Families to keep music and art therapy funding as Shorten pauses cuts

Thousands of families who use the National Disability Insurance Scheme for art and music therapy will keep receiving funding of nearly $200 an hour after the agency paused its plans to cut subsidies following a massive backlash from parents and practitioners.

The agency will instead reassess pricing and re-evaluate the evidence behind creative therapies – which proponents say help develop communication skills and regulate emotions – as it walks back its plan to reduce spending on the treatments because there was not enough proof they were effective.

Gemma Ryan, with her son Max, and Winnie Choy, a registered music therapist, campaigned against the funding cuts.Credit: Wolter Peeters

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten last month revealed that $194-an-hour funding for creative therapies would be reduced under a suite of reforms to make the scheme more sustainable. Participants’ sessions with art or music therapists would instead be subsidised at $68 an hour from February, while the full $194 an hour would be available in special circumstances or for group lessons.

But a campaign from concerned parents and providers led the agency to pause the changes. It announced on Friday that prominent health economist Stephen Duckett will review pricing as well as the evidence behind the therapies, opening the door for greater funding to be reinstated.

The saga shows the sensitivity at play as the government introduces a raft of changes to bring down spending on one of its biggest expenses. The NDIS is budgeted at $47 billion this financial year – more than aged care and Medicare.

It also demonstrates the challenges ahead for Shorten’s successor when they take the reins early next year. Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth or Health Minister Mark Butler are most the most likely interim options, while Aged Care Minister Anika Wells is also a contender.

Therapist associations estimate about 8000 NDIS participants use music therapy and about 10,000 use art therapy.

The National Disability Insurance Agency had originally found there was insufficient evidence to show that art and music therapy were effective ways to maintain or improve the functional capacity of most people with a disability.

Shorten defended the changes, saying they would make pricing more competitive and ensure the scheme was delivering bang for buck.

But he offered to reconsider after outraged families said the therapies were transformative for their children and providers threatened to close their doors. Duckett will give his expert opinion in a written report by March and will consult art and music therapy associations in the process.

Dr Kate Dempsey, head of the Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association, said she had met with Shorten and was pleased with the outcome.

“It gives us some time – instead of this very quick change – to be engaged in this process and present our significant body of research and evidence,” she said.

“We appreciate the efforts that [Shorten] went to, to try and improve this situation.”

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