The Three Levels of Support Coordination, Explained Properly

There may be a line item in your NDIS plan for support coordination, but what type? There are actually three levels, at three different hourly rates, and the level you’re funded at shapes the help you receive. Many participants don’t even know which level they’re on, or that the levels differ at all.

If you've opened your NDIS plan and seen "Support Coordination" but aren't sure what it means, you're not alone.

Many participants and families aren't told there are three different levels of Support Coordination, or how those levels affect the support they receive.

The good news is that it's much simpler than it sounds.

At Support Network, we regularly work alongside participants, families, Support Coordinators and Plan Managers to help people understand their options and connect with the right support workers. This guide explains each level in plain English so you can better understand your funding and feel more confident about your options.

Let’s look at each one properly: what it is, what it costs against your plan in 2025-26, who it’s for, and how to tell if you’re funded at the right level.

Level 1: Support Connection, $80.06 an Hour

Support Connection is the lightest touch. It’s there to help you understand your plan and connect you with support, with the expectation that you’ll steer the process from there on.

Typically a Level 1 allocation is fairly small, and likely to go to someone who will explain your funding, identify and reach out to initial providers, and show how the pieces fit together. It works best for participants with relatively simple situations, where the need for coordination isn’t constant, and where they have the means or informal support (family, friends) to coordinate ongoing services and activities.

What it isn’t: an ongoing service. For those whose needs are complex, or whose support arrangements keep needing intervention, Level 1 will feel like a map being handed over from a distance and waved goodbye. That’s an indicator you might need Level 2, which is worth taking up at your next reassessment.

Many participants don't know which level they're funded for. If you're unsure, your Support Coordinator, Plan Manager or the NDIA can help you identify it.

Level 2: Coordination of Supports, $100.14 an Hour

This is the workhorse, the level most funded participants have, and what’s often referred to simply as “support coordination.”

A Level 2 coordinator carries out the full process throughout your plan cycle: translating your plan into plain English, identifying and linking you to providers who best meet your goals, negotiating service agreements, coordinating multiple services to work together (and not in silos), intervening when services stop working as agreed, and supporting you in preparing for your reassessment. This is interwoven with the capacity-building intent: building up your own skills and confidence so that you need less coordination, not more.

Level 2 is for those who have a number of providers to juggle, changing needs, or situations where things go wrong from time to time and someone needs to put them right, and it covers a high proportion of the scheme. One honest note: the Level 2 rate has effectively been held at the same rate for the past six years, since 2019-20, putting a squeeze on providers and lengthening workloads throughout the sector. Good Level 2 coordination exists, but it’s a strain, and that’s why having a good coordinator matters.

Level 3: Specialist Support Coordination, $190.54 an Hour

This is the specialist tier, and Specialist Support Coordination is different from the other types. As well as the increase in rate, there’s a difference in what’s being provided.

Level 3 is funded when a participant has complex or serious psychosocial needs, and/or unstable housing or homelessness, and/or engages with multiple service systems (health, housing, justice, child protection) at the same time, and/or complex health needs, and/or crisis-prone circumstances, and/or serious challenges or risk that ordinary coordination can’t safely address. The specialist coordinator will have appropriate professional qualifications, usually allied health or social work, and will be actively involved in risk management, not simply service connection.

There’s also a regulation difference most participants are never told about: Specialist Support Coordinators have always needed to be registered with the NDIS and to comply with a set of extra practice requirements, which still apply, while the government works on a broader reform that would see all coordinators registered as part of the process. If your plan provides Level 3, you have the right to a registered provider with specialist experience. Verify it.

There’s no point anyone who simply wants more attention requesting Level 3 instead of Level 2, because that’s not how the NDIS funds it. Level 3 is the level for when it’s genuinely needed.

Which Level Is Your Funding?

If your NDIS plan feels confusing, you're not alone. Many people find technical terms and funding language difficult to understand. Taking the time to ask questions and understand your plan can help you make more informed decisions about your supports.

Look at your plan (or ask your plan manager, LAC or the NDIA): the funding will be listed under Capacity Building, and the description or line items will tell you the level. If you aren’t sure, ask your coordinator outright: “What level am I funded at, and how many hours is that for?”

The arithmetic is worth doing once: a $4,000 coordination budget is roughly 50 hours at Level 1, 40 hours at Level 2, or 21 hours at Level 3. Anyone who understands their hours will find it changes how they use them.

Funded at the Wrong Level?

It happens in both directions. Some participants with complex but crisis-prone situations are under-funded at Level 2 and spend hours “firefighting”; some with stable situations are over-funded at Level 2. If your level isn’t representative of your reality, that’s a reassessment conversation: present evidence, put together with help from your coordinator, of why your situation needs more (or different) coordination than is funded. If the situation is truly complex, the best evidence for a Level 3 request is a report from a treating professional outlining the risks and complexity.

Looking Ahead

This three-level structure won’t be permanent. As part of the government’s confirmed reform timeline, from 1 July 2028 it intends to introduce a commissioned support coordination model, part of the transition to ‘navigators’ replacing coordinators and LACs. You don’t need to change your plan, coordination continues as normal, but if you’re making long-term arrangements, it’s worth being aware of this change later this decade.

So for now: know your level, know your hours, and make sure both match the life you’re actually living.

At every level of coordination, Support Network can link you with the support workers your plan funds. Find support workers at supportnetwork.com.au or call 1300 671 931.