Configuring Programs of Support
Following the inclusion of the new 2020/21 NDIS Price Guide in SupportAbility v6.19 (30th of June, 2020), an additional feature is available from SupportAbility v6.21 (18th of August, 2020) to record the relevant Clients' participation as part of a ‘Program of Support’ in the Activities, they are scheduled into, delivered on or after the 1st of July, 2020.
When set, Short Notice Cancellations are not triggered for the applicable Support Items. Programs of Support are only relevant for specific Supports and as such, this can be configured as required for each Service in System Preferences.
This article reviews how to configure Programs of Support for the relevant Services, however, for a general overview of this feature, please review the Programs of Support article linked below for reference.
Audience: Authorised Representatives, Operations Management
Prerequisites
The System Preferences privilege is required to configure this setting for the relevant Services. It is also important to:
- Understand which NDIS Supports are applicable to deliver Programs of Support (as outlined in the NDIS Price Guide information section below), and that
- Agreements are in place between your organisation and the relevant participants before Staff with the privileges required to manage Activities commence updating Client participation in the relevant Activities as being part of a ‘Program of Support’ following the configuration of this feature.
Summary
The following list summarises the content within this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- Which Supports are relevant to Programs of Support?
- What does the Programs of Support feature do?
- Configuring Programs of Support for the relevant Services
Which Supports are relevant to Programs of Support?
On pages 26-27 of the 2020/21 NDIS Price Guide (v1.1 25th of October 2020), it is stated that:
'A provider of group-based supports in the Assistance in Shared Living Arrangements - Supported Independent Living section of the Assistance with Daily Life Support Category, or in the Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation Support Category, including Supports in Employment, or in any of the Capacity Building Support Categories, can enter into an agreement with a participant for a “program of support”, especially where the program is towards the achievement of a specified outcome.
Under this approach, providers claim against the plans of all the participants who had agreed to attend an instance of support in the program of support as though they had attended (whether or not they did) - as long as the provider had the capacity to deliver the instance of support. Supports delivered as part of a program of supports are not subject to the short notice cancellation rules.'
Therefore, the Short Notice Cancellation rules will not apply when a Client's participation is set as being part of a Program of Support in SupportAbility, for each of the Support Items in the following Support Categories:
- Support Items in the 'Assistance in Shared Living Arrangements - Supported Independent Living' section of CAT 0001 Assistance with Daily Life Support Category
- All Support Items included in CAT 0004 Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation Support Category, including Supports in Employment
- All Support Items included in each of the Capacity Building Support Categories CAT 0007 - 0015
Return to Summary
What does the Programs of Support feature do?
When this has been configured to 'On by default' or 'Off by default' for the relevant Services in System Preferences, a new setting becomes available for each Client row in the Activities for this Service in cases where NDIS Funding is being used as the Client's Funding Source.
This allows Staff with the privileges required to manage Activities to indicate if the Client's participation is related to a 'Program of Support':
When indicated as such, this ensures that the Cancellation Reason and Claim Type usually required when Absent is selected:
Is not triggered for the relevant Support Items applicable to the Client in the case of Absenteeism:
For more details regarding suggestions for setting up and utilising Programs of Support, please see the article titled as such linked below for reference.
Configuring Programs of Support for the relevant Services
Programs of Support are configurable by Service. Navigate to System Preferences and select the Services tab to do so:
The default setting of this feature is 'Never' (as above), given Programs of Support are only applicable for specific Supports and an agreement must be in place beforehand.
However, the following options are available to choose from once 'Change' has been selected:
- Never
- Off by default
- On by default
Each of these options has been outlined further below.
Never
When Services have Programs of Support set to 'Never':
This feature is hidden from view in the Activity record and not available to select from for Client's participating in Activities for this Service.
For example, Programs of Support are set to Never for our 'In Home' Service, therefore, the Program of Support column is hidden in the Client section of the Activity record:
In future, if switching to Never from one of the other options, any existing Program of Support settings for Clients in Activities that have had the Activity Sign Off performed will be displayed for reference.
For example, if we commenced using Programs of Support for the 'Individual' Service, however, decided that we no longer wish to use this setting, if this had already been used in Activities that have had the Sign Off performed, it will display as such in the Activity record for reference:
As well as in the Client's NDIS Support Allocations window:
Off by default
When Services have Programs of Support set to 'Off by default':
The 'Program of Support' setting becomes available for Client's with NDIS Funding in Activities for this Service.
For example Programs of Support are set to Off by default for our 'Day Service' Service, therefore, the Program of Support column appears in the Client section of the Activity record:
The default state of this setting is off for Clients in Activities. For example, if our Client Jessie's NDIS Funding had not been added yet, this will not be available:
However, this can be activated as required when an NDIS Funding Source is selected:
If switching to this Service configuration, any existing settings will not be updated.
For example, in cases where a 'Program of Support' has been set for Client's in Activities, changing this Service configuration to 'Off by default' will not remove any active POS settings in Activities once saved.
On by default
When Services have Programs of Support set to 'On by default':
Similar to the above, the 'Program of Support' setting becomes available for Client's with NDIS Funding in Activities for this Service.
For example Programs of Support are set to On by default for our 'Supported Employment' Service, therefore, the Program of Support column appears in the Client section of the Activity record.
The default state of this setting will be on for Clients in Activities when an NDIS Funding Source is selected and can be deactivated as required by Staff with the privileges required to manage Activities:
The default state of this setting is on for Clients in Activities. For example, if our Client Tim's NDIS Funding had not been added yet, this will not be available:
However, the Program of Support setting is on by default when an NDIS Funding Source is selected:
It is important to note that configuring a Service with Programs of Support being 'On by default' does not automatically switch this setting to on for all existing Client's in Activities for this Service where NDIS Funding is already in place as the Client's Funding Source. This is due to an agreement needing to be in place beforehand and thus needing to be opted into when ready.
Configuring a Service in this manner means that the default state of this setting is on for Clients in Activities when an NDIS Funding Source is selected (as outlined above).
For example, in cases where a 'Program of Support' has been set for Client's in Activities, changing this Service configuration to 'On by default' will not activate any POS settings in Activities automatically where NDIS Funding is in use once saved. It is configuring the default state when NDIS Funding is attached in Activities for this Service in the future.