The NDIS is shaking the snow globe in early intervention.

The great shakeout has begun.

For some time, we have been cautioning that wholesale change is likely in early intervention. The NDIS Review was clear on both the serious issues and the fixes that are needed.

What was uncertain was the timing and nature of these changes. The NDIS is a big bureaucratic beast, so it takes a while to get going. But when it does move it is a steamroller.

As part of the legislative changes to the NDIS Act which came into effect on 3rd October of this year (2024), the NDIA employed 95 staff solely to review and test eligibility for existing participants. This review team has been picking up momentum, and is now scrutinising 1,200 plans each week.

Half of all early intervention plans are being revoked, others revised downwards.

Based on the latest intel from the NDIS:

• 1,000 of the weekly reassessments are children under 9 years. And of these:
• 48% have had their NDIS funding revoked;
• 32% were transitioned into the permanent disability cohort of the scheme;
• 20% have asked for additional time to provide evidence.
• Our intel is that reassessments are focused on children aged 7 or 8 years who are approaching the age limited for early intervention of 9 years.

At Lizard, we are starting to see these reassessments impact our clients. Some clients are receiving funding cuts even when their plan is continued. Some have restrictions on what services they are allowed to access.

We have also seen a trend towards younger children receiving Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) funding under the improved Relationships (IR) funding line. This was previously generally only for children over 9.

How should parents prepare?

If your child’s disability has a limited impact on their daily life, there is an increased chance you will have your NDIS funding revoked – either due to an unscheduled reassessment, or when your child’s current plan expires.

To be eligible for NDIS funding, a child must have a significant and permanent disability that affects their ability to participate in everyday activities – in the home, broader community, and in their educational environment.

Parents should do the following to improve their chances of continued funding:

• Make sure you have robust assessments including a developmental needs assessment such as the Vineland, and a functional assessment that demonstrates where the child needs to build their capacity.
• Your child’s plan should include tailored parental training as a core component. The NDIS is encouraging parents to be actively involved in supporting their child’s developmental needs
• Ensure your service provider operates a multi-disciplinary model (the NDIS calls this the “keyworker model”) to improve outcomes and reduce duplication of services between therapists.
• Additional therapist supports must be clearly evidenced.

NDIS standard practice is to provide 28 days’ notice for reassessments. If you feel you are not fully prepared, you can request more time to gather evidence.

How should providers prepare?

If you are a Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist or Behaviour Therapist who is dependent on NDIS early intervention funding, you can expect to lose up to ½ of your clients over the coming year.

Many of those that remain will have reduced funding levels.

If you are not a NDIS-registered behaviour support practitioner OR your company isn’t registered for behaviour support, you will be unable to support clients whose funding switches to Improved Relationships (IR).

These effects are going to drive a massive shrinkage in the early intervention workforce, and will intensify competition for clients.

Those who remain will need to do all of the below:

• build a strong marketing pipeline of new clients to retain utilisation;
• diversify into other support areas or expand their private clients; and
• register for behaviour support services (a longer term and costly exercise).

If you can’t do this, you should consider joining up with a provider that ticks these boxes.

Mind the gap

Taking a 2-year horizon, we expect foundational supports in childcare and school settings to pick up children who have had NDIS funding revoked.

However, the funding for foundational supports only kicks into state budgets from July 2025. As our legislators and schools head into the Christmas break, there is little consensus or confidence on what these foundational supports will look like. What we are confident about is that each state will do something completely different.

So, we should expect at least a couple of years before foundational supports are fully defined, funded and functioning. What parents of children who have had their funding revoked should do in the interim is not clear. Private funding for services seems like the only option.

Paddling in the lifeboat.

At The Lizard Children’s Centre, we are incredibly supportive of the need to reform early intervention services in Australia. The NDIS Review team did an admirable job summarising the issues and setting out the broad changes that are needed.

We believe that the worst change is no change.

Whilst the reassessment process is messy, the NDIA is acting with intent and resolve. This is to be applauded if we want a healthy NDIS for the future.

We expect the next couple of years to be extremely challenging. The only consolation is that we are all paddling in the lifeboat together. If you spot land on the horizon, please give us a call.