What is Support Connection (NDIS Level 1)?
Support Connection is the lightest of the three NDIS coordination levels. What it covers, who it suits, how it differs from Level 2 and 3, and how to ask for it.
In short
- Support Connection is Level 1 — the lightest of the three coordination levels.
- It is short-term help to understand your plan and get connected, not ongoing management.
- It is funded under Capacity Building, separately from your everyday supports.
- The goal is that you need less of it over time, not more.
- If your situation is complex or high-risk, Level 2 or 3 is the better fit.
A first NDIS plan arrives as a document full of budget categories, line items and acronyms, and almost nobody finds it self-explanatory. Support Connection is the NDIS answering that problem: a small amount of funded help to make sense of the plan and start actually using it. It is the lightest of the three coordination levels, and for a lot of people it is exactly the right amount.
The three levels, in one paragraph
Coordination comes in three tiers, and knowing which one is in your plan saves a great deal of confusion. Support Connection (Level 1) is short-term help to understand your plan and connect with supports. Support Coordination (Level 2) is hands-on and ongoing — designing and running a mix of supports, solving problems as they come up. Specialist Support Coordination (Level 3) is for high-risk or highly complex situations that need specialist expertise to untangle.
Your plan names the level you are funded for. If you are not sure which you have, that is worth asking before you engage anyone, because the three do genuinely different jobs and are funded at different rates.
What Support Connection actually does
In practice, a good Support Connection engagement covers:
- Translating your plan into plain language — what each budget can be used for, and what it cannot
- Helping you work out which supports to start with, and in what order
- Finding and connecting you with providers, and checking they have capacity
- Explaining service agreements before you sign anything
- Pointing you toward mainstream and community options that do not use your funding at all
- Building your own confidence, so next time you can do more of it yourself
That last point is the whole design intent. Support Connection is capacity building, not case management. A provider doing it well is deliberately making themselves less necessary — teaching you how the scheme works rather than becoming the permanent intermediary between you and it.
Who it suits
Support Connection tends to be the right fit if you are new to the NDIS, your plan is relatively straightforward, and you mainly need someone to get you oriented and moving. It also suits people who are reasonably confident and simply do not know where to begin — which is a very common position, and not a shortcoming.
Who it does not suit
If you have a complicated mix of supports that need to work together, if things go wrong often enough that you need someone responsive on hand, or if there is real risk involved — housing instability, hospital admissions, safeguarding concerns — then Level 1 is not enough, and it is better to know that early than to run out of hours halfway through.
Psychosocial disability has its own path worth knowing about too: Psychosocial Recovery Coaching is a distinct support built around mental health recovery rather than plan logistics, and it can sit alongside coordination rather than replacing it.
How it is funded
Support Connection is funded under Capacity Building in your plan, in its own line, separate from your Core supports. Using it does not reduce the funding for your everyday supports — they are different budgets and do not draw from one another.
It is usually a modest, short-term amount of hours. That is by design rather than stinginess: the funding is meant to get you connected and then step back. If it turns out you need more than that, a plan review is where the level gets revisited.
Asking for the right level
If Level 1 was funded and it is clearly not enough, that is a legitimate thing to raise. The case is strongest when it is specific: the supports you are trying to coordinate, what has actually gone wrong, and why a more hands-on level would prevent it. Vague requests for "more coordination" tend not to succeed.
Our guide on how to prepare for a plan review covers the evidence side of that in detail, and choosing the right coordinator covers what to look for in whoever you engage — the questions worth asking apply at every level.
The bottom line
Support Connection is a small, well-designed support that does one job: turning a plan on paper into supports in your life, and leaving you more capable of managing it than you were. It is not a lesser version of coordination — for a straightforward plan it is the appropriate version, and being offered more than you need is not a favour.
If you are holding a first plan and are not sure what you are looking at, a free Meet & Greet is the quickest way to get it explained without committing to anything.
Common questions
Support Connection is Level 1 coordination — short-term, funded help to understand your NDIS plan and connect with the supports in it. It covers translating your budgets into plain language, finding and contacting providers, explaining service agreements, and pointing you toward community and mainstream options. It is capacity building: the aim is that you can do more of it yourself afterwards.
Support Connection (Level 1) is lighter and shorter — getting you oriented and connected. Support Coordination (Level 2) is hands-on and ongoing, designing and running a mix of supports and resolving problems as they arise. Specialist Support Coordination (Level 3) is for high-risk or highly complex situations needing specialist expertise. Your plan names which level you are funded for.
No. It is funded under Capacity Building in its own line, separate from your Core supports. The two budgets do not draw from one another, so using your Support Connection hours does not reduce what is available for personal care, household tasks or anything else.
It is usually a modest, short-term amount, and it varies by plan. The funding is designed to get you connected and then step back rather than continue indefinitely. If it becomes clear that you need a more hands-on level, a plan review is the point at which that gets reconsidered — with specific evidence of what has not worked.
Yes, and it is a reasonable request when Level 1 genuinely is not enough. Make it specific: name the supports you are trying to coordinate, describe what has actually gone wrong, and explain why more hands-on coordination would prevent it. General requests for more coordination are the ones most often set aside.
Yes. Choice of provider is yours, and you can change if the fit is not right. It is worth asking a prospective provider whether they will refer you to organisations they have no stake in — independence matters as much at Level 1 as at any other level, because the whole point is that you end up with the supports that suit you.
Keep reading
Care that starts with a conversation.
Tell us what you need. A real person responds within 2 hours — no scripts, no pressure.