For support coordinators, discharge planners, PTG delegates and LACs

A straight answer about capacity, in one business day.

You are building a shortlist and your time is funded by the hour. This page tells you what we take, what we do not, and who to call. You do not need a discovery call to find out whether we can help.

Make a referral See our published rates

Our commitment to you

Every referral gets a yes, a no, or a date, within one business day.

Service Managers are contactable directly. There is no call centre to navigate and no ticket queue to wait in. If we cannot take the person, we will say so plainly and tell you why, so you can keep moving.

Joseph Parappilly, Carly Bell and Rach Sinclair Service Managers · direct lines [to confirm]

Evidenced · one business day and no call centre, already published Evidenced · three Service Managers named on site Placeholder · direct lines and who owns intake

Upgraded by the content harvest, 17 August 2026 This is no longer a new promise. The About page already says "Our team responds to enquiries within one business day" and "Service Managers are contactable directly, there is no call centre to navigate and no ticket queue to wait in", and the Contact page repeats the one business day commitment twice. All that is missing is a direct line and a named owner for referrals specifically.

Where we have room right now

Updated after every vacancy review. If a line says full, the waiting register is still worth joining, because it moves.

Capacity by service line · confirmed [date] · next review [date]

Capacity by service line, confirmed [date]
Service	Status	Notes for referrers
Supported Independent Living	[status]	See our homes for specific vacancies, SDA design category and who each home suits.
High intensity supports	[status]	Delegated health care including tracheostomy, ventilation, enteral feeding, complex bowel care and severe dysphagia.
Core supports	[status]	Personal care, household tasks, community participation, transport.
Support coordination	[status]	Level 2 Coordination of Supports. Charged in 12 minute increments.
Psychosocial recovery coaching	[status]	For participants with psychosocial disability arising from a mental health condition.
Community activities	[status]	Group sessions across Canberra. Ask us which days have room.

Evidenced · every service line and description from the current site Placeholder · status values and dates only

What we take, and what we do not

Read this before you spend time on a referral. We would rather lose ten minutes of your attention now than three days of it later.

We can help with

Delegated health care requiring specialised training and clinical oversight: medication administration, enteral feeding, tracheostomy care, ventilation support
Complex continence and bowel care, catheter management, specialised equipment
Complex wound and pressure injury care
Severe dysphagia and nutrition support, with health team liaison
Personal care, household tasks, community participation and transport
Supported Independent Living, including sleepover support
Support coordination (Level 2) and psychosocial recovery coaching
Community activities, group based, across Canberra

Evidenced · all of it published on the current site

We do not provide

Tenancy services. This is a deliberate choice. We took the view that we have an obligation to deliver services consistent with the change recommended by the Disability Royal Commission, so we do not directly provide tenancy. We support people to maintain a tenancy through their housing provider, whoever that is, in the same way we support them to access the community.
[Any support type outside our registration groups, stated plainly]
[Specialist behaviour support, if not held]

If we cannot help, we will tell you who might.

Evidenced · the tenancy position, currently buried in an article Placeholder · remaining exclusions from ops

A real differentiator was hiding in a blog post The tenancy separation is a principled, Royal Commission aligned position and the only stated exclusion anywhere on the site. It sits inside a 2025 article on changing providers. On this page it does exactly the job an exclusion should do: it tells a coordinator something true, and it makes every other claim more believable.

How a referral actually works

No referral is required if the funding is already in the person's plan. They can simply choose Focus ACT as their provider in the myplace portal. A person can self-refer, be referred by a family member or carer, or ask you to connect them.

A service agreement is established before support begins. If support coordination is not yet funded, you or the participant can ask their LAC or planner to include it in the next plan.

Evidenced · currently hidden in screen-reader-only text on the service pages

Written, paid for, and invisible The service pages carry genuinely good "who is this for" and "how to access" copy inside screen-reader-only blocks. A sighted visitor never sees any of it. Surfacing that text costs nothing and answers most of what a referrer asks on a first call.

