There are three NDIS support coordination levels. Level 1, support connection, helps you understand your plan and connect with community and mainstream supports. Level 2, coordination of supports, is ongoing help to build your confidence and skills to direct your life. Level 3, specialist support coordination, is a higher level for more complex situations. Your NDIA planner talks to you about which level is right for you, and knowing the difference helps you ask for the right support at your NDIS planning meeting.
In this guide, weβll explain each of the three NDIS support coordination levels in plain language, what they do, who theyβre for, what they cost, and how to get the right level in your plan. The level descriptions follow the NDIAβs own wording, and every price comes from the current NDIS Pricing Schedule.
The Three NDIS Support Coordination Levels at a Glance
| Feature | Level 1: Support Connection | Level 2: Coordination of Supports | Level 3: Specialist Support Coordination |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Build your ability to connect with supports independently | Design, build, and maintain your support network | Manage complex barriers and high-risk situations |
| Best for | Understanding your plan and connecting with providers | Ongoing coordination across several supports and providers | Complex needs or high-level risks |
| National price limit per hour (2026-27) | $80.06/hr | $100.14/hr | $190.54/hr |
| NDIS code | 07_001_0106_8_3 | 07_002_0106_8_3 | 07_004_0132_8_3 |
| Crisis planning, prevention, mitigation and action | Not included | Included | Included |
| Illustrative yearly cost | $960 to $1,920 (1 to 2 hours a month) | $3,600 to $7,200 (3 to 6 hours a month) | $16,000 to $20,600 (7 to 9 hours a month) |
All rates from the official NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, Schedule 6, Table 53, support items 07_001_0106_8_3, 07_002_0106_8_3 and 07_004_0132_8_3, read 24 September 2026. These are the national price limits, which are maximums; remote and very remote areas have higher limits. The yearly costs are an illustration only: the hourly price limit multiplied by the hours shown over 12 months. The NDIA decides how much support coordination funding goes in your plan. Levels 2 and 3 are unchanged from 2020-21 to 2026-27. Level 1 is not frozen and has risen in most years. See every NDIS rate in our Price Guide.
Level 1: Support Connection
What It Is
Level 1 is the entry-level support coordination. Itβs designed to build your ability to connect with informal, community, and funded supports, enabling you to get the most out of your plan independently.
Who Itβs For
- First-time NDIS participants with relatively straightforward needs
- People who mainly need help understanding their plan and connecting to providers
- Participants who have some informal support (family, friends) but need initial guidance
What Your Coordinator Does
- Helps you understand your plan and the purpose of your funded supports
- Connects you with NDIS providers, community services, and mainstream supports
- Helps you establish your supports
- Coaches you, and helps you refine and reflect on how your supports are working
- Reports to the NDIA
What It Doesnβt Include
- Designing tailored support approaches
- Crisis planning or crisis response
- The capacity and resilience building listed for Levels 2 and 3
- Addressing complex barriers across multiple systems
Cost
$80.06/hr (national price limit, 2026-27). As an illustration only, 1 to 2 hours a month works out to roughly $960 to $1,920 a year.
Note: The NDIAβs pricing arrangements say that where a participant younger than 9 is receiving assistance from Partners in the Community, an early childhood partner provides support. Where a participant 9 or older is receiving that assistance, the local area coordinator (LAC) provides support.
Level 2: Coordination of Supports
What It Is
Level 2 is Coordination of Supports. It goes beyond basic connection to actively design, build, and maintain your support network. The focus is on helping you direct your life, not just your services.
Who Itβs For
- Participants who need ongoing coordination across several supports
- People managing multiple providers (therapists, support workers, plan managers)
- Participants going through life transitions (new living arrangements, starting work, changing services)
- Anyone who needs help building skills and resilience to manage their supports
What Your Coordinator Does
Everything Level 1 does, plus:
- Designs support approaches, working with you to understand your funding, what you expect from services and how you want your supports designed
- Builds capacity and resilience, helping you build and maintain a network of formal and informal supports
- Crisis planning, prevention, mitigation and action
- Targeted support coordination
- Coaches you and your network, so you can direct your life and not just your services
An Illustrative Example
Sarah just received her first NDIS plan with funding for OT, speech therapy, a support worker, and community access. Her Level 2 coordinator helps her find an OT who specialises in her condition, sets up service agreements with each provider, creates a weekly schedule that balances therapy and community participation, and helps her prepare for her next plan reassessment. This is an example only, not a description of what any plan will fund.
