This is the map nobody gave you. We’re walking through who does what on your child’s NDIS team, who pays for whom, and how to tell if the people you’re working with are actually earning their keep. Because once you know what each role is supposed to be doing, you can spot when one of them isn’t.
You opened the email, you scrolled the plan, and now you’re staring at a list of acronyms and titles with the distinct feeling someone forgot to hand you the instruction manual. You’re not behind. The NDIS just doesn’t explain itself.
The quick map
You’ll likely meet five roles: an NDIA planner, an LAC or Early Childhood partner, a support coordinator, a plan manager, and your allied health team. They all do different things. They are not interchangeable.
NDIA Planner (or Delegate)
What they do: Build the plan. Decide what funding goes in, against which goals, for how long.
What they don’t do: Book your appointments, pay your invoices, or coach you through using the plan.
Who pays: They’re NDIA staff. You don’t pay them.
You meet them at planning meetings and reviews. The clearer your goals, the better the plan they build.
LAC or Early Childhood Partner
What they do: Your front door to the NDIS. Help you apply, prepare for planning meetings, and connect you to community supports.
What they don’t do: Manage your money or coordinate your day-to-day services once you have a plan (in most cases).
Who pays: Government-funded. Free to you.
LACs work with kids 7 and over. Early Childhood Partners work with under 7s. They are one of the most useful relationships in the system if you’ve got a good one.
Support Coordinator
What they do: Help you actually use your plan. Find providers, set up service agreements, troubleshoot when things wobble, prep you for plan reviews.
What they don’t do: Pay invoices, decide what therapies your child gets (more on that in a minute), or limit your choices to their preferred providers.
Who pays: Funded inside your plan under Capacity Building. Specialist Support Coordinators exist for higher-complexity situations and need to be specifically funded.
Plan Manager
What they do: Handle the money. Pay invoices, track your budget, manage the paperwork, give you a real-time view of what’s left.
What they don’t do: Decide who you see, recommend providers, or police your spending.
Who pays: Funded separately in your plan. Does not come out of your therapy budget.
Allied Health and Therapy Providers
What they do: The actual clinical work. OTs, speech pathologists, psychologists, paediatricians, clinical nutritionists, physios, and feeding therapists.
What they don’t do: Sit in their own lane and ignore each other. A good team plays well together.
Who pays: Fees come out of your Capacity Building or Core budget depending on the support.
Bonus mention: NDIS Support Coach
If you need to sharpen your strategy, pinpoint your highest-impact evidence moves, and be supported while you do it, you’re looking for an NDIS Support Coach.
So who actually decides which therapies my child has?
This is the one that catches families out, so we’ll be plain about it.
The NDIS funds categories, not a generic shopping list. But here’s the nuance that matters, your funding can be flexible or stated, and it changes what you can do with it.
Flexible funding sits in a category like Capacity Building Daily Living. You can spend it on any reasonable and necessary therapy that maps to your goals. If you’re plan-managed or self-managed with flexible funding, you choose. You don’t need your support coordinator’s permission to add a clinical nutritionist, swap therapists, or start feeding therapy.
Stated funding is locked to the named support. If your plan says “Occupational Therapy” or “Occupational Therapy and Speech Pathology” as a stated item, that money has to be spent there. You cannot redirect it to nutrition without going back to the NDIA.
Read your plan and check whether your therapy funding is flexible or stated. If it’s stated and you want to add something different, you have options. Use other flexible budget if there is any, ask for the stated support to be opened up at your next plan review, or request a plan reassessment if there’s been a meaningful change.
Either way, a short letter from a member of your allied health team explaining why the therapy is reasonable and necessary, mapped to a goal already in your plan is helpful. This is the homework we often do with families wanting nutrition support.
Green flags, red flags
A good plan manager: pays invoices within a few days, gives you a live budget view, flags overspend before it happens, answers emails like a human.
A sketchy plan manager: surprise unpaid invoices, can’t tell you what’s left, ghosts you, nudges you toward their own preferred providers.
A good support coordinator: knows your kid’s goals, brings you options not opinions, chases reports, preps you for plan reviews, coordinates multi-disciplinary team meetings, and plays well with the rest of your providers.
A sketchy support coordinator: only books providers they’re cosy with, can’t account for their hours, vague invoices, gatekeeps your choices.
If something feels off
You can switch. You don’t need anyone’s permission. Give written notice per your service agreement, transition cleanly, move on. For serious concerns around safety, fraud, or neglect, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission is who you call.
You don’t need to become an NDIS expert, but you do need a team that earns its place on your kid’s plan.
This article was co-written by Courtney Hibbard, Disability Parenting Coach from The Mum-First Method. You can find Courtney on Instagram here or check out The Mum-First Method for online courses and coaching for mums of children with additional needs.
