A plan review is a conversation with a delegate from the NDIA about whether your current supports are working and what you need next. It usually runs an hour. The decisions that come out of it set your budget for the following year, which is why the preparation matters more than the meeting itself.
The single most useful thing you can do is arrive with evidence that connects a support to a goal. Planners are not looking for a wish list. They are looking for a reasonable and necessary link between what you are asking for and what it will let you do.
Key takeaways
Link every request to a goal: Each support you ask for needs a sentence that finishes with “so that I can”. Without it, the request reads as a preference rather than a need.
Bring recent evidence: Allied health reports ideally less than twelve months old. A report from three years ago describes a person who may no longer exist.
Describe your worst day: Funding is set against the support you need when things are difficult. Describing only good days routinely produces plans that run out early.
Read the new plan line by line: Errors are common and quietly expensive. If something is missing, you have three months to request an internal review of the decision.
Before the meeting
Ask your support coordinator for a copy of your current plan and read the goals section first. Those goals are the frame for everything else. If they no longer describe your life — you have moved, started work, or your health has changed — say so early, because new goals justify new supports.
- A copy of your current plan, with the goals section marked up.
- Recent allied health reports — ideally less than twelve months old.
- A rough diary of a typical week, including the hours informal carers provide.
- A list of anything that did not work this year, and why.
Every support you ask for needs a sentence that finishes with “so that I can”. Without it, the request reads as a preference rather than a need.
What the planner asks
Expect questions about a typical day, what you can do without help, what someone does for you, and what happens when support does not turn up. Answer on your worst day, not your best one. This is not pessimism — funding is set against the level of support you need when things are difficult, and describing only good days routinely produces plans that run out by March.
You will also be asked about informal supports: family, friends, neighbours. Be honest about what they actually do and for how long they can sustain it. A parent providing forty hours a week of unpaid care is relevant information, not a reason to reduce funding.
Need a hand with this?
We sit in on reviews with our participants
If Caring Buddy delivers your supports, your care manager can attend the review and bring the service notes that back up your request. No charge.
Talk to a care managerEvidence that carries weight
Reports from allied health professionals are the strongest evidence, particularly an occupational therapist’s functional capacity assessment. Service provider notes come next: rosters, incident records and progress notes show what has actually been delivered and what changed as a result.
Keep it recent. A report from three years ago describes a person who may no longer exist, and planners discount it accordingly. If a key assessment is out of date, book it before the review rather than after.
After the decision
You will usually receive the new plan within a few weeks. Read the budget lines against what you asked for, because errors are common and quietly expensive. If something is missing or has been cut without explanation, you have three months to request an internal review of the decision.
Do not wait for the review outcome to keep your supports running. Existing services continue under the current plan until the new one starts.
- Plan reviews
- NDIA
- Funding
- Support coordination
- Evidence
