us on devising and implementing your plan.

Much of this time will be spent reviewing the various options we provide to you and making decisions on which options will best suit your needs.

This will continue as your plan is implemented and issues arise. For instance, when your staff are taking leave, you will need to work with us to recruit and decide on suitable replacements.

It is also important to understand that service providers have to comply with government regulations and you will have to work according to relevant policies and procedures.

Having decided to share planning with us, the first step will be to contact us and we will meet to discuss and develop a service agreement in line with your NDIA Plan and begin the process of making choices about what you want us to work on and what you wish to retain control of.

This is likely the best choice for people who wish to spend as much of their time pursuing other activities or have limited capacity to make decisions on the services they need.

In a nutshell, this choice will mean that we will help you to analyse your plan and then liaise with service providers and take care of all administrative functions.

We will handle the initial set-up of the plan and ongoing management of the plan as a Registered Plan Management Provider.

Our support will include managing your budget, paying your bills, assisting with financial management.

This is likely the best choice for people who wish to spend as much of their time pursuing other activities or have limited capacity to make decisions on the services they need.

This choice will mean that you will be able to engage non registered service providers and potentially negotiate the hourly rates of services. As a Registered Plan Manager, we will help you to analyse your plan and establish agreements with service providers, we will pay your invoices and monitor the balance of your plan.

While this choice offers ultimate peace of mind, you may feel some loss of control as you wont see the invoices that are being paid on your behalf.

If you have selected to have your supports Plan Managed and you with CatholicCare to be your Plan Manager, your first step is to contact us to discuss your individual circumstance and needs.

Based on these discussions, we will then work through our services and those provided by other providers, before making recommendations and drafting a comprehensive plan that will underpin your funding package.

Whatever choice you make on the level of involvement you will have in managing your plan; you are able to choose from our extensive list of services.

Our services include fully supported and independent living accommodation, household task and personal care services, daily living and life skills, participation in community, physical wellbeing and therapeutic supports and support coordination.

Importantly, our services are available to NDIS participants as a menu or complete package. You can also purchase these services on a ‘fee for service’ basis if you are not an NDIS participant.

A key aspect of the NDIS is the ability for individuals to select individual services from different service providers that join up into a comprehensive and tailored package.

Our ‘menu’ of services empowers individuals to select services that are useful to their overall vision.

You can pick as many or as few as you desire.

For example, you might choose to access our accommodation services but select some other services, such as social support to be delivered by another provider.

Or you might want to use your funding package to purchase most or all of our services from us so that it is easier to manage.

The choice is yours and our extensive menu of services will help you identify and secure important components of your care needs. If you have already chosen us to fully manage or share management of your plan, you can be confident that you will receive impartial advice on the supports and services available to you.

It’s important that the services you select are individually appropriate but also join together into a cohesive plan.

There is a danger when selecting individual services that you might inadvertently cause overlaps (and unnecessary expenditure) or gaps in your care.

You will need to take special care in assessing each service to understand what they offer and don’t offer. It will be important to not assume anything and ensure that you fully understand the scope of a service and are able to gauge the value each service offers. You should seek impartial advice to help make these decisions if necessary.

If you have your NDIS Plan already in place then review our services to identify which will fit your needs.

Or, alternatively, you can contact us to arrange an initial discussion where we can review your needs or plan and suggest suitable services.

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