Cost
$100.14/hr (national price limit, 2026-27). As an illustration only, 3 to 6 hours a month works out to roughly $3,600 to $7,200 a year.
Level 3: Specialist Support Coordination
What It Is
Level 3 is the highest tier of support coordination. The NDIA describes it as an expert or specialist approach, needed because of high complex needs or high-level risks in a participantβs situation. It is delivered by an appropriately qualified and experienced practitioner, such as a psychologist, occupational therapist, social worker or mental health nurse.
The focus is on reducing complexity, overcoming immediate and significant barriers, and ensuring consistent service delivery even during crisis situations.
Who Itβs For
Participants with complex needs or high-level risks. Situations like these can call for it, for example:
- Justice system involvement, leaving prison, on parole, court orders alongside NDIS
- Homelessness or housing crisis, at risk of losing accommodation
- Complex mental health, frequent hospitalisations, psychosocial disability with crisis episodes
- Involvement with several systems at once, such as health, housing, justice and child protection alongside the NDIS
- Complex behavioural needs
What Your Specialist Coordinator Does
Everything Level 2 does, plus:
- Addresses complex barriers that affect your ability to implement your plan and access appropriate supports
- Reduces complexity in your support environment, and helps you connect with broader systems of support as well as funded supports
- Negotiates support solutions with multiple stakeholders, to achieve well-coordinated plan implementation
- Helps stakeholders resolve points of crisis, and works to keep service delivery and access to supports consistent during crisis situations
- Depending on your circumstances, designs a complex service plan focused on how everyone in your life will interact to resolve barriers
Cost
$190.54/hr (national price limit, 2026-27). As an illustration only, 7 to 9 hours a month works out to roughly $16,000 to $20,600 a year. The NDIA says specialist support coordination is generally delivered through an intensive and time-limited period, because of immediate and significant barriers to plan implementation.
For the full deep dive, see our complete Level 3 Specialist Support Coordination guide.
Official Activities by Level (NDIA Breakdown)
The NDIAβs pricing arrangements list the activities each level of NDIS support coordination includes. Each list is βnot limited toβ these items:
| Activity | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Understand the plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Connect with supports and services | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Design support approaches | No | Yes | Yes |
| Establish supports | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Coach, refine and reflect | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Build capacity and resilience | No | Yes | Yes |
| Targeted support coordination | No | Yes | Yes |
| Crisis: planning, prevention, mitigation and action | No | Yes | Yes |
| Address complex barriers | No | No | Yes |
| Design complex service plan | No | No | Yes |
| Report to the NDIA | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Source: NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26 (v1.1), Capacity Building, Support Coordination, pages 73 to 76. Since 1 July 2026 that document still sets out support descriptions and claiming rules, while prices come from the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27. Both are on the NDIS pricing arrangements page.
How to Know Which Level You Need
Ask yourself these three questions. They are a starting point for the conversation with the NDIA, not an official test: the NDIA decides which level is funded in your plan.
1. How Complex Is Your Situation?
| Your Situation | Recommended Level |
|---|---|
| Simple needs, first plan, just need help getting started | Level 1 |
| Multiple providers, ongoing coordination, building independence | Level 2 |
| Justice, homelessness, crisis, multiple systems at once | Level 3 |
2. How Confident Are You Managing Your Plan?
- Quite confident, just need a nudgeΒ β Level 1
- Need regular help, want someone alongside meΒ β Level 2
- Overwhelmed, in crisis, canβt manage without intensive helpΒ β Level 3
3. Are There Risk or Crisis Factors?
- No immediate risksΒ β Level 1 or 2
- Some risk of services breaking downΒ β Level 2
- High risk, housing instability, justice involvement, frequent hospitalisationsΒ β Level 3
How to Get the Right Level in Your Plan
- Ask at your planning meeting. The NDIA says you can ask your planner to include support coordination funding if you think a coordinator would help, and that your planner will talk to you about which level is right for you. Be specific about what you need and why.
- Bring evidence.Β Reports from therapists, hospital discharge summaries, letters from your current coordinator, anything showing the complexity of your situation.
- Find a provider for the level in your plan. In the NDIS provider finder, Level 1 and Level 2 providers are listed under the registration group βassistance in coordinating or managing life stages, transitions and supportsβ, and Level 3 providers under βsupport coordinationβ.
