National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3271
Good morning
I am writing briefly in my role both as a support coordinator working in a very remote region (Karratha Western Australia).
I have been inundated with phone calls and emails during the past three weeks. This is ironic, given the upcoming changes to support coordination and how evident it is that my families need my support navigating this system more than ever.
We live remotely where choice and control are limited. We have spent years working hard in our community to enable participants to be inclusive and to participate in community activities, the workplace and to be accepted amongst community groups. Families caring for teenagers are overwhelmed by the concern that their social and community access will be heavily reduced. Hours of therapeutic support, parental assistance and peer mentoring have gone in to establishing trust and rapport, building tools and strategies, safety plans and behaviour plans to enable their children to experience activities and participate with their peers.
In the past fortnight, I have experienced changes in individuals’ plans, shifting from self managed to NDIA-managed funded supports. This is NOT helpful or positive in any way as again we live in a very remote community with restricted choice and control. I have a 12-year-old in my case plan who is now without his therapy team and support worker and is already regressing and withdrawing from both school and his community activities.
In the past fortnight, I experienced two plan reviews for children under 9 years of age with ‘rare’ disabilities whose Capacity Building IDL funding was slashed by 50%! No consideration was given to the reports and recommendations by multidisciplinary teams that worked hard to provide the extensive evidence the NDIS requested.
Parents already overwhelmed because their level of parenting is higher than the ‘norm,’ are once again hearing about ‘parental responsibility’ and chasing a clear definition from the NDIS regarding what ‘parental responsibility’ should look like. Parents are NOT Allied health professionals, Medical Professionals or teachers—yet (in my caseload) they are not negating their parental responsibility. They are loving and caring for their child, struggling financially on a single income, also caring for multiple siblings, attending therapy appointments and school case meetings, answering phone calls and emails, supporting rostering, managing challenging behaviour, and implementing tools and strategies recommended by their service providers to enable their child to achieve goals and develop and progress.
I would be happy to share multiple success stories about my participants, however in the past few weeks sharing success has been deemed ‘progress,’ leading to a parent being told by a
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3271
planner, ‘You just told me that X has been doing so well’—only to see funding slashed significantly afterward.
I welcome any further discussion.