Support coordination file review checklist — ProviderQMS
Provider Assurance Centre

Support coordination file review checklist

A file-by-file review for support coordination: the plan, agreements, budgets, decisions, referrals, outcomes and case notes, and how to run it.

Support CoordinationTemplates & checklistsAudit preparation

Last checked 27 August 2026 — every quotation on this page was read at its own source on that date.

On this page

A support coordinator's file is where the coordination shows. The Commission describes the role: support coordinators "can help participants understand their NDIS plan, connect participants with providers and services, and build participants' confidence in coordinating their supports."1 Each of those jobs leaves a record when it is done. This checklist is a self-review: open one participant's file, work down the seven headings, and mark what is there, what is dated and what is missing.

Where the standard comes from

Support coordination sits in registration group 0106, "Assistance in coordinating or managing life stages, transitions and supports", which the Commission lists as a certification audit.2 The Rules put the same class at item 6 of the section 20 table: standards in Schedule 1, method "certification".3 Schedule 1 is the core module; the Commission's registration requirements table reads "Core Module (Certification)" against the group.4 Specialised support coordination is a separate group that adds Module 4, listed as "Schedules 1 and 6 certification."5 This checklist is built on the core module and marks where Module 4 adds a test.

Mandatory registration for support coordinators is not in force; the Commission's page records that "In December 2025 this reform work was paused."6 The standards are a condition of registration: an applicant must "be assessed by an approved quality auditor, using the method specified in column 3 of that item, as meeting each standard".7 A coordinator who is not registered is not assessed against them, but the participant needs the file either way: the Commission's own motion inquiry into support coordination and plan management recorded complaints about "the failure to provide necessary records when the participant transferred to a new support coordinator".8

What the auditor is testing

At the second stage of a certification audit, "The auditor will look at how you're implementing your policies and procedures."9 Providers are asked to let participants know they are included in the audit, which "could involve the audit team contacting and interviewing them or having their files, records or plans reviewed."10 The Commission's account of an audit day: "They are looking for evidence that your systems are working, not just that they exist."11

The checklist

For each file, tick only what you can point to, with a date and a name on it.

1. The plan

  • The participant's current NDIS plan, or the parts you work from, is on file with the date received and the plan period.
  • Your support plan was developed with the participant and, with consent, their support network: "With each participant's consent, work is undertaken with the participant and their support network to enable effective assessment and to develop a support plan."12
  • The support plan is in a form the participant can use, "provided to them in the language, mode of communication and terms they are most likely to understand".13
  • A dated review inside the year. "Each support plan is reviewed annually or earlier in collaboration with each participant, according to their changing needs or circumstances."14

2. Agreements

The Guidelines define the term: a "service agreement means a written agreement between the provider and the participant on the supports to be provided and the conditions surrounding those supports."15

  • A signed agreement for the coordination itself, or, where that did not happen, "a record is made of the circumstances under which the participant did not receive a copy of their agreement."16
  • Conditions are explained, not just listed: the agreement "specifies any conditions attached to the delivery of supports, including why these conditions are attached."17
  • Emergency arrangements are in it: "Service agreements set out the arrangements for providing supports to be put in place in the event of an emergency or disaster."18

3. Budgets

The core module does not use the word "budget"; in the quality indicators it appears once, in Module 4. Support plan review calls for "Progress in meeting desired outcomes and goals is assessed, at a frequency relevant and proportionate to risks",19 and for a coordinator that assessment is hard to make without a view of what has been used. For specialised support coordination, Module 4 is explicit: "Supports and services are arranged using the participant's NDIS amounts as directed by the participant and for the purposes intended by the participant."20

  • A dated record of funded supports by category and what is committed against each.
  • Notes of budget conversations: what the participant chose, and when.
  • Under-use or over-use raised with the participant, and when.

4. Decisions

  • Options were put in a form the participant could use: "Active decision-making and individual choice is supported for each participant including the timely provision of information".21
  • A choice you would not have made is recorded as theirs: "Each participant's right to the dignity of risk in decision-making is supported."22
  • The offer of an advocate is noted: "Each participant's right to access an advocate (including an independent advocate) of their choosing is supported".23
  • Any interest your organisation has in a recommended provider is declared in the file: "Perceived and actual conflicts of interest are proactively managed and documented".24 Module 4 adds: "If the provider has an interest in any support option available to the participant, the participant is aware of this interest."25

5. Referrals

  • Every referral out and in is dated, with consent recorded. Module 4: "Referrals to and from other providers are documented for each participant."26
  • Links with the participant's other providers are visible in the file: "links are developed and maintained by the provider through collaboration with other providers, including health care and allied health providers".27

6. Outcomes

  • Progress against each goal, written at each review.
  • Where progress differed, the plan changed: "Where progress is different from expected outcomes and goals, work is done with the participant to change and update the support plan."28
  • Any monitoring or reporting the plan requires of you is logged, with the date done. Module 4 puts it as: "All monitoring and reporting obligations associated with the participant's plan are managed effectively."29

7. Case notes

  • Every contact is dated, attributed and factual. The Rules ask for information that is "identifiable, accurately recorded, current and confidential",30 and the indicators for a system that "records each participant's information in an accurate and timely manner".31
  • Consent to collect and share is on file: "Each participant's consent is obtained to collect, use and retain their information or to disclose their information (including assessments) to other parties".32
  • Storage and retention are handled: "Documents are stored with appropriate use, access, transfer, storage, security, retrieval, retention, destruction and disposal processes".33
  • If the participant has left, the exit is in the file: "A planned transition to or from the provider is facilitated in collaboration with each participant when possible, and this is documented, communicated and effectively managed."34

How to run the review

Choose files at random and include one participant who has left. Have someone other than the file's coordinator review it, and record the result as a dated internal review with an owner for each gap; the quality indicators call for a "documented program of internal audits relevant (proportionate) to the size and scale of the provider".35 Close a gap by adding the missing record, dated the day you add it: a note written today about a conversation last March is a note written today, and should say so.

