National PACE Rollout Begins October: What It Means For You

The NDIA has recently been putting on a bit of a roadshow across the country, preparing NDIS providers for the upcoming rollout of its new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

Testing began in Tasmania at the end of last year, but for many the introduction of a new technology will be new and, as a result, a potential cause for concern.

Putting any concerns to rest, here we explain the major changes, who they impact, and any suggested actions you can take to make the PACE rollout go as smoothly as possible.

What Is PACE?

PACE is the name the NDIA is calling its new CRM system – a software that’s designed to securely and efficiently manage information about NDIS participants and providers.

The introduction of PACE isn’t meant to cause significant disruption to either NDIS participants or their support providers. Mostly, it’s aimed at making the payment process and claim reporting more efficient.

When Will the Rollout Occur?

PACE began rolling out in Tasmania in late 2022, but will begin rolling out nationwide from 30 October 2023.

The NDIA has indicated that the rollout will occur on a Plan-by-Plan basis and that, from 30 October, any first-time NDIS Plans will be set up in PACE.

Existing participants will be contacted before their existing Plan is due to expire. If a new Plan or Plan Variation occurs after 30 October, it will likely be set up in PACE.

What Are the Major Changes?

The biggest change arriving with PACE is the provider endorsement feature.

By creating ‘participant-endorsed providers’, the NDIA is removing the need for service bookings and instead, participants simply need to endorse the provider they wish to work with by inputting an ‘NDIS provider number’ into PACE or informing the NDIA of the endorsement during their Plan Review.

Once a provider has been endorsed, they’re able to see relevant information from their participant’s NDIS Plan and submit Requests for Service when necessary.

For plan-managed participants, the plan manager needs to be endorsed in order to pay other providers. For agency-managed providers, all providers need to be endorsed by the participant.

What Else Is Changing with PACE and the NDIS?

Alongside the PACE rollout, the NDIA has flagged a number of other changes it intends to make to the way Plans are being administered.

There are also a few items we’ve picked up through our testing throughout the Tasmanian trial rollout.

These are:

• Longer Plans – In order to reduce the number of new Plans being created, the NDIA has said it intends to deliver longer plans, between 3-5 years
• More ‘Plan Variations’ – Rather than issue new Plans whenever small changes to budgets or supports are required, the NDIA has said they will begin making variations to existing Plans instead
• Changes to some support categories – The names of some NDIS funding categories will change, along with some details on how they’re administered. Expect to see more details on this in the weeks to come
• New PACE Plans aren’t as detailed – While this is likely a temporary issue, the Plans we’ve seen in PACE so far don’t tend to include as much information as they have in the old system. We would expect that to change as the rollout begins gathering steam
• New Plans are occasionally not arriving in PACE – Again, perhaps only a temporary issue, but it seems the mandate to have all new Plans set up in PACE isn’t always being followed to the letter throughout the trial period. This will hopefully change from 30 October.

Impacts of the PACE Rollout

The PACE rollout will mean small changes for everyone associated with the NDIS, but those impacts aren’t designed to be severe or sudden.

Read on to see how the changes will impact participants, support coordinators, plan managers and other providers.

Note: The NDIA has released a ‘Provider Portal’ training environment to help them prepare for the new system.

For Participants

Participants aren’t expected to be impacted by PACE in any significant way, other than needing to endorse their key providers, such as support coordinators and plan managers.

Until the correct endorsements are made, participants won’t be able to pay supports, so this should be a priority whenever a new Plan is set up after the rollout date of 30 October.

In order to assist a smooth transition for participants to move into the new system, the NDIA has committed to contacting them four months before they’re due for a Plan Reassessment.

From February 2024, all expiring NDIS Plans will start transitioning into PACE if they haven’t done so already.

For Support Coordinators

Support coordinators will need to educate their participants in the endorsement process and in some cases it may be necessary to help them through it.

Also, given the lack of detail provided on new Plans in PACE, this may mean support coordinators need to spend more time getting this information directly from their participants.

Support coordinators should also be prepared to begin attending the new Plan implementation meetings between their participants and NDIA planners when asked.

Plan Managers

As with support coordinators, receiving endorsements from participants will be the major change.

It’s also worth noting that the service booking process will be removed entirely under PACE.

For Other Providers

Providers of plan-managed participants aren’t expected to see any changes at this stage, as the plan manager their participants work with will be managing PACE.

For those with self-managed participants, communicating the endorsement process will be critical.