Submission 3061 — Gradability — NDIS Future Generations Bill

SUBMISSION

National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the

NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026

Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee Inquiry

Date: 6 July 2026

Submitted by

Ms Ranjita Pillai

On behalf of Performance Education (Gradability) - Registered Training Organisations, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne & Adelaide.

Contact: Ranjita Pillai

Submission to

Committee  Secretary, Senate Community  Affairs  Legislation Committee, Parliament House,

Canberra ACT 2600, and via the Committee’s online submission portal.

1. Executive Summary This submission responds to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 (“the Bill”), introduced on 14 May 2026 to give effect to changes announced in the 2026-27 Budget and to place the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) on a more sustainable footing.

We support the Bill’s stated objective of securing the long-term sustainability of the NDIS. However, we submit that sustainability cannot be achieved through eligibility tightening, funding determinations and compliance measures alone. A genuinely sustainable Scheme must also invest, deliberately and at scale, in pathways that reduce long-term reliance on NDIS supports by building the economic independence of participants who are able to work.

Our core recommendation is that the Bill and the broader reform program it belongs to explicitly recognise and fund structured, outcomes-based workforce training and placement programs (of the

kind already being delivered  in the vocational education sector, such as our own GAP  for

Neurodiversity program) as a distinct, fundable support category within the NDIS. Every participant who transitions from NDIS-funded support into sustained, mainstream employment represents both a life-changing outcome for that individual and a permanent reduction in future Scheme liability. We submit that this is the most durable form of fiscal sustainability available to the Scheme, and that the current Bill does not yet capture it.

2. Context and Basis of this Submission Performance Education is a Registered Training Organisations operating in the vocational education and employment-readiness space. Through our GAP for Neurodiversity program series, covering workplace communication, time management, organisational skills and job-readiness and related

programs delivered under the work readiness framework, we work directly with young adults, to prepare them for sustained mainstream employment.

This gives us a practical, service-delivery vantage point on the Bill’s proposed changes, particularly Part 4 (Ministerial determinations reducing funding for groups of supports, including social, civic and community participation and capacity-building daily activities) and Part 6 (clarification of “reasonable and necessary” support criteria and consideration of Scheme sustainability and equity). We are concerned that these provisions, as currently framed, are oriented almost entirely towards cost containment and do not adequately distinguish between supports that create ongoing dependency and supports that build a pathway out of the Scheme.

3. The Case for Funding Workforce Transition Pathways The Bill’s explanatory materials frame sustainability primarily in terms of tighter eligibility, stronger fraud and compliance powers, and reduced or capped funding for certain support categories. These are legitimate integrity measures. But sustainability has two levers, not one: reducing scheme cost per participant, and reducing the number of people who need to remain on the Scheme long-term because they have achieved independence. The Bill addresses only the first lever.

We submit the following case for addressing the second lever directly within the legislative and funding framework:

• Employment is one of the strongest predictors of reduced long-term reliance on disability support. Participants who move into stable, mainstream employment typically require fewer capacity-building and community participation supports over time, as workplace structure, income, social connection and routine substitute for supports the Scheme would otherwise fund.

  • Structured, outcomes-based training and placement programs, combining job-readiness

  training, employer engagement, supported workplace placement and post-placement

mentoring, are materially different from generic “capacity building” line items. They have a defined pathway, a measurable endpoint (sustained employment), and a quantifiable return in reduced future plan costs.

• Cutting or capping capacity-building and community participation funding indiscriminately, as contemplated under Part 4, risks removing the very supports that make workforce transition possible for neurodiverse and other participants, while leaving in place supports that do not carry the same prospect of an exit pathway. This is a false economy: it may reduce short-term spend while increasing the number of participants who remain Scheme-reliant for life.

• Every participant who exits or substantially reduces their draw on the Scheme through sustained employment represents a multi-year, compounding fiscal saving, far larger than the administrative savings achievable through compliance and eligibility measures alone. A modest, well-targeted investment in proven workforce transition programs is likely to be one of the highest-return sustainability measures available to Government.

4. Recommendations Recommendation 1: Establish a distinct, protected support category for workforce transition programs.

The Bill should amend the NDIS Act, or the accompanying Rules, to create a clearly defined support category for structured workforce training and placement pathway programs, separate from general capacity-building and community participation supports. This would ensure such programs are not inadvertently captured by future Ministerial support determinations made under Part 4 that reduce funding for broader support groupings.

Recommendation 2: Require an employment-outcomes exemption test before any support determination is applied. Before a Ministerial determination under Part 4 reduces funding for a group of supports, the NDIA

should be required to assess and report on the  likely impact on  participants' pathways to

employment, and to exempt or ring-fence supports with a demonstrated employment-transition function.

Recommendation 3: Fund a national outcomes-based workforce transition initiative, delivered through the existing RTO and disability-employment provider network. Government should allocate a defined proportion of the Scheme’s capacity-building budget to

competitively fund providers  delivering  structured, measurable job-readiness and placement

programs, with funding tied to verified employment outcomes (placement, retention at 3, 6 and 12 months, and reduction in plan expenditure). This leverages existing capability in the RTO and community-managed sector rather than requiring new infrastructure.

Recommendation 4: Include workforce and employment outcomes explicitly within the “reasonable and necessary” and Scheme-sustainability criteria in Part 6.

When the NDIA considers Scheme  sustainability and equity  in determining reasonable and

necessary supports, the legislation or Rules should  explicitly  list contribution to employment

readiness and economic participation as a relevant sustainability factor weighing in favour of, not against, funding.

Recommendation 5: Report publicly on employment transition and Scheme-exit outcomes. The NDIA should be required to report annually on the number of participants supported into sustained employment, and the associated reduction in aggregate plan expenditure, as a companion metric to the compliance and integrity statistics the Bill otherwise emphasises. This would allow Parliament and the community to evaluate sustainability measures on a like-for-like basis, savings from restricting access versus savings from enabling independence.

5. Alignment with the Bill’s Stated Objectives We note that the Government has framed this Bill as necessary to protect the NDIS for people with permanent and significant disability now and into the future and has committed a $200 million Inclusive Communities Fund to rebuild capability among community organisations delivering genuinely inclusive participation activities. We welcome this commitment and submit that workforce transition programs are a natural and complementary extension of that Fund’s purpose, moving beyond participation activities towards participation in the workforce itself.

   We further note the Bill draws on the NDIS Independent Review and the Disability Royal

Commission, both of which emphasised economic participation and mainstream inclusion as core objectives of the Scheme, not peripheral add-ons. Our recommendations are intended to help the Bill deliver on that founding intent, alongside its integrity and cost-containment measures.

6. Conclusion Scheme sustainability should not be pursued solely by narrowing who can access the NDIS and how much they receive. A genuinely sustainable Scheme is one that actively reduces long-term participant reliance by investing in proven pathways to independence, chief among them, sustained mainstream employment. We urge the Committee to recommend that the Bill be amended, or that the Government commit through the Rules and reform implementation process, to explicitly fund and

   protect structured workforce training and placement programs as a core element of NDIS

sustainability, not an afterthought to it.

We would welcome the opportunity to appear before the Committee to elaborate on our program delivery experience and the outcomes data available from our GAP for Neurodiversity and related programs.

— End of submission —