What ProviderQMS does here

We wrote the support coordination kit's 77 editable Word documents to the core module for registration group 0106, for you to put your own organisation into. Put one participant through them, run this checklist over the file, and you have your first reviewed file.

Sources

Each numbered line is the document or page a quotation above was taken from, with the date we opened it.

  1. Support coordination and plan management | NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
    Opened 27 August 2026.“can help participants understand their NDIS plan, connect participants with providers and services, and build participants' confidence in coordinating their supports.”
  2. Registration groups or classes of support | NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
    Opened 27 August 2026.“0106 Assistance in coordinating or managing life stages, transitions and supports Certification”
  3. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018, s 20(3) table, item 6
    Opened 27 August 2026.“6 assistance in coordinating or managing life stages, transitions and supports Schedule 1 certification.”
  4. Registration Requirements by Supports and Services (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission), p. 2
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Assistance in coordinating or managing life stages, transitions and supports Core Module (Certification)”
  5. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018, s 20(3) table, item 32
    Opened 27 August 2026.“32 specialised support coordination Schedules 1 and 6 certification.”
  6. Support coordination and plan management | NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
    Opened 27 August 2026.“In December 2025 this reform work was paused.”
  7. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018, s 20(1)(a)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“be assessed by an approved quality auditor, using the method specified in column 3 of that item, as meeting each standard”
  8. Own Motion Inquiry into Support Coordination and Plan Management, Part 1 (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, August 2023), p. 23
    Opened 27 August 2026.“the failure to provide necessary records when the participant transferred to a new support coordinator”
  9. The quality audit process | NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
    Opened 27 August 2026.“The auditor will look at how you're implementing your policies and procedures.”
  10. The quality audit process | NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
    Opened 27 August 2026.“could involve the audit team contacting and interviewing them or having their files, records or plans reviewed.”
  11. The quality audit process | NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
    Opened 27 August 2026.“They are looking for evidence that your systems are working, not just that they exist.”
  12. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 20(1)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“With each participant's consent, work is undertaken with the participant and their support network to enable effective assessment and to develop a support plan.”
  13. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 20(6)(a)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“provided to them in the language, mode of communication and terms they are most likely to understand”
  14. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 20(4)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Each support plan is reviewed annually or earlier in collaboration with each participant, according to their changing needs or circumstances.”
  15. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 4 (Definitions)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“service agreement means a written agreement between the provider and the participant on the supports to be provided and the conditions surrounding those supports.”
  16. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 21(3)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“a record is made of the circumstances under which the participant did not receive a copy of their agreement.”
  17. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 21(1)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“specifies any conditions attached to the delivery of supports, including why these conditions are attached.”
  18. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 21(5)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Service agreements set out the arrangements for providing supports to be put in place in the event of an emergency or disaster.”
  19. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 20(4)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Progress in meeting desired outcomes and goals is assessed, at a frequency relevant and proportionate to risks”
  20. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 65(1)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Supports and services are arranged using the participant's NDIS amounts as directed by the participant and for the purposes intended by the participant.”
  21. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 9(1)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Active decision-making and individual choice is supported for each participant including the timely provision of information”
  22. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 9(2)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Each participant's right to the dignity of risk in decision-making is supported.”
  23. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 9(5)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Each participant's right to access an advocate (including an independent advocate) of their choosing is supported”
  24. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 11(8)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Perceived and actual conflicts of interest are proactively managed and documented”
  25. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 66(3)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“If the provider has an interest in any support option available to the participant, the participant is aware of this interest.”
  26. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 66(4)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Referrals to and from other providers are documented for each participant.”
  27. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 22(2)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“links are developed and maintained by the provider through collaboration with other providers, including health care and allied health providers”
  28. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 20(5)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Where progress is different from expected outcomes and goals, work is done with the participant to change and update the support plan.”
  29. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 64(6)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“All monitoring and reporting obligations associated with the participant's plan are managed effectively.”
  30. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018, Schedule 1 cl 12(1)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“identifiable, accurately recorded, current and confidential”
  31. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 14(3)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“records each participant's information in an accurate and timely manner”
  32. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 14(1)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Each participant's consent is obtained to collect, use and retain their information or to disclose their information (including assessments) to other parties”
  33. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 14(4)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“Documents are stored with appropriate use, access, transfer, storage, security, retrieval, retention, destruction and disposal processes”
  34. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 23(1)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“A planned transition to or from the provider is facilitated in collaboration with each participant when possible, and this is documented, communicated and effectively managed.”
  35. National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, s 13(2)
    Opened 27 August 2026.“documented program of internal audits relevant (proportionate) to the size and scale of the provider”
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