Published rates, 2026-27

High intensity, weekday daytime$79.60

Evening $87.70 · Saturday $112.01 · Sunday $144.42 · Public holiday $176.84

Core supports, weekday daytime$73.58

Evening $81.07 · Saturday $103.54 · Sunday $133.50 · Public holiday $163.46

Sleepover support$311.79

Per night

Support coordination, Level 2$100.14

Per hour, charged in 12 minute increments, so $20.03 per 12 minutes

Transport$1.00

Per kilometre travelled

All rates are the NDIS catalogued price used to build a plan budget. Effective 1 July 2026, from the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026 to 2027.

Evidenced · already published on every service page

Make a referral

You will get an acknowledgement with a name and a direct line on it.

Your name *

Organisation *

Your role *

Direct phone *

Email *

Support sought *

Support needs, in your words * Enough for us to answer yes, no or a date. Please do not include the person's full name, diagnosis or plan number at this stage.

Plan management

Funding in plan for this support

Timing Tell us if there is a discharge date or a tenancy ending.

Attach documentsRoster of care, functional assessment, risk information. Optional at this stage.

How did you hear about us? *

We ask for the minimum at first contact. We will not put a participant's identifying details in an unsecured form, and neither should you. Once we know we can help, we will set up a secure way to share the detail.

Prefer to call?

(02) 6282 9422, Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm. Ask for a Service Manager. You can also text 0411 556 945.

Evidenced · number, hours and SMS line

What happens next

You get an acknowledgement

With a name and a direct line on it.

We check fit

Against current capacity and the person's support needs.

Yes, no, or a date

Within one business day.

Secure handover

If it is a yes, we set up a secure way to share detail, then a service agreement before support begins.

Evidenced · service agreement before support beginsPlaceholder · confirm the internal steps

For guardians, nominees and families deciding on someone else's behalf

You are deciding for someone else. Here is everything you need to check us.

Whether you are a parent planning for a time when you cannot provide the support yourself, or a guardian who has to be able to justify this decision, you should not have to take our word for anything. Every answer below links to something you can verify or a document you can hold.

See our homes Download: questions to ask any provider

Placeholder · checklist PDF, from the article we already published

A Focus ACT team member talking with a participant and their family

The photo library is much bigger than the website uses Fifty image assets sit on focusact.org: portraits of all nine Service Managers and Team Leaders, Christine Kirby, the CEO, the Operations Director, five houses, and hero photography for every service line. Every photograph in this prototype is one Focus ACT already owns and is not currently using well.

Correction to an earlier claim. I previously described four of those portraits as looking like board members. That was an inference from filenames and it was wrong. Gary has confirmed: Wilhelm Harnisch is Chairman of the Board and Gary is a director, while Isobel Boulding and Rachel Horne are former employees. Their images, and former CEO Ken Wedgwood's, are still served publicly and still referenced in the source of the team page, though none of them renders on it. That belongs on the quiet fix list, not a slide.

Six questions to ask any provider, including us

These are the questions we would want a family to ask if the person moving in were ours. Ask every provider on your shortlist the same six and compare the answers side by side.

Who will be supporting the person, and what are they trained in?

Our leadership, Service Managers and Team Leaders are named and pictured on this site, with their backgrounds, before you meet anyone. Every worker completes comprehensive induction training before working with participants.

Training includes mandatory safeguarding and NDIS compliance, Person Centred Active Support accreditation, Positive Behaviour Support frameworks, and First Aid, medication and clinical care skills. Regular supervision and performance reviews are built into how we operate.

We also encourage a trial period when first matching a person with a support worker, and after that trial we keep that worker as the default, so the person is not re-explaining their life, preferences and routines to a different face each week.

Evidenced · training list published on About Evidenced · trial period and default worker, published on About

What happens the first time something goes wrong?

You can raise a compliment, a suggestion, a concern or a formal complaint by phone on (02) 6282 9422, by email, or through the form on our feedback page. Formal complaints carry a 48 hour response commitment, and complaints channels are available 24 hours a day by phone and website.

