NDIS Capacity Building: Increased Social and Community Participation

All of the capacity-building supports in your NDIS plan are intended to help increase your capacity and skills for independent living. Like every capacity-building support category, the funds you receive for ‘Increased Social and Community Participation’ must help you build your skills, not just access activities. 

There are two NDIS categories that provide support to help you participate in your community. The first is in your core supports budget, and those items help pay for the ongoing support you need for community participation. For example, if you need a support worker to go with you so you can attend community classes, you’ll use your core support budget. 

This category in your capacity building budget is similar, but the activities you use this budget for must have a skill-building component. Capacity-building supports help you participate in activities that specifically increase your skills and independence, making it easier for you to participate in similar activities in the future. 

What types of activities can you pay for with this support category? 

Your capacity building budget is less flexible than your core support budget, so it’s important to make sure you use this funding in the way it’s intended. However, there is a broad range of types of activities and costs you can purchase with your ‘Increased Social and Community Participation’ budget. 

One obvious example is classes for social skills classes or communication classes. These classes will specifically increase your ability to interact with others and make friends, so they will increase your capacity to participate in your community. Therefore, you can use this support item for tuition for classes like these, as well as for assistance attending them and even transport to classes. 

However, this support item isn’t limited to social skills classes. As long as the activity you want to use these funds for will increase your ability to build connections in your community, you can use this support item. For example, you can use this category to learn a new skill or explore a new hobby. If the skill or hobby will enable you to connect with others in your community and build new relationships, then it counts as increasing your capacity for social participation. So you can use this support item for activities like art classes or music classes. You can even pay tuition for a limited number of classes to explore a new hobby. 

This category can also be used for recreational vacation activities or respite care. As long as the activity has a component that will help you build your skills and increase your ability to participate independently in your community, you may be able to use funds in this support category. 

What activities are not included? 

You can’t use this category to pay for the entire cost of participation in community activities, except on a limited basis. For example, you can use it for tuition for a limited number of classes to explore a new hobby, but you can’t use it for tuition for classes you’ve been taking for a while. You can use it to pay for a support worker to attend a concert with you and help you with personal care while you’re out in the community, but you can’t use it to pay for the cost of the concert ticket. You can use it to pay for adaptive or modified equipment that you need for your hobby, but you can’t purchase equipment that everyone who participates in the hobby needs to pay for (such as uniforms for a sports team). 

How can you include funds for this category in your NDIS budget? 

In order to include funds for this category in your NDIS budget, you’ll need to have goals in your plan that are related to increasing the skills you need to participate in community activities. This can be as simple as a goal for making new friends, which will enable you to use this budget for activities like attending a camp or group recreational activity. If your plan includes a goal of learning a new skill, you can usually use this budget to pay for a limited number of classes in the skill you want to explore. You can also use this budget to learn life skills that help you access community activities, such as lessons and practice in taking public transit or even classes on social skill that will improve your ability to make friends. 

Price Limits 

There are several different support items that can be used for different types of support in this category. The first support item, Life Transition Planning, is intended to help you establish regular volunteer support to help you with activities like attending appointments or participating in social activities.