Local Area Coordinator, Support Coordinator or Plan Manager: Who Does What in the NDIS

Three roles in the NDIS have "coordinator" or "manager" in the name, and they are easy to mix up: the Local Area Coordinator (LAC), the support coordinator, and the plan manager. Knowing which is which tells you who to call, and whether their time comes out of your plan.

The short answer

• Local Area Coordinator (LAC): works for an NDIA partner organisation in your community. Helps you apply, prepare for planning and connect with community and mainstream services. Not paid for from your plan.
• Support coordinator: helps you use the plan you have, find providers and build your ability to manage supports. Paid for from your plan, if support coordination is included.
• Plan manager: handles the money. Pays your providers, tracks your budget and keeps records. Paid for from your plan, if you are plan-managed.

What a Local Area Coordinator does

LACs are employed by organisations the NDIA partners with to deliver its services locally. Depending on where you are in the NDIS journey, an LAC can:

• explain how the NDIS works and help you through the access process
• help you prepare for your planning meeting and talk through your goals
• connect you with community activities and mainstream services such as health, education and transport, which the NDIS does not fund
• help you understand and start using your plan
• be a point of contact for questions and plan reviews

LACs generally work with participants aged 9 and over. For children under 9, a similar role is carried out by early childhood partners.

An LAC's time is not charged to your plan. The trade-off is that LACs support many participants, so they usually can't offer the same depth of hands-on help as a funded support coordinator.

What a support coordinator does

A support coordinator is funded from the Capacity Building part of your plan, when the NDIA decides it is reasonable and necessary. Their job is to help you put your plan into action: find and connect with providers, set up service agreements, sort out problems when supports fall through, and build your confidence to coordinate things yourself over time.

There are three levels: support connection, coordination of supports, and specialist support coordination for more complex situations. For a full explanation, see our guide to what an NDIS support coordinator does.

Unlike an LAC, you choose your support coordinator, and you can change them if it isn't working.

What a plan manager does

A plan manager is a financial intermediary. If your plan is plan-managed, they:

• pay your providers' invoices from your plan
• check that claims match the supports in your plan
• track your budgets and send you statements
• keep the records the NDIA requires

A plan manager does not find providers for you or help you decide what supports to use. That is where an LAC or support coordinator comes in. If you're unsure which way of managing your funding suits you, our guide to agency-managed, plan-managed and self-managed plans walks through the options.

Side by side

	LAC	Support coordinator	Plan manager
Who employs them	NDIA partner organisation	A provider you choose	A provider you choose
Paid from your plan?	No	Yes, if included	Yes, if plan-managed
Helps with access and planning meetings	Yes	Can help prepare evidence	No
Finds and connects you with providers	Some help	Yes, a core part of the role	No
Pays invoices	No	No	Yes
Can you choose who it is?	Generally no	Yes	Yes

Which one should you call?

• "I want to apply for the NDIS" or "my plan review is coming up": your LAC (or early childhood partner), or the NDIA directly.
• "I need to find a provider" or "my provider has dropped out": your support coordinator, if you have one. If not, your LAC can help.
• "A provider says they haven't been paid" or "how much is left in my budget?": your plan manager, if you are plan-managed.

If you don't have a support coordinator

Plenty of participants don't have support coordination funding and manage well with help from their LAC, family and friends. If you are finding it hard to get supports in place, keep a record of what you have tried and where it has stalled, and raise it at your next plan review.

In the meantime, you can search for providers yourself. On CareLocate you can search registered providers by suburb and support category, and see which have told us they are currently taking new clients, so you can spend your calls on providers who are likely to say yes.