KB Type: Concept
Domain Area: Framework
Confidence: Provisional — requires Andrew's research to verify
Depth Hint: Standard
Version: 1.0 — 2026-04-23
Status: Provisional

Provisional article — seeded from NbLM. Requires Andrew's research to verify.

The PACE Framework represents the new planning and payment processing system for the NDIS, accessed via the "MyNDIS" provider portal, which replaces the older Legacy system accessed via "MyPlace." The PACE system aligns with a transition away from a diagnosis-based medical model toward a functional impairment model evaluated by Needs Assessors. The framework categorises NDIS funding into 21 distinct Support Categories and three primary funding types: Core, Capital, and Capacity Building. A defining feature of the PACE architecture is its sophisticated budget control mechanisms, which use Funding Periods to dictate how frequently funds are released and distinguish between Flexible Supports and Stated Supports.

The PACE Framework is accessed via the "MyNDIS" provider portal, which replaces the older "MyPlace" portal used for Legacy plans. This transition represents more than a cosmetic change — it reflects fundamental shifts in how plans are structured, accessed, and administered:

The PACE Framework organises all NDIS funding into 21 distinct Support Categories spanning three primary funding types:

Core Supports: Day-to-day supports including assistance with daily life, consumables, transport, and social/community participation.

Capital Supports: One-off purchases of assistive technology, home modifications, and vehicle modifications.

Capacity Building: Supports that build participant skills and independence, including support coordination, psychosocial recovery coaching, improved living, improved health and wellbeing, increased social participation, and improved life choices.

The PACE architecture includes sophisticated budget control mechanisms:

Funding Periods: Dictate how frequently funds are released into the participant's budget. While the NDIA defaults to annual release, shorter periods (weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly) can be requested to protect vulnerable participants from premature budget exhaustion.

Flexible-by-Default Rule: Funding within Core and Capacity Building categories is flexible by default — participants may allocate funds freely unless specific risks are identified.

Exception-Based Controls: Digital Locks and Stated Supports are exception mechanisms for managing high-risk scenarios. Digital Locks ring-fence specific item codes to specific provider ABNs; Stated Supports ring-fence funds to specific categories or item codes.

Under the PACE Framework, Needs Assessors replace traditional NDIA planners. These officials evaluate participants using functional impairment criteria under the New Framework, relying on functional needs assessment reports to determine how a participant's impairment impacts their daily life across the six recognised impairment types: Intellectual, Cognitive, Neurological, Sensory, Physical, and Psychosocial.

RS-05 research (T6) confirms an important difference between how the Legacy (MyPlace) system and the PACE system validate provider claims. The Legacy system validated claims strictly at the line-item level — a claim for 07_101_0106_6_3 (PRC) would be checked against the specific item codes listed in the participant's plan. If PRC was not explicitly listed, the claim would be rejected.

The PACE system appears to validate claims at the support category level — a claim within Category 07 (Capacity Building: Support Coordination) may be accepted even if the specific line item is not explicitly named, provided the participant has a Category 07 budget. This is a significant operational difference: providers who assumed PACE would enforce Legacy-style line-item validation may be finding their claims succeed or fail in unexpected ways.

Practical implication: Providers should not rely on the Legacy "digital lock" heuristic (the "exact multiple" budget check) when working with PACE plans. Instead, they should reference the explicit Support Detail section within the PACE plan, which specifies approved supports. Where validation behaviour is uncertain, empirical testing via a controlled claim attempt is recommended over mathematical inference.

The Participant Statement Toolkit is explicitly designed to translate participant needs into the technical architecture required by the PACE framework. Block 5 of the toolkit is dedicated to helping coordinators mitigate risk by recommending specific budget structures to the NDIA. Through this section, coordinators can recommend customised funding release intervals to prevent premature budget exhaustion and request Digital Locks to legally ring-fence funds. The toolkit also trains coordinators to navigate PACE plans by extracting the "specific planner instruction," which acts as the operative rule determining exactly which item codes are enabled for a participant.