Setting goals with the NDIS
Your goals are arguably the most important part of your NDIS journey and they’ll be discussed in your planning conversation with your Local Area Coordinator. Your goals are important because they are your personal desires about what you’d like to do and achieve with the support of the NDIS. They help us to get to know you and the things that are important in your life.
So what is the best way to maximise the outcomes of your NDIS plan?
Choosing the right goals.
The ensure your goals resonate with the NDIS they should be;
Outcome focused
Flexible
Build Capacity
Be Personal
A good NDIS goal is a goal that focuses on the outcome rather than how it will be achieved. For example, specifying how a goal will be achieved by saying “i would like to move more confidently” rather than saying “I need physiotherapy” is more outcome focused.
By keeping goals less specific, you can be more flexible with your funding by allocating several supports to a goal. For example, “ I would like to learn how to express myself through creativity” rather than “I would like to learn how to paint” is broader and allows more flexibility.
Building your capacity so that you can become less reliant on others and gain more independence is a great goal to work towards. This can open up opportunities to engage more socially and participate within your community as well.
Keeping these goals personal means you’re prioritising yourself by asking “how will this funding help you to live a better life?” It enables you to achieve the things YOU want.
You can connect with a Support Coordinator to assist you at any stage of the goal development process, including helping you to realise, consolidate or prioritise your goals.
Once you are happy with your goals, you can think about how you would like to work towards them.
How far you pursue your goals is up to you. You might want to try a small step. Or you might want to aim for big changes and work towards something really challenging. Both are OK.
The NDIS wants to understand what the steps to pursuing each goal would look like for you. They also want to identify any things that might get in the way of pursuing your goals straight away.
These questions will help you about things that might get in the way:
What could stop you from doing this?
Is there something you need to learn or do first?
Is there something you need from someone else?
Is there anything that needs to change?
Can you go to, or get into, the places you need to go?
The NDIS will record the steps that you’ll take to help you pursue your goals in your own words. They’ll listen carefully to you to record the steps as you tell them about them.
Example;
Goal: During this plan, I’d like to find part-time work where I can use my computer skills.
Steps to pursue this goal:
I’ll find out what skills I need to get a job and how many hours a week I’m able to work.
I’ll learn how to look for work and start applying for jobs.
I’ll learn how to take care of myself so I don’t need support to do this at work.
I’ll learn to control the way I respond to stress and unexpected circumstances.
Once you have worked out what the steps might be to pursue each goal you can talk about your supports. This includes support from mainstream, community and informal supports.
The NDIS will do this by talking with you about how you’re currently being supported by family, friends and in the community. They’ll help you to identify how you could use the funding in your plan for disability supports that help you work towards some of your goals.
For more information about setting your goals and the steps you can take to create your plan, visit https://www.ndis.gov.au/participants/creating-your-plan