- If denied,Β request an internal review within 3 months. Your coordinator can help prepare the review.
Good to know: the NDIA says support coordination funding is usually included in plans for a set amount of time, because as you become more confident using your plan you are less likely to need a coordinator. Planning itself is also changing: see how NDIS planning is changing.
Whatβs Changing in 2027 and 2028
The three NDIS support coordination levels are how support coordination is funded today. The new NDIS laws, passed as the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026, bring changes in stages. The NDIAβs page on the new NDIS laws (current as of 23 September 2026) says it will begin introducing a new way of planning from April 2027, and that from July 2028 βthere will be a new commissioned support co-ordination and connection functionβ. In a news item of 7 September 2026, the NDIA said the new commissioned support coordination and connection service will start from 1 July 2028 and “will replace the way NDIS participants currently receive support coordination services”. The design is not final: the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and the NDIA are seeking feedback on the proposed design, and the consultation closes at 11.59 pm AEST on 2 October 2026. Government will decide the final design, so we will update this guide when it does. For the full reform timeline, see our NDIS Reforms 2026 guide.
One more point on prices, because it is commonly reported the wrong way round. Levels 2 and 3 are frozen. Level 1 is not. Level 2 has been $100.14 and Level 3 $190.54 in every NDIA pricing document from 2020-21 to 2026-27. Level 1 has risen in most years, from $63.21 in 2020-21 to $65.09, then $74.63 in 2023-24, $77.00 in 2024-25 and $80.06 in 2025-26, where it stays for 2026-27, according to the NDIAβs pricing archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the three NDIS support coordination levels?
Level 1 (Support Connection), national price limit $80.06/hr, helps you understand your plan and connect with supports. Level 2 (Coordination of Supports), $100.14/hr, helps you design, build and maintain your supports. Level 3 (Specialist Support Coordination), $190.54/hr, is for complex needs or high-level risks. Prices are from the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27. See all rates in our Price Guide.
Can I change my support coordinator?
Yes. The NDIA says you choose your support coordinator and can change your support coordinator at any time. You donβt have to wait for your current plan to end.
How long does support coordination funding last?
The NDIA says support coordination funding is usually included in plans for a set amount of time, because as you become more confident using your plan you are less likely to need a coordinator. Level 3 is generally delivered through an intensive and time-limited period.
Can I change my level mid-plan?
The level of support coordination is set in your plan by the NDIA. If your needs change, contact the NDIA to ask about changing your plan, and give evidence of what has changed. Your support coordinator can help you gather it.
How do I switch from Level 2 to Level 3?
Ask the NDIA to change your plan, and provide evidence of the complex needs or high-level risks that make a specialist approach necessary, such as reports from treating professionals. Your current coordinator can help you prepare the request. Read our Level 3 guide for details.
Will support coordination change under the NDIS reforms?
Yes. The government has announced a new commissioned NDIS support coordination and connection service from 1 July 2028, which the NDIA says will replace the way participants currently receive support coordination. Its design is still under consultation until 2 October 2026, and the three levels described in this guide are how support coordination is funded now.
How Centre of Hope Can Help
Centre of Hope is a registered NDIS provider in NSW. We deliver the NDIS support coordination levels across Western Sydney and NSW, and we come to you.
- Support Coordination, helping you understand your plan, connect with providers and build independence
- Level 3 Specialist Support Coordination, for complex needs and high-level risks
- Psychosocial Recovery Coaching, for participants living with psychosocial disability
- Employment Coaching, for participants working towards a job
- Justice and Re-Entry Support, for participants in or leaving the justice system
Not sure which level you need? Call us for a no-obligation chat and weβll help you work it out.
Your goals. Your plan. Our support.
π Call us: 0432 250 900
π Visit: centreofhope.com.au
π Refer: Submit a referral
Disclaimer: This article is general information only and does not replace personal advice about your plan. It is current as at 24 September 2026. Prices are the national price limits in the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27; support descriptions and activity lists are from the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26 (v1.1); participant guidance is from the NDIAβs pages on support coordinators (current as of 17 June and 1 July 2026) on the new NDIS laws (current as of 23 September 2026), and the NDIA news item of 7 September 2026 on the support coordination and connection service. Yearly costs and the example are illustrative only and are not an entitlement: the NDIA decides what your plan funds. Rules and prices change, so confirm at the official NDIS website.