The questions every family asks first.

Yes. PowerCare is a registered NDIS provider in Sydney that holds registration group 104 (Assist Personal Activities — High) with Practice Standards Module 1, which covers exactly seven high-intensity supports: tracheostomy management, enteral (PEG/NG) feeding, complex bowel care, severe dysphagia management, urinary catheter management, complex wound management, and subcutaneous injections.

These are not exceptions we make. They are the supports we exist for.

If you have been told by other providers that a trach or a PEG is “too complex”, what they usually mean is that they do not hold Module 1. A provider without it genuinely cannot deliver these supports. A provider with it can. It is worth asking every provider you call whether they hold Module 1, and listening for whether they answer the question.

See how we deliver tracheostomy support and PEG and tube feeding in Sydney, or read the guide on what high-intensity supports are.

Depending on the participant’s clinical needs and circumstances, high-intensity supports at PowerCare — a registered NDIS provider in Sydney — are delivered either by registered nurses directly, or by support workers who hold high-intensity training and work under registered-nurse supervision.

Both are legitimate under the NDIS high-intensity framework, and both involve a registered nurse. The nurse assesses the clinical need, sets the support up against the treating team’s plan, trains and assesses the workers, and is the person they escalate to when something changes.

Your plan and your clinical needs tell us which model applies. We will tell you plainly which one it is before we start — not after.

You should not be teaching our workers how to care for your family member. Training the workers is our job.

We support participants across Sydney — Sydney metro, Greater Sydney and surrounding areas.

If you are not sure whether we reach you, call and ask. If we cannot get to you, we will say so on that call rather than leaving you waiting a week to find out.

We will give you an honest start date on the first call.

Here is what that date depends on. Standard supports — personal care, household tasks, community access — need a service agreement and a roster before the first shift. High-intensity supports need something more: workers trained against your specific clinical plan, assessed by a registered nurse, before anyone walks through your door. That takes time, and any provider who tells you it doesn’t is either not doing it or not telling you the truth.

So we will not promise you a number on a website. We will look at what the support actually is, tell you on the phone what it will realistically take, and then keep to it.

No — and be wary of anyone who blurs this line.

PowerCare implements behaviour support plans written by the participant’s own NDIS behaviour support practitioner. That is what NDIS Practice Standards Module 2A covers, and it is the module we hold.

Writing the plan is a different NDIS registration, which we do not hold and do not claim. The NDIS separates these two roles deliberately: the provider delivering the day-to-day support should not also be the one deciding what the behaviour support strategies are.

If a provider is vague about which of the two they do, treat that vagueness as an answer.

PowerCare holds 11 NDIS registration groups:

• High-Intensity Personal Care (104)
• Life Transition Support (106)
• Personal Care & Daily Living (107)
• Transport & Travel Assistance (108)
• Community Nursing (114)
• Supported Independent Living (115)
• Innovative Community Participation (116)
• Daily Living & Life Skills (117)
• Household Tasks & Domestic Assistance (120)
• Community Participation (125)
• Group & Centre-Based Activities (136)

We also hold NDIS Practice Standards Module 1 (High-Intensity Daily Personal Activities) and Module 2A (Implementing Behaviour Support Plans).

Just as usefully — here is what we do not do: we are not a plan manager, we do not provide Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), and we do not provide allied health of any kind (no occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology or psychology). If you need those, you need someone else, and we will say so rather than take the work.

SIL is the support. SDA is the building. They are two different things, funded separately.

Supported Independent Living (SIL) is the support delivered inside a home — a rostered team helping with everyday living. PowerCare holds NDIS registration group 115 and delivers SIL, including for participants with high-intensity clinical needs.

Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) is the physical, purpose-built housing. PowerCare does not provide SDA. We are not a landlord and we do not supply housing.

A participant can receive SIL in an SDA property, a private rental, a share house, or a family home. If a provider offers you a house and the support as one inseparable package, ask why — under the NDIS you are entitled to choose them separately.

Yes. Under the NDIS you choose your provider, and you can change it. You do not need your current provider’s permission, and you do not need to justify the decision to anyone.

What you do need to do is check your service agreement for its notice period, give that notice in writing, and — this is the part that matters most — line the new support up before the old support stops. Nobody should have a gap in a bowel program or a feeding regime because of paperwork.

If you are switching because of the clinical supports, tell us that on the first call. We will be honest about how long it takes to have workers trained against your plan, so the changeover can be planned rather than survived.

For the full step-by-step, read our guide on how to change NDIS providers.