If you are not satisfied with how we respond, three independent bodies can take it further, and we would rather you used them than stayed unhappy with us:

NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission1800 035 544 · complaints@ndiscommission.gov.au

ACT Human Rights Commission(02) 6205 2222 · human.rights@act.gov.au

ACT Office for Disability(02) 6207 1086 · OfficeforDisability@act.gov.au

Making a complaint will never affect the supports a person receives.

Evidenced · all three bodies with real contact details, already published Evidenced · 48 hour commitment, currently only inside two articles Blocked · no anonymous route exists, and the no-detriment line needs sign-off

Two fixes, both content-only The 48 hour complaints commitment already exists in our own published articles but appears nowhere on the feedback page, which states no timeframe at all. And there is currently no anonymous or advocate-submitted route, which the NDIS Practice Standards would expect. Both are cheap to fix and both are exactly what a guardian looks for.

How do you decide who lives together?

A vacancy is not a bed to be filled. We look at support needs, routines, communication and what daily life in the house is actually like. Vacancies are reviewed by a panel every fortnight rather than filled first come, first served.

How prospective housemates meet. [The steps, in order, as ops actually run them.]

What a trial looks like. [How long, what happens during it, and who decides at the end of it.]

How families stay part of the conversation. [What families are consulted on, and when.]

If a match is not working. [How we raise it early, what we try, and how a move happens if it comes to that.]

Evidenced · fortnightly vacancy review Placeholder · the matching steps as ops actually run them

What can I see before I decide?

The home, in person, more than once, at a time of day that tells you something. You can meet the team who would be supporting the person. There is no pressure step in our process and no deadline we will put on you.

Arranging a visit. Call (02) 6282 9422 or text 0411 556 945 and ask for a Service Manager. [How quickly a visit can usually be arranged.]

Who you will meet. [The Service Manager and Team Leader for that home, and current residents if they are happy to meet you.]

What to bring. [Anything useful, including the questions from this page.]

Placeholder · the visit process as ops run it

What happens when their needs change?

Needs change, and usually not at a convenient moment. When they do, our Service Managers can adjust supports without escalating through multiple approval layers, so changes happen in days rather than weeks.

We build a roster around the person's life rather than around what is easiest for us to staff, including evenings and weekends. If someone's health needs become more complex, we hold registration for high intensity supports, so a change in need does not automatically mean a change of provider.

Evidenced · fast adjustments and flexible rostering, published on About Evidenced · high intensity registration held

Replaced "What documents can I have?", 17 August 2026 Gary's call, and correct. Nobody sits down and thinks "what documents can I have". Two of six questions were also sitting in the complaints and risk register, which made the page read defensive. This one is forward-looking, it is a real worry for an ageing parent, and Focus ACT already has published copy that answers it well. The documents content moved to the proof block below, which is where proof belongs.

How do you involve me after the move?

We run a Guardian and Client Advisory Forum that meets every six to eight weeks. Each home holds House Meetings, and we publish quarterly "You said, we did" reports that go to those meetings and to our Board. We are also recruiting a Board member with lived experience of disability.

Your named contact. [Who it is, and how to reach them directly.]

How often you will hear from us. [Routine contact, and what triggers a call.]

What you will be told about incidents, and when. [The commitment, in plain words.]

Evidenced · Advisory Forum, House Meetings and You said, we did reports Confirm the Forum still meets and the reporting still runs Placeholder · the named contact and incident communication

This was marked blocked. It is not. In v1 this question had no answer and carried a note saying do not ship the page without one. The harvest found the answer inside a 2025 article: a Guardian and Client Advisory Forum meeting every six to eight weeks, House Meetings, and quarterly "You said, we did" reporting to the Board. A structure built specifically for the guardian audience exists and has never been mentioned on any page a guardian would read.

What you can hold in your hand

Everything above is checkable, and most of it you can check without asking us.

