Home and living supports
The NDIA can fund supports to help a participant live independently. There are number of supports that the NDIA can fund to support this. Some of the major supports that can be funded are Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA); Supported Independent Living (SIL) supports and Individualised Living Options (ILO).
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SDA are NDIS-funded ‘bricks and mortar’ housing options designed for people with very high support needs. The SDA rules require that all providers be registered as NDIS providers with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (‘NDIS Commission’) and SDA dwellings must be enrolled with the NDIA.
To be eligible for SDA there are a number of additional requirements that need to be met above and beyond the reasonable and necessary requirement. Many of these requirements are set out in the NDIS (Specialist Disability Accommodation) Rules 2021 (Cth) (‘SDA Rules’). Specifically, to be eligible for SDA a person must be deemed to have an extreme functional impairment, have very high support needs, and also meet the SDA requirement set out in rule 14.
There are currently four design categories outlined in the SDA Rules: improved liveability; robust; fully accessible; high physical support. The SDA Design Standard provides further details as to the features and requirements for new SDA builds.
While SDA funding in a person’s plan will include the cost of the SDA building itself, they will need to pay a rent contribution.
If a person is seeking to have SDA funding in their plan, they can reach out to their planner, support coordinator or LAC. There may also be a benefit from a suitably qualified occupational therapist to undertake a functional capacity assessment.
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SIL supports are another type of support that the NDIA can fund to help a person live in their home independently. To qualify for SIL supports, a person requires a significant level of assistance from another person every day including supports in the evening and overnight. This support could include supervision or prompting with activities of daily living such as personal care gardening and meal preparation.
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ILO are flexible supports packaged to include a mix of formal and informal supports to help a person to live independently in their chosen home environment. The pathway to this funding has two stages:
Exploration and design – Stage 1
In this first step, the NDIA will work with the person and or their family to explore what the person wants out of the ILO, including where they wish to live and with whom. Secondly, the exploration work will inform the design of the person’s ILO, culminating in a completed service proposal which will ultimately be the design and outline the cost of the person’s proposed ILO. This proposal is considered by the NDIA and is the basis for the supports stage.
Supports – Stage 2
The supports stage is the funding of the ILO. In the person’s plan, the ILO supports consist of three main components:
primary supports;
supplementary supports; and
monitoring and adjustment.
The participant with ILO funding lives with a primary support as their main source of support to help them with emotional care and meal preparation. Primary support arrangements can include a host arrangement, where the person lives full-time with a host in their home, or a housemate arrangement where the participant lives full-time with other people in a shared arrangement.
Supplementary supports are additional supports to the main primary support arrangement and can be informal or funded supports. Paid supplementary supports might be having a support worker in the home, while informally it could see a person’s friends drop in or a temporary stay in the family home.
Monitoring and adjustment funding ensures that the supports within the individualised living option arrangement are working for the person. This could take the form of supporting the share arrangement or providing assistance to the supplementary supports.
Home and living supports
Chapter: 8.2 Understanding the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Contributor: Naomi Anderson, Legal Practice Manager, Villamanta Disability Rights Legal Service, and Marcus Boere, Lawyer, Victoria Legal Aid; Elise Almond, Senior Lawyer, Villamanta Disability Rights Legal Service; John Morrissey, Professional Support Lawyer, Victoria Legal Aid
Current as of: 3 October 2024
Law Handbook Page: 714
Next Section: Supports in employment
