Planning is a way of putting thoughts and ideas into action.  It is an ordinary thing that people do every day, either formally or in a more instinctive way.  For people with disability and their close supporters, however, planning has a particular role to play.  Under the Your Life Your Choice program and, in the future, with the NDIS, funding will be linked to planning.  It is important that people with disability, families and the people they trust to work with them are prepared for this. 

When you direct your own funding through Your Life Your Choice you will be asked to plan for the resources you need, either with a Host Provider or with the Department if you choose to use the Direct Payments method.  You can prepare for this by doing your own planning first. 

You have the responsibility and power to present your own plan of the life you want to live and the supports, services and safeguards that you might require to lead it. 

In this video, Kylie Clarke talks about the importance of planning for her daughter's life now and for the long term.

Taking charge of your own planning in this way may be a new experience for people used to working with service providers.  This change in thinking is described in the story, New Horizons - the result of good planning and in the article, Self-Direction from the InCharge website.

Click on the links below to read more about planning

• What goes in a plan? Includes Where to start; Imagining Possibilities; Creating a Plan; Effective Planning 
• Linking planning to supports and services
• Who can help me with my planning? 
• Succession planning - what will happen in the long term?