Our registration, provider number and registration groups are published by the NDIS Commission on its own register. Our charity status is on the ACNC register. Our rates are the NDIS catalogued prices, published on every service page, so you can see exactly what a support costs before you talk to anyone.

Our provider number is 4050001755 and our registration ID is 4-3LLK-1362, both on the Commission's register. We have also published a plain language guide to what a service agreement with us actually involves. Ask us and we will send you our complaints and incident policy, our worker screening and training standards, and our most recent annual report, without a meeting first.

If a provider will not give you those before you commit to anything, that tells you something.

Evidenced · NDIS registration, ACNC, published rates Blocked · policy pack not yet assembled

And you do not have to take our word on the rest either

"Ethical and considered in approach. Bringing people living with a disability into their community and supporting agency and diversity."

Tabitha Everdeen · Google review

We have 15 reviews on Google. We do not choose which ones appear there, and we reply to all of them, including the ones we would rather not have received.

Evidenced · 15 reviews, owner replies present Confirm we are willing to say the second sentence, because it commits us

Who governs us

We are a not-for-profit charity, which means we answer to a volunteer board rather than to shareholders. If you are making this decision on someone else's behalf and need to know who is accountable, this is where it stops.

Chair
Wilhelm Harnisch

[Background, and what he brings to the board.]

Director
Gary Griffiths

[Background, and what he brings to the board.]

SH Director
Scott Harris

Director of Workplace Relations and Policy at the Master Builders Association of the ACT. [What he brings to the board.]

MS Director
Melanie Sykes

[Affiliation and background.]

AM Director
Anthony McDonald

Owner of the Royal Hotel in Queanbeyan. [What he brings to the board.]

+ Also on the board
[Remaining directors]

We are also recruiting a director with lived experience of disability.

The board receives reporting on our key business metrics, and the quarterly "You said, we did" reports that come out of our Guardian and Client Advisory Forum and House Meetings go to the board as well as back to the people who raised the issues.

Evidenced · five directors confirmed by Gary, 17 August 2026 Evidenced · board reporting and lived-experience recruitment, from a 2025 article Placeholder · remaining directors, biographies, and three portraits

Why a governance section earns its place No ACT competitor publishes one. A Public Trustee delegate or a guardian documenting a decision looks for accountability, and "a volunteer board rather than shareholders" is a genuine structural difference from the for-profit end of this market.

Still to gather. Portraits exist on focusact.org for the Chair and for Gary only, so three directors show initials. Melanie Sykes' affiliation is blank because it could not be verified: guild.org.au is the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and carries no reference to her or to "Bridge". The ACNC register lists eleven responsible persons for Focus ACT, so the five named here are probably not the whole board.

Reading we have already done for you

Written by our own team, for people in your position.

6 Essential Questions When Choosing an NDIS Provider in Canberra9 September 2025 · NDIS guidance Dignity of Risk: Balancing Duty of Care in Disability Support7 January 2026 · Practice Focus ACT Service Agreement: Your Guide to Working Together8 September 2025 · Plain language guide Navigating the Way to a High Intensity Supports Registration: Our Audit Journey5 November 2025 · Quality and compliance What is Active Support in Disability Services? The Evidence Explained22 September 2025 · Practice Royal Commission Recommendations: Our Response and Action Plan19 August 2025 · Accountability How to Change Your NDIS Provider in Canberra: Step-by-Step Guide29 September 2025 · NDIS guide

Evidenced · all seven articles exist, with these exact titles and datesPlaceholder · four still sit at unreadable UUID web addresses

Our monthly newsletter

We publish a newsletter every month for participants, families and carers. It carries the community activities calendar, what the team has been doing, and plain-language explanations of NDIS changes, including the current eligibility reassessments.

Read the latest issue · Browse all ten issues · Get it by email

Evidenced · ten monthly issues existBlocked · no archive is published anywhere on the current site

Supported Independent Living and Specialist Disability Accommodation

Our homes, and whether there is room in them.

