How to Find NDIS Participants

Why finding NDIS participants is a common challenge for providers

Whether you're a new NDIS provider still building your client base, or an established organisation looking to grow into new areas or disability types, finding NDIS participants is a challenge that never fully goes away.

The NDIS has over 700,000 active participants across Australia, so demand exists. The challenge is visibility and trust. Participants and their support coordinators have many providers to choose from, and they tend to work with providers they've heard of, been referred to, or found through a trusted source.

That means the way you find NDIS clients matters as much as how many you reach. Cold outreach rarely converts. Relationship-based referrals and targeted online presence convert consistently.

Here are the most effective strategies our team uses and recommends, drawn from years of connecting NDIS providers with participants every day.

1. Build relationships with Local Area Coordinators (LACs)

Local Area Coordinators are one of the most direct pathways to new NDIS participants. LACs work with participants who don't have a support coordinator, often people who are newly approved, re-engaging with the NDIS, or managing their own plans. If an LAC knows your service and trusts your quality, they will refer participants to you.

You can find your local LAC offices on the NDIS website.

How to approach LACs effectively:

Don't walk in and hand over a brochure. Ask to speak specifically with the Community Engagement Officer: each LAC office has one, and this is the person whose job it is to connect with community services. Tell them something specific and useful, not a generic overview of your services.

For example:

That kind of specificity gives them something to act on. A vague introduction gives them nothing.

2. Connect with Support Coordinators in your area

Support coordinators are often the most direct referral source for NDIS providers. They work closely with participants to identify, assess, and connect them with services, and when they find a provider they trust, they refer repeatedly.

Support coordinators typically specialise by disability type and geographic area. This means targeted outreach works far better than broad campaigns.

Use the NDIS Provider Finder to identify support coordinators operating in your local area. Visit their websites to understand who they work with, then reach out with information that is directly relevant to their clients.

How to approach support coordinators effectively:

Call first, then follow up with a specific email. Do not send a generic introduction; support coordinators receive many of these and most go unread.

Instead, lead with what makes you relevant to them specifically:

That message is hard to ignore if the coordinator works with SCI clients in Geelong. A generic "we offer great NDIS services" email is easy to delete.

Building the relationship over time: once a support coordinator has referred a participant to you, stay in touch. Share updates on your services, let them know when you have availability, and flag when you've expanded into new areas or disability types. Referral relationships compound over time.

3. Engage your local council

Every local council in Australia has a Disability and Inclusion Plan, which is a formal commitment to supporting the disability community in their area. This creates a genuine opening for NDIS providers to connect with councils as community partners, not just service vendors.

Find the Disability and Inclusion Plans for the council areas relevant to your business, understand what they're trying to achieve, and reach out to show how your services can help them deliver on those commitments.

Specific asks work best here too:

Getting into a council newsletter puts your service in front of community members, other local organisations, and potential participants in a trusted, non-commercial context.

Other council engagement ideas:

• Ask to be included in their disability services directory or resource list
• Offer to present at a council-run community event
• Propose a joint event or activity that helps the council deliver on a specific inclusion goal

4. Build a personalised website

Many NDIS provider websites look and sound the same: generic mission statements, stock photos, and service descriptions written in NDIS registration group language that most participants and families won't understand.

A website that helps you find NDIS clients does the opposite. It is specific, personal, and written in plain English.

What makes an effective NDIS provider website:

• Real photos of your team, your environment, and the work you do, not stock images
• Your story: why you started, who you are, what you genuinely care about
• Specific examples of how you deliver your services, including outcomes for participants
• Plain English descriptions of what you do, not NDIS registration group names
• Location and disability specificity: who you work with, where, and what makes you the right choice for that person

Your website is often the first thing a support coordinator, LAC, or participant's family will check after hearing about you. If it's generic, you lose credibility immediately. If it's specific and genuine, it builds trust before you've even spoken.

Make sure your website includes the specific disability types you support, the suburbs and regions you operate in, and the services you provide in plain terms. This is how NDIS participants find providers through Google.

5. Partner with other local providers

Building referral relationships with other local providers, including those offering complementary services, is one of the most underused strategies for finding NDIS participants.

Think about the services your participants also use: allied health practitioners, gyms, community transport providers, employment services, local cafes, playgrounds, equipment suppliers. Any of these could be a referral or co-promotion partner.

Partnering has several advantages:

• You share marketing costs, making community events more affordable
• Joint events are more appealing to participants than single-provider events
• You tap into each other's existing networks and client bases
• It builds your reputation in the local disability community faster than solo efforts

Examples of effective provider partnerships:

• A support provider teams up with a local gym to run a free supported sports day
• A therapy provider co-hosts an information evening with an equipment supplier
• A group of local disability providers collectively sponsor a community event, with each contributing a small amount

The goal is visibility in your community, not as a service selling itself, but as a genuine part of the local disability ecosystem.

6. List on MyCareSpace

MyCareSpace is a community platform that connects NDIS participants, families, and support coordinators with NDIS providers, and it receives over 115,000 page views per month from people who are actively looking for NDIS services.

Unlike general business directories or social media, every person visiting MyCareSpace is already NDIS-aware and actively searching for providers. That makes it one of the most targeted and cost-effective ways to find NDIS clients available to providers of any size.

When you list on MyCareSpace, our team creates a detailed provider profile for you, built to connect you with the right participants based on your disability specialisation, location, and service type.

Beyond participant connections, the MyCareSpace provider community also gives you access to support across other areas of your NDIS business, including insurance, legal, accounting, and HR.

The importance of being specific

If there's one principle that runs through every effective strategy for finding NDIS participants, it's this: be specific.

Vague, generalised outreach, whether on your website, in an email to a support coordinator, or at a community event, does not convert. Providers who grow their NDIS client base consistently are the ones who can clearly articulate:

• Who they support (disability type, age group, needs)
• Where they operate (suburb, region, travel radius)
• What they actually do (specific services, not registration group names)
• Why they're the right choice (experience, lived expertise, outcomes)

The more specific you are, the easier it is for LACs, support coordinators, and participants themselves to refer or choose you with confidence.

Further Resources for NDIS Providers