If you’re 18 or older, you have the right to make decisions about your business with the NDIS, including how we interact with you. We’ll always start from the principle that you can make decisions for yourself. But we know making decisions can sometimes be hard. We’ll check with you to see if you’re ok making decisions independently. If not, we’ll see if you can make decisions with support. If you’re younger than 18 you can be supported by a child representative.
If you’re not able to make decisions, even with support, we’ll explore who else can make decisions and do things on your behalf. We call this representative decision-making, and we call this person a nominee.
The role of a nominee is voluntary, which means they don’t get paid.
If you have a nominee, they’ll be responsible for making decisions about your business with the NDIS and doing things on your behalf. They must listen to your wishes and do things that support your personal and social wellbeing. They must also try to help you learn how to make your own decisions. We’ll only appoint a nominee for you if it’s the only option to make decisions about your business with the NDIS.
There are some decisions you need to make, such as the goals you want to pursue, and which service providers you want to use. There are some decisions we need to make to support you to do this. For example, we make the decisions about which supports we’ll fund in your plan. And we decide whether to appoint or suspend a nominee.
When we say ‘we decide’ or ‘our decision’, we mean the decisions that the NDIA needs to make. When we say ‘you decide’ or ‘your decision’, we mean the decisions that you need to make about your business with the NDIS.
Browse the guideline using the links or download a copy:
Read more about Being an NDIS nominee (DOCX 69KB).