NDIS review recommends sweeping changes to reign in cost of the disability support scheme

Children diagnosed with autism will no longer automatically qualify for individual NDIS support packages, under sweeping reforms to reign in its growing cost. Find out more.

The long-awaited NDIS review has recommended sweeping changes to keep the scheme sustainable and improve the experience of participants Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Children diagnosed with autism will no longer automatically qualify for individual NDIS support packages, with many developmental challenges to instead be catered for outside the scheme under sweeping reforms to reign in its growing cost.

A long-awaited independent review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme has recommended a five-year transition plan to ensure more than 2.5 million Australians aged under 65 with a disability can receive “foundational supports” through mainstream systems like school and childcare, the cost of which states and the Commonwealth have agreed to split 50-50.

Early childhood supports, home and community care, aids and equipment are among the supports reviewers — scheme architect Bruce Bonyhady and education expert Lisa Paul — have recommended in their report released on Thursday.

The review aims to prevent the NDIS reaching its projected cost of $100 billion over the next decade.

Reviewers have recommended the list of medical diagnoses that guarantee access to the NDIS be scrapped in favour of a functional assessment process that measures the impact of a person’s impairment.

More than 270,000 of the 630,000 current NDIS participants are children, the majority with a primary diagnosis of autism.

The NDIS reviewers have recommended the Albanese government now give children with mild autism supports through childcare and school. Picture: Getty Images,

People with more profound levels of disability will still gain access to individual NDIS packages.

“Access should be based on the impact your disability or disabilities have on your day-to-day life,” the report said.

“It should not be based on a medical diagnosis alone or just your primary diagnosis.”

To stop rorting of the scheme the review recommended registration should become mandatory for all NDIS providers.

On Wednesday Anthony Albanese has struck a deal with premiers and chief ministers to jointly fund the foundational supports to be delivered by state governments through settings like schools and childcare centres as occurred prior to the NDIS.

“For foundational support, we recognise that for support to give be given in a school or child care setting, there may well be additional cost for the states and that will be shared, 50-50 between the Commonwealth and the states,” the Prime Minister said.

People already on the NDIS will not be cut, but could be transitioned to the new scheme once it is operating.

States’ contribution to this new scheme will be limited to $10bn over the first five years, while premiers also agreed the cap on their share of NDIS funding would rise from four per cent to eight per cent by 2026.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten says the review was designed to restore trust and give people a better experience on the scheme. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Beach

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said he was pleased state and federal governments had “agreed to deliver significant collaboration and investment to support all people with a disability.”

“The objectives of the review were to restore trust, ensure sustainability and give participants a better experience and more control, by making the NDIS more about people and less about bureaucracy through greater equity, transparency and consistency,” he said.

The deal agreed to at a national cabinet meeting in Canberra, leaves states better off overall after the federal government promised to increase hospital funding and maintain higher GST payments.

Premiers, first ministers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese agreed to jointly fund new foundational supports for disability at a national cabinet meeting in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Commonwealth will give states and territories another $3.5 billion a year in GST payments until at least 2031.

Mr Albanese also agreed to gradually increase federal hospital funding to 45 per cent by 2035, up from 40 per cent currently.

“We are taking immediate action to take pressure off hospitals through further strengthening Medicare, but we are also locking in long-term structural health reform,” he said.

The agreement includes an additional $1.2bn “strengthening Medicare” package, which includes funding for more urgent care clinics.

Mr Albanese said the government would open its promised 58 after-hours GP clinics this year, with more locations to be announced in the future in a bid to reduce pressure on hospital emergency rooms.

The national cabinet also reached an agreement to jointly fund a new firearm register.

Originally published as NDIS review recommends sweeping changes to reign in cost of the disability support scheme