How a Support Coordinator Can Help You With a Plan Reassessment

All NDIS plans conclude in the same manner: reassessment, the determining factor of what’s included in the next plan. And in this time, with intentional budget growth decreasing making funding decisions more limited, this meeting is more important than ever.

Too many people find a support coordinator to be one of their greatest assets when it comes to a reassessment, yet most never use it that way. They use up their coordination time in the day-to-day of the year, get to reassessment with what remains (often nothing), and come into the most significant process of the scheme unprepared.

This is a different way to do it: what a coordinator really adds during reassessment, and how to make sure yours does.

If you're approaching an NDIS plan reassessment and feeling unsure about what to expect, you're not alone. Many participants only realise how important this meeting is when it's almost here.

At Support Network, we help participants prepare early, understand what evidence is needed and work alongside Support Coordinators to give every reassessment the best possible foundation.

Why Reassessments Matter More Now

The NDIA has changed its focus. Outcomes, what participants can do, how lives are changing, are cited first in its own reporting, not services delivered. In practice, it is demonstrated function and documented need that will increasingly inform reassessment decisions: what your supports enabled, what would happen if you did not have them, whether your funding was utilised, and whether it was used effectively.

A reassessment case based on ‘things have been okay’ is poor. A case based on documented outcomes, existing evidence of practice, and a clear narrative of how the funding was allocated, is strong. That’s what a coordinator’s work is all about.

The Coordinator’s Contribution, in Concrete Terms

An evidence trail that runs the whole year. A good coordinator keeps a record as they go: what was successfully connected, what was achieved, what went wrong and why, and how funding was used. This is the basis of your case at reassessment, a factual record that links each dollar to a need and a result. Without it, the participant is trying to reconstruct a year from memory; with it, the participant tells the planner a coherent story.

Timing the professional reports. Fresh evidence always trumps old evidence. Coordinators know when the reassessment is imminent and can request or commission new reports from your OT, physio, psychologist or GP when it’s recent enough to be relevant, but not so late as to be impractical. They can also explain the purpose of reports: a concrete functional description (“needs help with X, will not manage without Y”) instead of a generic support letter.

Explaining the underspend, or preventing it. Money that’s not spent is a problem at reassessment, because it suggests the money wasn’t required. A coordinator’s first line of defence is to prevent underspend all year (connecting you to supports that actually start). If underspend occurs for any reason, provider waitlists, not enough workers in your area, the coordinator records the reason, and so changes “didn’t use it” into “couldn’t access it despite trying”, and keeps arguing to maintain funding, not reduce it.

Framing the ask. To the coordinator, reassessments are a routine part of the job; to you, it’s one a cycle. They understand how requests are received, the documentation each funding stream needs, and how to connect all of this to the goals framework the planner is operating in. They help you build a case for more, more coordination, more core supports, new supports, rather than making a vague request.

Being in the room. You have the right to bring support to your reassessment meeting, and a coordinator is often the most useful person to take: they can present the support-history facts, identify and correct misunderstandings as they occur, and keep the conversation on track. Ask them to attend. It’s a valid, worthwhile use of time.

After the decision. If the new plan comes back wrong, funding cut when your needs haven’t changed much, your coordinator will help you find out exactly what changed, collect the evidence you need to appeal to the Administrative Review Tribunal (which must be requested within three months), and support you through the appeal if necessary. The documentation that was used to win the reassessment is the review case.

The Practical Playbook

A plan reassessment isn't something you need to prepare for on your own. Starting early and asking for help can reduce stress and give you more time to gather the information you need.

Be purposeful, not passive:

Reserve the hours. Early in the plan, arrange with your coordinator to set aside a block of hours, five to eight, for reassessment preparation. At the Level 2 rate of $100.14 per hour, that’s a modest, high-value allocation.

Start 3-4 months out. Preparation is not a week’s work. Three to four months before reassessment: review the year together, identify evidence gaps, order professional reports, and compile the utilisation story.

Do the pre-meeting. Just before the reassessment, run through it: what you’ll say, what evidence you’ll refer to, what you’ll request and why, and what questions you can expect. One hour of rehearsal alters the course of the real meeting.

Bring the pack. Turn up with a straightforward, structured set: goals and progress, current professional reports, a support and utilisation summary, and specific requests. Planners work from organised evidence; the case becomes easier.

If You Don’t Have a Coordinator

This responsibility falls to you. The same steps apply, but this time it’s on you (or your family): record results for the year, request current professional reports, track where your money goes, make specific requests. Your LAC can help with the process, and a free disability advocate (via the Disability Advocacy Finder) can help with the preparation and may attend your meeting. If this has genuinely been a challenge to manage on your own, that’s exactly the time to ask for coordination funding in the next plan, with this year’s difficulties as the proof.

The Bottom Line

A reassessment is not a chat, it’s the hearing that determines your support for the following year, in a scheme that has become increasingly tight on the purse strings. A support coordinator who has documented your year, timed the evidence, explained your spending, and prepared you for the room turns that hearing from a lottery into a case. Spare the hours, get started early, and don’t waste them, of all the hours in your plan, this is the one that pays for itself handily.

Support Network offers support coordination at all three levels, including the reassessment preparation that safeguards your plan. Learn more at supportnetwork.com.au or call 1300 671 931.