Support Coordinator, Plan Manager or LAC: Who Does What?

If you’ve ever wondered whether to contact your support coordinator, your plan manager or your LAC about an issue, you’re in good company. The NDIS gives participants three different helpers, with the same or similar-sounding names, and almost no one clarifies what each one does.

If you're reading your NDIS plan for the first time, it's completely understandable if these roles seem confusing. Many participants and families aren't given a clear explanation of who does what.

At Support Network, we help participants understand how these roles work together so they know who to contact, save time and get the right help when they need it. This guide explains each role in plain English.

It’s not your fault, the confusion is just how it is. Even the NDIS Review saw the need to remove the multiple roles and consolidate “navigation” into a single “navigator” role from 2028. But that’s later. So here’s a description of what each one does, in very simple terms, for the system you’re living in now.

The One-Line Versions

Your support coordinator deals with the people and services side: understanding your plan, finding providers, resolving support problems and developing your skills.

Your plan manager takes care of the dollars: sending statements, tracking your budget and paying provider bills.

Your LAC (Local Area Coordinator) is the person from the NDIA side who helps you access the scheme, supports you at planning meetings, and connects you to community and mainstream services.

There isn’t a single job for all of it, there isn’t a single source of funding for it, and there isn’t a single loyalty behind it. Let’s go through them, one by one.

The Support Coordinator: Your Implementation Partner

A support coordinator is part of your plan (Capacity Building) and is funded for you. Their role is to make the plan document work: to help you understand what the money is for, to help you access services that meet your needs and are available, to negotiate service contracts, to fill in the gaps when a service falls through because a worker is unavailable, and to help you prepare for re-evaluation.

Coordination doesn’t come automatically, it needs to be designated and funded in your plan, usually at one of three levels: Level 2 ($100.14/hr in 2025-26) is the most common. If it’s part of your plan, it’s your choice which provider you use, and if it’s not working you can switch to another.

Call your coordinator when: you don’t understand your plan; you need a new provider; a support arrangement has failed or is running out; your reassessment is due.

The Plan Manager: Your Bookkeeper

Plan managers are registered financial intermediaries funded from a separate line in your plan (the “Improved Life Choices” limit in 2025-26 is $104.45 per month, and this doesn’t come from your support budget). They receive invoices from your providers, compare them to your budget and to the price limits, pay them, then send you statements.

What they don’t do is find providers, coordinate the solution of support problems, or build your capacity, that’s the difference. The two roles are complementary, and many participants have both: the coordinator organises the supports, the plan manager pays for them.

Call your plan manager when: a provider hasn’t been paid, you need to know what’s left in your budget, or you have an invoice question.

The LAC: The NDIA’s Local Partner

The key difference is that Local Area Coordinators work for organisations contracted with the NDIA. Your coordinator and plan manager are providers you choose and can replace; your LAC comes with the system.

LACs are integral to the NDIS process, helping people access the scheme, supporting plan implementation for those who aren’t receiving funded coordination, and linking people (including non-participants) to community and mainstream services. For many, where their situation is simple, the LAC is the only navigation aid they receive. If your plan includes a support coordinator, that will normally be the main point of contact for implementing your plan, and the LAC will be less visible.

Call your LAC when: you’ve applied for the scheme; you’re preparing for a planning meeting; you’re not funded for coordination and need basic help to get started.

Get Your Arms Around It, Without the Confusion

If you're ever unsure who to contact, you're not alone. Many participants ask the wrong person simply because the role titles sound similar. Understanding who is responsible for what can save you time and help resolve issues more quickly.

Most mix-ups come from three overlaps.

Who can tell me who my providers are? If you have a support coordinator, they will; if you don’t, your LAC will (in a more limited sense). Never the plan manager, though participants ask them all the time.

Who is responsible for a payment issue? The plan manager. Coordinators are constantly dragged into chasing invoices, wasting coordination hours when it should be the plan manager’s job. Redirect it, and preserve your hours.

Who takes care of my reassessment? Your coordinator, who is the main person helping you gather evidence and prepare your case. The LAC handles parts of the process on behalf of the NDIA. The plan manager’s key contribution is the spending records, which are useful evidence, so request a statement history before a reassessment.

Can One Organisation Hold Several Roles?

Sometimes, and it’s worth pausing here. An organisation providing both your coordination and your other services, or your plan management, has an inherent conflict of interest, because its coordinator will benefit from recommending that organisation’s services. These conflicts were identified by the NDIS Review as a key issue with the current intermediary system, and are one of the reasons the navigator redesign completely decouples navigation from service delivery. If one organisation has more than one role in your plan, ask them directly how they deal with the conflict, and don’t be surprised if their recommendations never leave the building.

The Cheat Sheet

Money question: the plan manager. A problem with a provider or support worker: the support coordinator. Getting into the scheme, planning meetings, or no funded coordination: the LAC. If in any doubt, your coordinator is the best to call, since part of their job is knowing whose job it is.

The three-role structure isn’t permanent, and navigators are planned to replace coordinators and LACs from 1 July 2028. That said, that’s for a future article. As long as everyone knows what to do and who to go to, you save time and coordination hours, and get problems to the person who can solve them.

Whichever helpers are in your corner, Support Network can put you in touch with the support workers who provide the day-to-day support. Find support workers at supportnetwork.com.au or call 1300 671 931.