Each home below shows where it is, who lives there now, and whether a room is free, with the date we last checked. If a home is full it is still worth joining the register, because we review vacancies every fortnight.

A Focus ACT supported independent living home in Canberra

The house and the support are two separate decisions

You can move into one of these homes and keep the support provider you already have. You do not have to switch to us to live here, and we will not make you choose. If you would rather we provided the support as well, we can, and plenty of people do. It is your call, and you can change your mind later.

Evidenced · the current homepage says accommodation can be accessed on its own or with an existing provider Confirmed · Your Home Canberra says "not tied to one support provider"

Rewritten, 17 August 2026 Two fixes. "Real homes in real suburbs" was hollow, so it is gone. And the sentence about bringing your existing provider was unreadable, which matters because the thing underneath it is genuinely unusual: the housing and the support funding are separate, and Focus ACT is not holding one hostage to win the other. Said plainly, it is a trust signal no competitor offers. The reading is inferred from the homepage sentence plus the separate SDA arrangements, so ops should confirm it before it goes live.

Eight rooms available right now, across five homes

Every home below is one we can place someone into. We list the suburb rather than the street address, because these are people's homes and their privacy comes first. Ask us and we will take you there.

Taylor

Taylor, ACT

3 rooms open

Design category: Fully Accessible
The house: 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
House coordinator: [coordinator]
Suits: [who this home suits]

[Two lines on what daily life in this house is like, and who would fit well here.]

Confirmed [date]

Book a visit Ask about this home

Taylor

Taylor, ACT

1 room open

Design category: Robust
The house: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
House coordinator: Zac MacDonald
Suits: [who this home suits]

[Two lines on what daily life in this house is like, and who would fit well here.]

Confirmed [date]

Book a visit Ask about this home

Higgins

Higgins, ACT

1 room open

Design category: Robust
The house: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
House coordinator: Zac MacDonald
Suits: [who this home suits]

[Two lines on what daily life in this house is like, and who would fit well here.]

Confirmed [date]

Book a visit Ask about this home

Page

Page, ACT

2 rooms open

Design category: Havelock property
The house: 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, one room used by staff
House coordinator: Luna Adhikari
Suits: [who this home suits]

[Two lines on what daily life in this house is like, and who would fit well here.]

Confirmed [date]

Book a visit Ask about this home

Ngunnawal

Ngunnawal, ACT

1 room open

Design category: Havelock property
The house: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
House coordinator: Ash Zubowicz
Suits: [who this home suits]

[Two lines on what daily life in this house is like, and who would fit well here.]

Confirmed [date]

Book a visit Ask about this home

We also support people in homes we do not control

Alongside these, we support people living in Housing ACT properties, Community Housing Canberra homes, Havelock houses, private rentals and their own family homes. Rooms do come up in Housing ACT properties, but those are filled through the public housing system rather than by us, so we cannot offer them here. If you are already a Housing ACT tenant, talk to us and we will explain how that works.

Numbers corrected by the CEO, 17 August 2026 Eight bedrooms across five homes, not nine across seven. Five are Specialist Disability Accommodation rooms we control across two Taylor houses and Higgins, and three are Havelock rooms in Ngunnawal and Page. Coombs is removed: another NDIS provider controls that house and Focus ACT lost the clients there in September 2025.

Two things to carry into the source-of-truth sheet. Of the six properties in the Your Home Canberra portfolio, Focus ACT controls placement in only three, so any list has to distinguish rooms we can fill from rooms we cannot. And bedrooms are not all participant rooms: at Page, one of the five is used by staff. The sheet needs a column for that or the arithmetic will drift again.

How we decide who lives together

A vacancy is not a bed to be filled. We look at support needs, routines, communication and what daily life in the house is actually like. Our vacancy review runs every fortnight, which is why the dates above mean something.

We do not provide tenancy services ourselves. That is deliberate, and it follows the direction set by the Disability Royal Commission. We work alongside your housing provider, and we support you to manage your tenancy in the same way we support you to access the community.

