What capacity building means
Core supports help you get through everyday life. Capacity Building supports aim to change it: to build your skills, confidence and independence so you can do more for yourself, or need a different kind of support over time.
The NDIA shares your progress and outcomes from these supports at each plan reassessment, so it expects to see what they are achieving.
The Capacity Building categories
In plans made in the NDIA's PACE system, Capacity Building is split into these support categories:
- 07 Support Coordination and Psychosocial Recovery Coaches
- 08 Improved Living Arrangements: help to find and keep a home
- 09 Increased Social and Community Participation: skills to join in community life
- 10 Finding and Keeping a Job: employment assistance and school leaver employment supports
- 11 Relationships: social skills and relationship supports
- 12 Health and Wellbeing: exercise physiology, dietetics and similar supports
- 13 Lifelong Learning: help moving through school and into further education
- 14 Choice and Control: plan management and training to manage your plan
- 15 Improved Daily Living Skills: therapy, assessments and daily living skills training
- 20 Behaviour Support: specialist behaviour support
How it differs from Core
Core funding for daily life, transport, consumables and community participation can often be used flexibly across those categories. Capacity Building funding is allocated to specific categories and can only buy the supports described there. You cannot move it into Core, or Core into it.
Each category usually has a dollar amount, not a set number of hours, so you choose providers and how often to see them within that amount. Price limits apply if your plan is agency managed or plan managed.
The October 2026 funding reset
From 1 October 2026, two groups of supports are reduced when a plan is created, reassessed or renewed: improved daily living skills supports by 10%, and social, economic and community participation supports by 50%. The first sits in Capacity Building, and the second mostly in Core with some Capacity Building supports.
Some subgroups are protected, including supports in employment, disability related health supports, high intensity supports, intensive and complex behaviour supports, customised and wearable technology, and hearing services. Your new plan shows the total, the amount available after the change, and which funding is not affected.
Using your Capacity Building budget well
- Link each support to a goal in your plan, in your own words
- Ask providers for a short progress report before your reassessment
- Check how much is left in each category every few months, not just at the end
- Since the 10% reset, plan therapy hours with assessments and equipment advice in mind, as they often share the same budget
- From 1 February 2027 renewed plans do not roll over unspent funds, so use it through the plan
Capacity Building in new framework plans
From 1 April 2027 participants start moving to new framework plans. These show a flexible budget for most supports and stated supports for a few, rather than Core, Capital and Capacity Building budgets. The October 2026 reset does not apply to new framework plans. Everyone will have moved by 31 December 2030.
For providers
Check which category each support item belongs to, and quote against the funding available after the reset, not the total. Clear goals, session notes and progress reports help participants show what Capacity Building is achieving at reassessment.