How to Measure and Track Success in Your Plan with NDIS Services

Many participants focus on how much of their NDIS funding allocated for them or the number of support hours they were able to spend. This is indeed the wrong metrics to use in measuring progress with NDIS services. To achieve true success, you need to look beyond these two metrics and focus on how you’ve progressed and which of your NDIS goals you’ve been able to achieve.

Whether your aim is to become more independent, build new skills, or improve your quality of life, your success with NDIS support should reflect your personal journey, not just how much of your plan you’ve used.

In this article, we will explore meaningful and practical ways you can use to track your progress with NDIS services.

Why Traditional Metrics Alone May Not Be Enough

Apart from the mentioned traditional metrics which many participants wrongly use in measuring their progress with the NDIS, another metric they use is comparing the services they were able to access to the actual services allocated to them.

While these metrics may provide some insight, they do not give complete information. You cannot rely completely on them to genuinely improve your quality of life or achieve whatever goals you aim to achieve through the NDIS.

Spending many hours from your allocated support plan or spending a large part of your funding does not equate success or progress in your NDIS journey. It is still possible not to see any real progress or remarkable growth in your goals.

Contrarily to what you’ve believed, it is possible to achieve your goals earlier than expected. It is also possible to find an approach that is more effective without spending much of your support funding or time.

These are the main reasons why you shouldn’t only focus on your amount of time or funding spent. Focusing more on what you are able to achieve will bring you closer to knowing your level of progress.

How to Practically Measure Your NDIS Success

As said earlier, even though NDIS services are structured in an organized way, the way you make use of them should reflect your unique goals. To measure your success in your NDIS journey, here are some practical and meaningful ways you can use:

1. Track your Goal Achievement and Progress

The basic purpose of every NDIS plan lies in your goals. To accurately measure progress in your support, you should start with tracking your progress towards these objectives:

1. The steps you’ve taken towards greater independence
2. New skills you’ve developed
3. New milestones you’ve reached

Don’t focus only on what you’re able to spend from your allocated NDIS resources. You should rather consider how those resources have contributed to your journey towards achieving your health goals

2. Better Quality of Life

Another significant indicator that shows your progress with NDIS services is your quality of life getting better. You can watch out for the following:

1. Improved physical health
2. Improved mental wellbeing
3. Better community participation
4. Better relationships with your families and friends
5. Increased self esteem and confidence
6. Greater sense of independence and control over your activities

These are just some of the qualitative ways you can measure your progress. They denote a better quality of life, which if your scores are positive, then you can boast of achieving progress with your NDIS support.

3. Increased Independence and Decision Making

Your independence and decision making should increase as you progress in your NDIS plan. If you are unable to record a better decision making or at least some increased level of independence, you might need to check back and review your NDIS support with your providers. Use these questions to track your progress:

1. Are you making more choices yourself lately?
2. Do you still depend on others like before?
3. Do you have greater control over your activities?
4. Can you freely and easily access your community better?

Your success with NDIS services should reflect growth in your capacity to lead your life the way you want it.

4. How Flexible and Responsive is Your Support Plan

An effective NDIS plan should adapt to your changing needs and conditions. It should not be a rigid plan but flexible to accommodate changes and upgrades. Ask yourself:

1. How fast your NDIS provider respond to changes in your circumstances
2. If your provider is willing to try another approach if a method isn’t working
3. How your services develop as you develop new skills or face new challenges
4. How your supports adjust when your needs change

How to Track Success in Your NDIS Plan

To actively track your success with NDIS, you need to be intentional about it. You should also pay attention to the methods you use in documenting and tracking your progress. To do these, you can follow the following approaches:

1. Keep an Achievement Journal

You can get a notebook or journal solely to track your journey.

1. Write down each of the goals you wish to achieve with NDIS
2. Divide large goals into bite-sized achievable terms
3. Record your progress including dates and circumstances that lead to them
4. Record challenges you’ve encountered and you were able to overcome them

Periodically take time to reflect on your development and acknowledge your growths

2. Create a Quality of Life Assessment Tool

Use a personalized quality of life assessment tool to measure what matters most to your goals.

1. Create a checklist of important life quality indicators (such as quality of sleep, relationship with others, access to community, etc.)
2. Rate each life indicator every month on a scale of 1 to 10
3. Watch out for trends over time and note them (you can use a graph or chart for this)
4. Note areas where your NDIS support is making the most impact
5. Use recorded data to plan future care support plan to achieve maximum care

Having trackable data will make it easier for you to identify patterns and adjust where necessary.

3. Involve Your Family or Support Circle

Sometimes, being close to your own conditions usually makes it difficult to know whether you’re progressing or not. This is why it is recommended to always involve your family, friends or caregivers in your journey. Those closest to you can notice changes and improvements where you might not notice and even help with advice where necessary.

They can:

1. Help you identify small wins that you may not notice
2. Offer you words of encouragement and support
3. Collaborate with you in redefining your goals

When you compare their observations with your self assessment, you are most likely to have a more accurate picture of your progress.

Conclusion

There is no general rule in defining success in matters of NDIS services. You can’t determine your progress just by spending all the funding and time allocated for you. True success is in how well your support helps you live the life you want. Take your time to reflect on what truly matters. Use your tracking results to guide your planning, implementation and evaluation processes.