Read the six questions we think you should ask any provider

Are you a support coordinator?

Skip the tour. Go straight to current capacity, what we take and what we do not, published rates, and a referral form built for you.

Referrer pathway

For participants and families

Support that fits your life, from people who listen.

From complex health care through to everyday personal and community support. Every rate below is the NDIS catalogued price used to build your plan budget, so you can see what things cost before you speak to anyone.

A Focus ACT support worker with a participant

High intensity supports

Specialised care for people with complex health needs, requiring skilled, trained support workers and clinical oversight.

Complex health support

Delegated health care tasks requiring specialised training and clinical oversight: medication administration, enteral feeding management, tracheostomy care and ventilation support.

Continence and bowel care

Complex bowel care, catheter management, specialised equipment support and health monitoring.

Wound and pressure care

Complex wound care, pressure injury management, specialised dressings and care coordination.

Dysphagia and nutrition

Support for people with severe swallowing difficulties, including nutritional support, safe feeding techniques and liaison with your health team.

Who this is for. Participants with complex or clinical health needs where a higher level of worker training and clinical oversight is required. Rate: $79.60 weekday daytime, rising to $176.84 on public holidays. 24/7 and emergency services are individually quoted.

Evidenced · all descriptions, eligibility and rates already published

Core supports

Essential daily living and community participation support.

Personal care

Showering and bathing, dressing assistance, medication support and mobility aid.

Household tasks

Cleaning and tidying, meal preparation, shopping assistance and laundry support.

Community participation

Social outings, sports and recreation, community events and volunteer opportunities.

Transport

Medical appointments, social activities, shopping trips and getting to work. $1 per kilometre.

Who this is for. Participants with Core Supports funding in their current plan. Rate: $73.58 weekday daytime. Sleepover support $311.79 per night.

Evidenced · already published

Support coordination

Support coordination at Focus ACT is more than service delivery. It is a partnership built on strong communication and real connection.

Understanding your plan

Plan structure, goal setting, service arrangements and how to use your budget well.

Connecting you up

Sourcing and vetting providers, community services, mainstream and government services.

Building your skills

Self-advocacy, communication, problem solving and the confidence to self-direct your supports.

Recovery coaching

Psychosocial recovery coaching for people living with a psychosocial disability arising from a mental health condition.

Rate: $100.14 per hour for Level 2 Coordination of Supports, charged in 12 minute increments, so $20.03 per 12 minutes. You only pay for the time actually used.

No referral is needed if support coordination is already funded in your plan. Just choose Focus ACT in the myplace portal. If it is not funded yet, ask your LAC or planner to include it in your next plan.

Evidenced · all of it published, though the recovery coaching line is currently one clause sitewidePlaceholder · recovery coaching needs real copy of its own

Your support coordinator

Christine Kirby

"I relocated from Perth to be closer to my family in Canberra. My father's experience with Parkinson's and Frontal Lobe Dementia has made me a passionate advocate for those living with these conditions. I bring extensive experience from the Early Childhood sector across WA and the ACT, and most recently spent several years as a Support Worker alongside paraplegic, quadriplegic and Autistic children and adolescents. I have a genuine love of life and I bring that same energy to everyone I support."

Areas of focus: Parkinson's and dementia, autism support, complex physical needs, early childhood background, pet friendly.

Evidenced · verbatim from the current site

"Her knowledge, responsiveness and commitment have made a real difference, giving me confidence that the right supports were being put in place. Her dedication and willingness to go the extra mile have been invaluable."

Ian, participant · July 2026

Evidenced · the only participant testimonial on the current site

Community activities

Each week, our team crafts a fresh programme designed to get participants out into the broader Canberra community, meeting new people, discovering new places, and building real connections. It is one of the parts of this work we love most.

Creative arts and crafts

Painting and drawing, pottery and ceramics, craft workshops, digital art.

Social outings and events

Group excursions, cultural events, community festivals, dining out.

Recreation and sports

Adaptive sports, swimming programmes, walking groups, fitness activities.

