A nominee has duties to us when acting on your behalf, and they have duties to you as your nominee. This is the case whether they’re a nominee that you requested, or a nominee that we appointed.
If someone is thinking about being your nominee, they can use the information in this guideline to help them understand whether they can be your nominee. It will help them understand what is expected of them. This information also helps you know what you can expect from your nominee.
If we appoint a plan nominee, a correspondence nominee, or both, there are certain duties they must carry out. We need to make sure the person is willing and able to carry out and keep to these duties.
Your nominee must try to support you to make decisions, and try to find out what you would like to happen. They must also act in a way that supports your personal and social wellbeing.
Your nominee must also talk with other people in your life about anything they’re thinking of doing on your behalf about your business with the NDIS.
These other people could include:
- for plan nominees, any other NDIS-appointed plan nominee you have
- any court-appointed decision-maker you have
- any other decision-maker you have appointed
- any person who helps you make decisions and manage your day-to-day activities – for example, a family member, supporter, or carer.
If you are unable to communicate what you want to happen, your nominee must try to work out what they think you would like to happen.
They might do this by:
- looking back on other decisions you’ve made
- thinking about the experiences they’ve had with you
- talking with other people who know you well.
Your nominee has a duty to do their best and make a genuine effort to support you. They should:
- help you build your skills so that you can make more of your own decisions, and if possible, to a point where you no longer need a nominee – we’ll help your nominee with this duty
- tell us about any conflict of interest they have in relation to you
- avoid or manage any conflict of interest they have in relation to you – for example, if your nominee is helping you with decisions about providers and also provides you with services that they get paid for.
If a plan nominee is appointed at your request, they can only do things on your behalf if they believe either:
- it’s not possible for you to do something, or be supported to do it
- it’s possible for you to do something yourself, but you don’t want to do it yourself.
If you can do something by yourself but don’t want to, we’ll see if we can help. Remember, other people can also help you make your own decisions. You can also give us permission to talk to another person like a family member, friend or an advocate about your business with the NDIS. We call this express consent.
Express consent means you still make your own decisions, but you can consent for someone else to do things like represent you at a planning meeting, have access to information about your NDIS plan and advocate for you. They might talk to us about your NDIS plan and then explain things to you.
Express consent is different to a nominee because your support person can’t make decisions for you like a nominee can. You can give express consent by using an NDIS consent form , or you can tell us verbally, in writing, or in some other way that you communicate.
If you want to build your skills to make your own decisions, we may be able to fund supports in your plan to help you learn these skills if they meet the NDIS funding criteria.
Anything your nominee does on your behalf must comply with the laws of the state or territory where you live. This includes if they are a court-appointed or participant-appointed decision-maker, for example a guardian or a person appointed under a power of attorney. They must comply with any obligations or restrictions placed on them under state or territory laws.
If we appointed your plan nominee, they may only do something on your behalf if they believe you can’t either:
- make the decision or complete the task
- be supported to make the decision or complete the task.