Community participation is the part of an NDIS plan that pays for getting out and being part of things. It is one of the most used categories in the scheme and one of the most misunderstood, largely because it exists in two different budgets that do two different jobs.
This guide covers what the category funds, the difference between the Core and Capacity Building versions, what the money can and cannot be spent on, and how to ask for more of it.
What is community participation in the NDIS?
Community participation is support to take part in social, recreational and community life — going out, joining in, meeting people and doing the things that happen outside the house. It can be one-to-one support from a worker, or a place in a group program.
The reasoning behind it is straightforward. A plan that funds personal care and nothing else keeps somebody alive and at home. Community participation funding exists so that a life has something in it beyond that.
Which budget pays for community participation?
Two different budgets do, and they are not interchangeable. Assistance with Social and Community Participation sits in Core and pays for the support to take part. Increased Social and Community Participation sits in Capacity Building and pays for building the skills and confidence to take part more independently.
| Core: Assistance with Social and Community Participation | Capacity Building: Increased Social and Community Participation | |
|---|---|---|
| Pays for | Support to do the activity | Learning to do it with less support |
| Looks like | A worker goes with you to the pool each week | A course that teaches you to use public transport |
| Ends when | Ongoing, as long as it is needed | The skill is built |
| Flexible? | Usually, across Core categories | Generally fixed to the category |
Most participants who have both use them together. The Core funding keeps things happening week to week; the Capacity Building funding is what gradually reduces how much of it is needed.
What can you use community participation funding for?
Core community participation funding can be used for support in almost any ordinary community setting — sport and recreation, classes and clubs, social groups, volunteering, events, shopping, or simply getting out of the house with somebody alongside.
Commonly funded examples:
- Group programs run by a provider — art, music, cooking, gardening, fitness
- One-to-one community access — a worker who goes with you wherever you are going
- Sport and recreation, including mainstream clubs with the right support in place
- Social groups and regular meet-ups
- Volunteering, and the support needed to do it reliably
- Camps and short programs, where the support component is funded
Our guide to NDIS funded activities goes through the types of program in more detail, including what group sessions typically cost.
What will community participation funding not pay for?
It will not pay the ordinary cost of the activity itself. The support worker’s time is funded; your entry fee, your lunch, your club membership and your ticket are not, because those are costs anybody would pay whether they had a disability or not.
It also will not fund something with no connection to a goal in the plan. In practice this is a lower bar than people fear — most reasonable social and community activity connects to a goal about participation, independence or wellbeing — but the connection has to exist.
Provider-run programs are the exception that confuses everyone. When a provider delivers the program itself, the program fee is the support, so there is nothing separate to pay on top.
How many hours of community participation do you get?
Plans do not usually specify hours. They specify an amount of money in a category, and how many hours that buys depends on the support ratio, the time of day and the kind of support. The same budget stretches much further in a group than it does one-to-one.
This is worth doing the arithmetic on. A budget that covers a handful of one-to-one outings might instead cover a weekly place in a small group for most of a year. Neither is automatically the right answer — but a lot of participants never realise the choice exists.
Can community participation funding be used for group activities?
Yes, and group supports are usually the better value. Group programs are charged per participant at a rate set by the support ratio, so a worker supporting three participants costs each of them roughly a third of a one-to-one rate.
Groups also do something one-to-one support cannot. Participants in a regular group see the same people every week, and the friendships that come out of that are frequently the part families mention first — more often than the activity itself.
How do you ask for more community participation funding?
Ask at the plan reassessment, with a goal that the funding obviously serves and a specific idea of what you would spend it on. “More community access” is easy to decline. “A weekly group program that costs this much, which works towards the goal already in my plan” is much harder to.
Three things that help:
- A goal in the plan about participation. Funding follows goals, so the goal has to exist first.
- Evidence of what happens without it. Isolation, declining confidence and carer strain are all relevant, and planners do take them seriously when they are described plainly.
- A named program and a price. Specifics are far more persuasive than a request for a category in the abstract.
If your plan already has community participation funding sitting unused, you do not need to wait for a review — it can be spent now on anything that genuinely fits the category and your goals.
Where to get help with this
A support coordinator is the fastest route if you have one, because finding and setting up community activities is the core of that role. A plan manager can tell you exactly what is left in each category. If you have neither, your Local Area Coordinator can point you at what is running locally.
And if you are weighing up a particular program, ask the provider which category they claim against and whether your plan has enough in it. Any provider worth joining will check before you commit, and will say so if the answer is no.