When A Participant Can't Find A Support Worker: A Helping Hand For Plan Managers

It's usually the easiest person to reach in a participant's world, the plan manager. You're the one whose number is saved. You're the one who answers when the person who works for them has moved on, or the Saturday shift has gone unfilled for a few weeks, or the family are looking at their Core budget in October and beginning to wonder.

The hiring of workers isn't part of the job, per se. However, most plan managers we speak to want to be helpful during those times, and it's good to have a place to direct people. We hope Support Network can help there.

What We Do

Support Network is a website that links NDIS participants directly with independent support workers: 12,000+ pre-vetted workers across Australia, searchable by postcode.

Participants or their representative browse the profiles, select the people they'd like to work with, and form a team that fits them. It is user-friendly and free to search.

Here are some of the reasons we think plan managers find it easy to share.

Participants do the choosing

You're not putting forward a particular person or provider. You're sharing a space where they can look for themselves, and the choice remains entirely theirs. That's a comfortable separation for plan managers who, by nature, are conscious of independence and conflict of interest, and it's easy to document.

The screening is pre-sorted

All platform workers undergo police checks, Working With Children Checks and NDIS Worker Screening prior to appearing. It simply means a participant who might otherwise have arranged something informally now has a safer, more streamlined option, and you're less likely to see the paperwork hassles that come with informal arrangements.

Tidy invoicing

We know how much of your week goes to invoices, and how long an unclear one can take. Worker payments go through the platform, so invoices always arrive formatted the same way, with the correct line items and up-to-date NDIS Pricing Arrangements applied. Nothing revolutionary. Just one less provider to chase.

Coverage across metro and regional areas

Thin markets are difficult, and we'll admit that. What we can offer is a network spanning Australia wide and if nothing local comes up, participants can post a job to the wider network rather than waiting.

The Kinds Of Support Available

• Daily living: housework, meal prep, gardening, transport, errands.
• Personal care: showering, hoist transfers, exercise assistance.
• Complex and nursing care: wound care, medication management, 24-hour support, palliative.
• Allied health: occupational therapy, psychology, physiotherapy, speech pathology.
• Community access: social activities, skill building, getting out and about.

How To Share It

• Pass on the link. When a participant mentions they're looking, supportnetwork.com.au is a simple one to add to the options you'd normally share.
• Let them search their own postcode. It's self-serve, so there's nothing you need to set up on their behalf.
• Include their support coordinator. If coordination is funded, this is a tool coordinators use too, alongside their work rather than instead of it.
• Get in touch if something's proving tricky. If a participant is struggling to fill a particular shift or need, we're happy to help look, contact us through our dedicated line, email or partnerships program.

We'd Love To Work With You

We'd love to talk to you, or sign up on the site and explore it at your own pace. Registration is free and takes only a few minutes. Whether you'd like to see how the search works, or just keep our details on hand to share with participants, we'd be happy to help.

We'd be delighted to hear from you. Register on the platform, or give us a call on 1300 671 931, and we'll be glad to send you a plan manager 'one-pager' for your team.