Various factors must be considered when offering a student placement in an NDIS provider organisation. The Preparing for a Clinical Education placement section of this website outlines considerations for offering student placements for the first time, as well as providing a pre placement planning checklist that outlines necessary communications with university partners, your workplace and students.
It is important that you have processes in place that allow NDIS participants to understand how student provided services may add value to their existing plan, while also allowing them to make an informed decision about whether they will consent to receive services from students. If students are involved in the delivery of care, the funding, type of service and time needs to negotiated with the participant and the consent needs to be documented. Please liaise with your provider organisation to identify documentation requirements.
As students work in an unpaid role, you will also need to determine either with your provider organisation or via the National Disability Insurance Agency how to make a claim for services where you have provided supervision. More information on making claims relating to student delivered care can be found at:
If your health profession uses a standardised assessment tool (for example the Student Practice Evaluation Form (SPEF-R2), then you may also consider liaising with the university placement coordinator to customise the assessment tool to suit the setting. This activity can usually be completed once and can then make the administrative load associated with student assessments more efficient and tailored to the setting in which you are hosting student placements.
Some additional considerations unique to NDIS provider organisations are outlined in the open access eLearning module developed by Flinders University, ‘Building the Allied Health Workforce for an NDIS future’. The information provided in this module includes:
- Benefits of hosting a student placement in an NDIS provider organisation
- Orientation to the NDIS from a student placement perspective
- Ways to incorporate student placements into NDIS funded services
- Placement models for NDIS provider organisations
- Orientation to service and facilitating learning in NDIS provider organisations
Supporting resources
Student Placements and the NDIS: Panel Discussion (00:26:51). The panel discusses:
- challenges associated with student supervision in NDIS
- costing and practice models
- supporting sole practitioners to take students (psychology example)
- ideas to increase placement numbers
- viability of placements in NDIS
- ensuring quality of service when students are delivering the service.
The content below is an adaptation of the Future Allies website, originally developed by Robyn Johnson and the Future Allies project team from the University of Sydney, Flinders University, Monash University and Curtin University with funding from the Australian Government Department of Social Services and those universities. ClinEdAus has permission from University of Sydney to share this adaptation as part of the page content. Should you wish to use any Future Allies content, please contact Robyn Johnson at the University of Sydney directly to seek necessary copyright permissions.
You can learn more about the findings of the research in the Future Allies Report
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Practical support for providers
Many providers are not sure what to expect from their students and/or how to manage a placement to make sure it delivers to the needs of the student, their participants and their organisation. The following resources can support providers:
Useful resources
- Information for student orientation
- Being an effective supervisor of NDIS student placements
- Managing a difficult NDIS student placement
- FLIP BOOKS (PDF):
Doing Placements Better
If we are to make Allied Health student placements better meet the needs of all parties involved, we need to re-think how we approach those placements. Future Allies has identified the need to establish mutually-beneficial partnerships between NDIS participants, providers, students and educators as key to making placements better and more sustainable.
Useful resources
Partnering to improve placements
Future supervision models
Examines new and innovative ways to set-up and deliver placements to address some of the key issues in current models.
Enhancing communication
Provides insights on how we can establish effective communication between all parties in making student placements work.
- Enhancing communication for NDIS student placements
- FLIP BOOKS (PDF):
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Practical supports for educators
What does it mean to prepare allied health students for the NDIS?
The Future Allies research found that what NDIS providers and participants really expect of educators is to focus on developing students’ general clinical and professional skills. While, some background knowledge about the NDIS is assumed, largely, providers expect that they will have a key role in teaching students about the NDIS – its practices and ways of working. Educators don’t need to think of NDIS placements as requiring any burdensome additional preparation – like any placement, it’s about ensuring students have a good grounding in practical clinical and professional skills. You can hear from NDIS participants and providers on their expectations of Allied Health students and their educators in preparing for placement in the following video 'Preparing students for placements' (03:46)
Useful resources:
- The University’s check-list for NDIS student placements
- The educator’s check-list
- SMART goal-setting for student placements
- SMART goal-recording for student placements
- Assessment and reporting in the NDIS
- FLIP BOOKS (PDF):
Placements for the future
If we are to make Allied Health student placements better meet the needs of all parties involved, we need to re-think how we approach those placements. Future Allies has identified the need to establish mutually-beneficial partnerships between NDIS participants, providers, students and educators as key to providing high-quality, sustainable placements.
Useful resources
