When (and How) to Change Your Support Coordinator

Here’s something too few participants act on: your support coordinator works for you, at your request, and you can change them. There’s no need to obtain NDIA approval, no need to wait for a reassessment, and no need to provide reasons to anyone.

But participants will still stick around with coordinators who offer very little or nothing, for months or years, simply because they’re polite, or a little afraid of changing and causing trouble. In the meantime, at the Level 2 rate of $100.14 per hour, coordination funding drains away without providing much for it. So let’s not be wishy-washy about when it’s OK to change, and how to do it without upsetting your supports.

If you're thinking about changing your Support Coordinator, it's natural to feel uncertain. Many participants worry they'll upset someone, lose their supports or make the wrong decision.

At Support Network, we want you to know that choosing the right Support Coordinator is your right. This guide explains when it may be time for a change and how to make the transition as smooth as possible.

The Signs It’s Time

You can’t say what they’ve done lately. The simplest test. Think back over the past two months: what in particular moved as a result of your coordinator? A provider connected, a problem solved, an agreement reached, evidence collected? If you can’t answer every time, it’s a cost of presence, not coordination.

They’ve gone quiet. Calls unreturned for a week or more, emails into the void, meetings repeatedly postponed. The reason for the poor service matters, many coordinators are overburdened with caseloads stemming from the six-year freeze on coordination rates, but that doesn’t mean you have to keep purchasing it.

Every recommendation leads back to their employer. If your coordinator is employed by an organisation that also provides services, and somehow their organisation is always the solution, you’re watching a conflict of interest. The NDIS Review was concerned with exactly these kinds of conflicts. You should get recommendations chosen for you, not for the revenue they bring in.

You spend all the hours and get nothing. You have the right to know how your coordination hours are being used. When a lot of time is billed for fuzzy activity, and your requests for an account get fuzzy answers, take it seriously.

You’ve outgrown them, or they’ve stopped growing you. Coordination is capacity building. After one year, if you don’t know your plan better than you did at the beginning, the main point of it has failed. At other times, nothing is wrong, but what you need is more complex than your coordinator can offer, which means it’s time to switch to a provider with more experience (or, where you have a valid, funded need, Specialist coordination).

The relationship just doesn’t work. Communication styles differ, you’re not heard, trust never developed. This is a valid reason in and of itself. Coordination is a working relationship, and a bad one will yield bad results, irrespective of competence.

What Isn’t Necessarily a Reason

Changing your Support Coordinator doesn't mean anyone has failed. Sometimes your needs change, personalities aren't the right fit, or you simply need a different style of support. What's most important is finding someone who helps you achieve your goals.

Two caveats, because fairness goes both ways. If your coordinator is telling you things you don’t want to hear, such as that a request isn’t claimable, or that your expectations of a provider are unrealistic, that could mean they’re doing their job well, not poorly. And one poor week while they’re on leave, or a sector-wide crunch, is “noise”, not “signal.” Look for patterns over months, not moments.

How to Change: The Practical Steps

1. Review your service agreement. Find the notice period (usually 2-4 weeks). That’s the only formal restriction on exiting.

2. Line up the new coordinator first. Don’t create a gap. Research and select your replacement before giving notice, as you would with any provider: local knowledge, responsiveness, independence from service delivery, clarity about hours. Confirm they can take you on, and when they can start.

3. Give written notice. A brief, professional email will suffice: you’re ending the service agreement as per the notice period, effective on the date. No explanation is due, but you can give one if you like. Be neutral no matter how upset you are, you might need this provider’s help during handover.

4. Ask for your records. Ask for copies of all information on your supports: provider contacts, service agreements, case notes, correspondence. It’s your right, and it makes the transition so much easier. Do this at notice time, in writing.

5. Brief the new coordinator properly. In the first session, have an honest exchange about your goals, your providers, what’s working, what’s broken, what the previous coordinator did and didn’t do, and, most importantly, how many coordination hours are still in your plan. That last number influences all the planning the new coordinator must do.

6. Inform your providers and plan manager. Just a quick note so everyone knows who the coordination contact is now. Your supports remain the same, a change of coordinator does not change your workers, therapists or funding.

The Cost Question

Changing does take some hours: the handover and the new coordinator’s orientation don’t happen free of charge. Allow a couple of hours of your remaining time for it. But weigh that thoughtfully against the alternative: months more of money spent on coordination that isn’t coordinating. A competent new coordinator usually recovers the switching cost within the first month or two, just by doing the job.

The Bottom Line

One of the few real choices available to participants in this scheme is the choice of provider, and it applies to coordinators as much as anyone. Evaluate on the simple measure of concrete progress you can name, month to month. Where it’s always missing, replace: line up your replacement, give notice, take your records, hand over well. Your coordination money is too scarce, and too valuable, to be wasted on someone who isn’t working for it.

Australia-wide, Support Network offers responsive support coordination at all three levels, and we’re here to make switching easy. Learn more at supportnetwork.com.au or call 1300 671 931.