What to expect at your first NDIS planning meeting

If your first NDIS planning meeting is coming up, you may be wondering what to expect. It will help you to understand what will happen at your planning meeting, and in particular the questions you'll be asked, to ensure you are well placed to make the most of your NDIS planning meeting. Here are some things you can expect!

1. You’ll be asked a lot of questions! Your National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) planner will need to write a participant statement as part of your NDIS plan, which will cover a lot of information about your life, what’s important to you, what supports you currently have and details of your support needs because of your disability.
2. The planner will ask and talk a lot about your goals - what you want to achieve in different aspects of your life. This is because you’ll be funded only for the ‘reasonable and necessary’ supports that will help you achieve those goals.
3. The planning meeting will be easier for you if you bring documentation about your life, goals, disability supports and needs. You can bring health and disability plans or assessments, and other documentation about your life and family. Documentation can also help in case there are things you forget to tell the planner during your planning discussion. Find out more about what to take to your NDIS planning meeting.

   Get Yooralla’s free guide to prepare for the NDIS to help you understand the NDIS planning process and prepare for your NDIS planning meeting. The guide also includes activity planners to help you think about your NDIS goals and needs. To make the most of the NDIS, you need to be prepared for your planning meeting!

4. Your planning meeting will be held at a time and location that suits you. You can let the NDIS know how you want to have your NDIS planning meeting – this could be face-to-face at a NDIS or Local Area Coordinator (LAC) office, at your home or by phone. A LAC is someone who will work as a planner, with many adult NDIS participants (and children 7+) to confirm or assess their eligibility for NDIS and undertake NDIS planning.
5. You’ll be asked how you want to manage the funds in your NDIS plan. You should be prepared with an answer to this question before your planning meeting. Find out more about your NDIS funding options.
6. You’ll get a better NDIS plan if you don’t sugar coat details of your life and disability to the planner. NDIS funding is allocated to support you to do the things you can’t do, so while you may be used to talking about what you can do, you really need to talk to the planner openly about what you can’t do because of your disability, the support you need because of this to achieve your goals.
7. The planner should talk to you about the next steps after your planning meeting including things such as getting your NDIS plan, how you can start to use (or implement) it, and who can support you. Remember, Yooralla can also support you with implementing and understanding your NDIS plan.

For support to prepare for your NDIS planning meeting, why not get in touch with Yooralla’s Community Engagement team for a free one-on-one discussion.