Mandatory and Non-Mandatory Advice Requests

FOI 25/26-3719 DOCUMENT 14

October 2025 Mandatory Referral Criteria Updates

The TAPIB Mandatory Review Criteria (MRC) was updated on 13/10/2025. Consideration has been given to changes in Pricing/CPI increases (particularly in relation to AT); Legislation /policy; Guidance materials, and Agency priorities.

TAPIB has developed supporting resources — primarily TAPIB Digest Articles and NEW TAPIB Talks — to support delegate decision making when considering supports which no longer require mandatory advice.

Mandatory Requests
Information You Must Include in your Request
Non-Mandatory Requests

Mandatory Requests

Some requests for supports or access to the Scheme require the delegate to obtain advice from the TAPIB before they make a decision.

TAPIB advice provides delegates with a clinical or technical assessment and interpretation of the request and gives guidance as to whether and why the request meets the legislative requirements of the NDIS Act 2013.

TAPIB mandatory advice is internal specialist advice for delegates and must be followed, as per the CEO Direction dated 1 February 2021.

Not all requests for support or access to the Scheme require mandatory TAPIB advice before a delegate can make their decision. To find out whether mandatory advice is required for the support or access application you are deciding, find your work area in the list below and identify whether the support or access topic needs a mandatory TAPIB request.

Topics are sorted into funding categories which align with the NDIS Supports List, and criteria for referral of each individual topic is specified. If you are unsure about whether your decision meets the criteria for referral to TAPIB please ask your Team Leader / Line Manager / Practice Lead for guidance.

To see your mandatory referral criteria (MRC), please click on your Branch / Team below:

Regional Service Delivery, Compensation Branch
Home and Living Operations
Internal Review Branch, External Review Branch
National Early Childhood Branch
National Planning Support Team (NPST)
Scheme Eligibility Branch
Specialised Service Delivery

Information You Must Include in your Request

TAPIB needs the right information included in your request for advice. Without the right information we can’t accept your request or provide you with advice.

For all TAPIB requests you must:

Make sure that you have included the question/s you need TAPIB advice for. At least one question which clearly sets out what type of advice you need from TAPIB will help us to provide the right advice to you as quickly as possible.

Some examples of questions related to mandatory advice requests are provided for your information:

redacted: s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies

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Make sure that you have linked all documents that are relevant to your request to the Technical Advice Case in PACE.
Some types of requests need specific evidence / information linked to the Technical Advice Case; you should use the checklists below for these types of requests, to guide you to include the right information:
- TAPIB Assistive Technology Checklist
- TAPIB Home Modifications Checklist
- TAPIB Vehicle Modifications Checklist

For these advice areas, please use the relevant checklist to make sure you have all required information ready to submit with your advice request. An advice request will be returned to you if the right information is not provided to support your request. You don’t need to upload a copy of the checklist with your advice.

There is a PACE knowledge article which shows you how to submit your Technical Advice Case and where to include information in relevant fields. Please follow this KA when completing your request.

Non-Mandatory Requests

All non-mandatory advice requests related to supports for children younger than 9 should be progressed to the National Early Childhood Branch (NECB) for review.

TAPIB can provide advice for supports or other issues which do not have a mandatory request requirement and relate to participants aged over 9 years.

Our capacity to provide non-mandatory advice is impacted by other priorities. Where this occurs, we will work with you to identify a reasonable timeframe in which we can provide your non-mandatory advice.

We cannot accept your non-mandatory advice request unless the following steps have been taken to see if you could resolve the issue without TAPIB advice:

Checked Agency resources, for example Operational Guidelines and Knowledge Articles, to see if they can answer your questions.
Reviewed the re-launched TAPIB Digest to see if there is information there which can help.
Discussed with your Team Leader / Line Manager / Practice Leader to see if they can help you.

If you and your Team Leader / Line Manager/ Practice Leader are unable to resolve the issue request non-mandatory advice following below steps.

Team Leader / Line Manager /Practice Leader adds an internal note to the participant record using below template ensuring there is sufficient information included as to why a non-mandatory advice is being requested:

Review of TAPIB Mandatory Criteria Completed: YES Discussed with TL/Line Manager: YES Line Manager approves action to proceed: YES TL USER ID (alias):
Requestor confirms internal note added by their Team Leader / Line Manager/ Practice Leader before proceeding to prevent return of Technical Advice Case as non compliant.
Requestor adds the Technical Advice Case.

Where possible, staff who request non-mandatory advice are encouraged to share TAPIB’s advice with their teams. This will help to build understanding of non-mandatory advice and embed this understanding into decision making.

Please Note: Requests for general advice which do not relate to an individual participant such as advice about operational policy, legislation, or procedure, must be sent to redacted: [s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies](/library/documents/bc455e3f7247-foi-24-25-0515-documents/document-015__47e-d-certain-operations-of-agencies/) with EL1 / Assistant Director endorsement.

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Mandatory and Non-Mandatory Advice Requests