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WattlepathSupports

For referrers

Referrals, without the guesswork

For support coordinators, plan managers, allied health professionals, local area coordinators and families. This page sets out exactly what we need and what you get back.

Send a referral

Working alongside you

One named contact, and a straight answer on capacity

Referrals are read by a person, not a queue. You will know who has it, whether we can take it, and what happens next, including when the honest answer is that another provider is the better fit.

A support worker sitting beside an older man at a table, going through paperwork with him.

What to include

  • The participant's first name and the best way to make contact with them.
  • Confirmation that the participant knows about, and agrees to, this referral.
  • A short description of what support is being sought, in the participant's words where possible.
  • The suburb or area where support would be delivered.
  • Funding arrangement, if known: self-managed, plan-managed or NDIA-managed.
  • Anything that affects how we should make first contact, such as a preferred time or a communication preference.

What to leave out for now

  • Diagnoses, medical history or medication lists.
  • Full plan documents or assessment reports at referral stage.
  • Incident histories or behaviour support plans before there is a conversation.

Our referral form is not a secure clinical channel. We ask for the minimum needed to decide whether we can help, then collect anything further directly from the participant, with their consent, through a secure channel.

Our side of it

What you get back after sending a referral

  • An acknowledgement

    We confirm we have the referral and tell you who is looking at it.

  • A capacity answer

    A plain yes, no, or 'not yet, and here is when', including whether we can support that area.

  • A named contact

    One person you can follow up with, rather than a shared inbox.

  • A close-out either way

    If we cannot take a referral, we tell you and the participant, rather than letting it lapse quietly.

Consent

The participant is part of it from the start

We only act on a referral where the participant knows it has been made. If that has not happened yet, send the referral anyway and say so, and we will wait rather than making unexpected contact.

Where a participant has a guardian or nominee, tell us who holds which decisions. We still talk to the participant directly about their own support, and we say plainly when a decision is not theirs to make alone.

If a participant later tells us they did not want the referral, we stop, record it, and let you know. That is not treated as a problem with the participant.

Send the referral, or ask about capacity first

If you only want to know whether we have room in a particular area, ask, because you do not need to prepare a full referral to find out.

Send a referralAsk about capacity