Setting NDIS goals for your plan meeting

How to Set NDIS Goals

Knowing how to set appropriate NDIS goals is extremely important when you are applying to the NDIS or preparing for a plan reassessment or review.

Once you are accepted into the NDIS, you will attend a plan meeting with an NDIS representative, known as a Local Area Coordinator (LAC) or NDIA planner. During this meeting, you’ll be asked to provide your short-term and long-term goals that require NDIS supports and funding.

You may also be coming up for a plan review, where your circumstances, needs, or stage of life have changed. This often means you’ll need to set new NDIS goals to reflect what you want to work towards next.

This resource will help you understand:

• Why setting NDIS goals is important
• How to choose the right NDIS goals
• Our top tips for NDIS goal setting
• How to write clear and effective NDIS goals
• What a great NDIS goal looks like
• Examples of supports linked to goals

Why Setting NDIS Goals Is Important

The main purpose of your planning meeting is to understand what you want to achieve and the disability-related barriers that make this difficult. The NDIA then considers how funding can be used for supports that are reasonable and necessary to help you work towards those goals.

There are a few important things to keep in mind when setting goals:

• Setting more or bigger goals does not automatically mean more funding
• Setting a goal does not guarantee that all related supports will be funded
• Writing a goal for a specific service or amount does not mean the NDIA must fund it

How Do I Choose My NDIS Goals?

Choosing your goals is often the hardest part, especially if you’re unsure what to ask for or how to word it. Your goals play a big role in shaping your funding, but very specific goals can sometimes limit flexibility in the supports you can use.

Start by thinking about what matters most to you or your child, and shape your goals around these priorities.

You might consider goals related to:

• Finding and keeping a job
• Improving relationships
• Building independence in daily living
• Managing money
• Social and recreational activities
• Health and wellbeing
• Using public transport or learning to drive
• Learning new skills
• Housing or living arrangements
• Communication and behaviour support

Our Top Tips for Setting NDIS Goals

• Use age-appropriate goals: Think about what people of a similar age are usually working towards. For teenagers, this might include managing personal care, social skills, or using public transport. For adults, it could be cooking meals, managing money, maintaining a home, or gaining employment.
• Use NDIS language: social participation, community participation, building independence, choice and control, reasonable and necessary, capacity building, core supports.
• Keep goals broad: Focus less on specific services or providers and more on the outcome you want to achieve.
• Include carer supports where relevant: Ask for supports that help carers build skills or strategies that support the participant’s independence.
• Focus on key areas the NDIS funds: mobility, communication, social interaction, learning, self-care, and self-management.
• Ask others: Speak with therapists or family members who can share examples of NDIS goals.

How to Write Great NDIS Goals

When writing your goals, focus on two key things:

1. What is important to you or someone you care for?
   This could include making friends, managing emotions, communicating needs, gaining independence, or finding employment.
2. How would you work towards this?
   This might involve therapy, community participation, skill-building programs, behaviour support, or learning daily living skills.

NDIS GOAL = What’s important + how you would achieve this

Examples of NDIS Goals

• I want to increase my participation in social and community activities so I can try new things and build confidence.
• Zoe wants to build her social and communication skills so she can develop and maintain age-appropriate relationships.
• I want to learn strategies to manage my behaviours and understand my emotions so I can communicate my needs more effectively.
• Jack wants to build his communication and employment skills so he can prepare for and gain meaningful work.
• I want to build my fine motor and communication skills so I can be more independent in daily life.

Examples of Supports Linked to These Goals

• Improve communication – Speech Pathologist, Psychologist, Counsellor, Animal/Art/Music therapist
• Community participation – Community hubs, skill groups, clubs, camps
• Social integration – Social groups, support workers, clubs
• Manage behaviours and emotions – Psychologist, Counsellor, Occupational Therapist, art/music therapy
• Build fine motor skills – Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapist
• Build independence – Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapist, Support Worker