Life skills and cooking

Cooking and meal prep, life skills, computer literacy, financial literacy.

What is on in September

The programme runs five days a week. Some details change through the month, so this page is updated whenever the plan changes and always shows when it was last checked.

September 2026 · last updated [date] · times [to be added]

Community Activities Program, September 2026
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
	1 Bowling	2 Cooking	3 Arts and craft	4 No activity
7 Arts and craft	8 Bowling	9 Walking and catch-up	10 Pampering day	11 No activity
14 Arts and craft	15 Bowling	16 Cooking	17 Arts and craft	18 No activity
21 Arts and craft	22 Bowling	23 Walking and catch-up	24 Pampering day	25 Dinner night
28 Arts and craft	29 Movies	30 Cooking

Bowling

Our most popular activity, and everyone is welcome. Tuesdays.

Cooking and dinner night

Learn kitchen skills and make a meal together. Dinner night is an evening activity.

Arts and craft

Bracelet, necklace and card making, pot painting, colouring and painting. At Red Hill this has grown into a small crafting hub, where participants design products that go on to sell.

Walking and catch-up

A casual walk somewhere new, then coffee and cake. A Friday favourite.

Pampering day

Time to relax and focus on your wellbeing.

Movies

A film on the big screen, as a group.

The programme is run by Binita, our Community Program Team Leader. If there is something you would like to see on the calendar, tell her and she will look at it.

Evidenced · the September 2026 calendar, activity descriptions, five-days-a-week note and Binita, all from newsletter issue 10 Placeholder · start and finish times, and venues, which the calendar does not carry either

The timetable exists. It is in a PDF. Everything in the table above came out of the September newsletter, which contains a fully designed monthly calendar. That newsletter also tells readers to "keep an eye on our website and social media stories for the latest updates, activity times". The website has never carried a timetable. This is not a content problem, it is a publishing one, and it changes the automation question from "how do we build a calendar" to "how do we get the calendar we already make out of a picture and onto the page". One thing genuinely is missing: the calendar names days and activities but no start times, so the sheet needs a times column.

Where you will find us

Event

Canberra Disability Expo

Late September 2026. We will have a stand, and it is a good place to meet us without booking anything. Participants, families, carers and support coordinators all come through, and you can ask us whatever you like with no follow-up unless you want one.

If you are going, come and say hello.

Evidenced · newsletter issue 10Placeholder · exact date, venue and stand number

In the community

What our team gets up to outside the job

Our staff have been donating through the Lifeblood Blood Drive, and those donations have now helped save 36 lives.

Christine from our support coordination team is walking 63 kilometres in the Lifeline Out of the Shadows Walk, one kilometre for each of the 63 Australians lost to suicide every week.

Evidenced · newsletter issue 10

Newsletter content that belongs on the site Focus ACT publishes a monthly newsletter and is up to issue 10. None of it appears on the website, and the Perspectives page invites people to subscribe to a newsletter whose back issues are nowhere to be found. The Expo matters because it is where the organisation meets coordinators and families face to face, which is exactly the audience this site is being rebuilt for. Christine's walk is worth surfacing because she is also the named support coordinator on this site, and the same person appears in our only participant testimonial and our most recent Google review.

The people you would be working with

Service Manager
Rach Sinclair

Nearly twenty years in the disability sector, and moved to Canberra in 2017 to work in the NDIS. A strong advocate for the people we support.

Team Leader
Godswill Emelogu

Leads teams in supported accommodation, focused on support that is practical, consistent and person-centred, from clear documentation to team culture people can rely on.

Team Leader
Onyeka Okpaleke

Came to disability support after caring for his late father for 23 years. Certificate IV in Leisure and Health, Diploma of Community Services, Master's Advanced Certificate in Public Health.

