2026 Business Excellence Awards nominee
About Select
Care that reaches
the person.
Select Support Services was founded by a Registered Nurse who believed NDIS support should reach the whole person, not just the plan on paper.
Our founder
Donna Howe, the nurse who started Select.
Donna Howe has been a Registered Nurse since 1991. She began her career in the NHS in England, moved into aged care in Cairns, and then into disability support. Everywhere she worked, one thing stayed the same: the people who needed the most clinical care were often the ones getting the least.
She started Select after seeing a participant funded for sixteen hours a day of one-to-one support left unbathed, with dirty nails and unbrushed teeth, while the worker sat on their phone. The funding was there. The care was not reaching the person. Select exists so that does not happen on our watch.
The funding was there. The care was not reaching the person. That is the gap we built Select to close.
The nurse-led model
Clinical oversight, built into everyday support.
Registered Nurses sit inside the business. Every support worker is trained and signed off by a nurse before they work alone, so clinical judgement is there in the room, not on call.
Registered Nurses
In-house clinical oversight across every participant.
Workers alone before sign-off
No support worker works alone until a nurse signs them off.
We meet you in person
Every participant is met face to face before we take them on.
Local team
Nurses and workers who live in the communities we serve.
Our team
The people behind the care.
A nurse-led team with the coordination and structure to back it up.
Donna Howe
Registered Nurse & Founder
Registered Nurse since 1991. Meets every participant and sets the clinical standard for the team.
Laiken McAliece
Operations Manager
Keeps the day-to-day running so care stays consistent and reliable across every home and shift.
Jodie Jackson
Disability Coordinator
Coordinates supports and stays close to participants, families and coordinators.
Our nurses
Registered Nurses
A team of Registered Nurses providing clinical care and signing off every support worker.
What we stand for
Integrity, quality and reliability.
Integrity
We do the small things that dignity depends on, whether or not anyone is watching.
Quality
Registered Nurses set the standard, and we hold every shift to it.
Reliability
The same faces, showing up, so families can finally stop worrying.
Proudly Far North Queensland.
We are local. Our nurses and support workers live in the communities they serve, and in 2026 we were nominated in the Cairns Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards.
Come and meet us.
Whether you're a family, a participant or a coordinator, we'd love to talk about the care you need.