Your plan budget: Core, Capacity Building, Capital

When you open your first plan, the number that jumps out at you is the total funding. But the total is less important than the shape. A $20,000 plan organised well can do more than a $40,000 plan organised badly. The organising principle is three budget buckets — Core, Capacity Building, and Capital — each with different rules.

Core — the day-to-day bucket

Core funds the ongoing supports that help your child live their daily life. Four sub-categories:

• Daily activities — personal care, domestic support, a support worker helping with dressing or feeding.
• Consumables — continence aids, specialist dietary supplements (if medically necessary), low-cost assistive tech items up to $1,500.
• Social, community and civic participation — support worker hours to enable community participation, group program fees.
• Transport — partial funding to meet transport costs to supports (when mainstream transport isn't accessible or safe).

For under-9s, Core is often the smallest bucket — young children typically need therapy (Capacity Building) more than personal care. As children age and support needs become more settled, Core tends to grow.

The big Core feature — flexibility

Within Core, you can usually move funding between sub-categories. If you underspend on transport this quarter, you can use it for consumables. This is called 'within-category flexibility' and it makes Core very practical.

Capacity Building — the growth bucket

Capacity Building funds supports that build your child's skills, reduce future need for support, or develop new capacity. This is where therapy lives. Eight sub-categories, of which these are most relevant for children:

• Improved daily living — speech, OT, psychology, physio, behaviour support.
• Improved relationships — often behaviour support with a positive behaviour focus.
• Improved learning — support workers to help with school transitions, post-school pathways (relevant for teens).
• Support coordination — a dedicated professional who helps you find providers, negotiate service agreements, and troubleshoot plan use.
• Plan management — the budget for whichever plan manager you choose, separate from the plan itself.

Capacity Building's constraint — less flexibility

Unlike Core, Capacity Building is stapled to sub-category. If you have $8,000 in Improved Daily Living (therapy) and $3,000 in Improved Relationships (behaviour support), you cannot usually move funds between the two. Each sub-category is its own pot. This is why it matters to get the allocation right in the planning meeting.

Capital — the big-ticket bucket

Capital funds assistive technology and home modifications above $1,500. Two sub-categories:

• Assistive technology — wheelchairs, communication devices, sensory equipment, specialised seating, mobility aids.
• Home modifications — bathroom mods, ramps, hoists, sensory rooms (where specifically evidenced).

Capital items usually require quotes, a specialist assessment (OT or physiotherapist), and NDIA approval before purchase. You don't simply spend — you propose, with evidence, and the NDIA approves. This is deliberate — Capital items are often expensive and long-lived.

A real-world example: a first plan for a 4-year-old

Imagine a first plan for Ellie, 4 years old, autism Level 2, accessing the Early Childhood Approach. Her plan might look like:

• Core — $4,500. Small, because Ellie's parents provide daily care. Some social participation funding for group programs.
• Capacity Building — $22,000. Split across speech (weekly), OT (fortnightly), psychology (monthly), and parent training. This is the bulk of the plan.
• Capital — $2,500. An AAC communication device, assessed and recommended by her speech pathologist.
• Total — $29,000 over 12 months.

A first plan for a 12-year-old with more complex needs might look very different — much larger Core (personal care, community access), smaller Capital (existing equipment), similar-sized Capacity Building.

How to read your plan document

When you receive the written plan, you'll see each budget broken into sub-categories with a dollar amount and sometimes a stated support type. A typical line looks like:

Improved Daily Living — $12,450.00 — Stated: Speech pathology and occupational therapy to support goals 1 and 3. Non-stated.

'Stated' means the support type is specified and cannot be substituted. 'Non-stated' means you have flexibility within the sub-category. Most Capacity Building lines are non-stated — which means you can use the funding for any allied health that meets the NDIA's reasonable-and-necessary test, not just what's named in the plan.

The four questions to ask about your plan

1. 1Is the total budget realistic for the supports we agreed on in the meeting? (Cross-check: speech at $193/hour, weekly = $10,000/year. OT the same. If your Capacity Building budget is $15,000 you can't afford weekly speech AND weekly OT.)
2. 2Is each sub-category big enough for its intended use?
3. 3Is anything 'stated' when it should be 'non-stated', locking me into a specific provider or support type?
4. 4Are the goals worded broadly enough that the supports I'll actually use will count toward them?