Evidenced · real bios, condensed from the current site Placeholder · four of nine team bios currently read "Bio to be added" Blocked · four staff photos are cross-wired on the live site

Two fixes worth doing this week regardless Four of the nine Service Manager and Team Leader bios say "Bio to be added", including two of the three Service Managers, the people this site asks families to book a meeting with. Separately, four staff photographs are attached to the wrong names in the page code: Joseph Parappilly and Carly Bell are swapped, and Godswill Emelogu and Zachary MacDonald are swapped. Both are small, visible and quick.

Canberra only, since 1989 · Registered NDIS provider · Not-for-profit charity

Support you can check, not just trust.

Choosing disability support for someone you are responsible for is an act of trust that most providers answer with adjectives. We would rather show you the things you can verify: our homes, our people, our rates, our registration record, and what happens when something goes wrong.

Focus ACT participants and staff together at a Canberra Raiders game

For families and guardians

Looking for a home for someone

See our Supported Independent Living homes, whether there is room, how matching works, and what to ask any provider.

See our homes → For professionals

Making a referral

Current capacity, what we take and what we do not, published rates, and a referral form answered in one business day.

Referrer pathway → For participants and families

Looking for support

High intensity and core supports, support coordination, recovery coaching, and community activities across Canberra.

Support services →

35+ years

In Canberra, and nowhere else, since 1989

One founding year everywhere, please

500+ people

Supported across the ACT

Evidenced

NDIS registered

Provider 4050001755, on the Commission's public register

Evidenced

Rates published

Every price, on every service page, before you ask

Evidenced

What is deliberately missing, and one claim that needs checking No headcount and nothing about our workforce. No Google rating yet: there are 15 reviews, but the displayed average has not been confirmed, so no number is published until it is. Also note: "HDAA Certified" and "National Disability Services Member" appear on the current site only as alt text on two footer logos, with no written claim anywhere. Before either is stated in words, someone should confirm both are current.

What we get asked most often by people choosing a provider

We want to be clear about how we work.

The same support worker

We encourage a trial period when first matching you with a support worker. After that trial, we keep that worker as your default, so you are not re-explaining your life, preferences and routines to a different face each week.

One business day, no call centre

We respond to enquiries within one business day. Service Managers are contactable directly. There is no call centre to navigate and no ticket queue to wait in.

Your roster, not ours

We arrange support across weekdays, evenings and weekends, built around your life rather than around what is easiest for us to staff.

Changes in days, not weeks

When your needs change we move quickly. Service Managers can adjust supports without escalating through multiple approval layers.

Evidenced · all four already published on the About page, word for word

The best copy on the current website This section already exists on the About page under "What makes Focus ACT different". It is specific, it is mechanical rather than adjectival, and it answers what decision-makers actually ask. It belongs on the homepage, not four clicks deep.

What people say about us on Google

[rating] from 15 Google reviews · read them all →

"Ethical and considered in approach. Bringing people living with a disability into their community and supporting agency and diversity."

Tabitha Everdeen · Google review

"I cannot speak highly enough of Christine Kirby and the team at Focus ACT."

Ian Blewitt · Google review, July 2026

"An organisation that genuinely cares about the people they support."

Pawan Gupta · Google review, July 2026

Evidenced · 15 Google reviews exist, quotes verbatim Placeholder · confirm the displayed star rating before publishing a number

Correction, 17 August 2026 An earlier read of the Google Business Profile dashboard showed no review count and I wrongly recorded zero reviews. There are 15, including four in the last two months and warm owner replies. Two are critical and are dealt with in the Talk Track rather than here. The displayed average rating still needs confirming, so no number is published above until it is.

A Canberra charity, not a national chain

Focus ACT was founded in Canberra in 1989 on a simple belief: that every person with a disability deserves real choice, genuine community connection, and support that fits their life. We support more than 500 participants across the ACT.

We are proudly not-for-profit. Every dollar we receive goes into improving the lives of the people we support. Our homes welcome First Nations participants, LGBTQIA+ participants, and in some houses, pets.

A national provider can match a website. It cannot become local.

Evidenced · founding narrative verbatim from About, inclusivity from the homepage