The Big Picture:
On 29 June 2025, the influential Grattan Institute published a 108-page report with proposals to save the NDIS (link below).
Many allied health providers were distracted by financial year-end and compliance tasks to comply with the (now live) Pricing Limits for 2025-26.
But the report is well worth a read – particularly for paediatric allied health providers who own or work out of clinics.
Attention-grabbers:
The report authors, led by former NDIA senior policy advisor Dr Sam Bennett, propose several very significant changes:
- Abolish the early intervention pathway (i.e. section 25 of the NDIS Act) (pp57, 83).
- Abolish individualised funding for all children under 18 who are or would have otherwise been supported through the early intervention pathway (pp31, 57).
- Redirect funds to replace the early intervention pathway with “muscular” Foundational Supports (pp56-59):
- general supports: information and education; and
- targeted supports, including “low-to-mid-level allied health supports to improve the long-term capabilities of children” (p13).
- Governments to co-commission Foundational Supports:
- with 3-5 year contracts (pp49, 71), including for “evidence-based services” to “encourage providers to offer higher-quality programs” (p57); and
- from “lead providers” that have the capacity and systems to manage a group of sub-contractors (pp50, 73).
- Adopt a Key Worker model to help families navigate options (p54).
- 5-year transition to avoid service gaps and give providers “sufficient time to prepare” but with the transition to start from 1 July 2026 (p60).
- All Foundational Supports – and thus all early intervention therapies – for children to be delivered in natural environments – not clinics – including in “supported playgroups, early childhood education settings, health and community hubs, libraries, and family- and community-led organisations” (pp30, 57).
- No mandatory registration of allied health providers to provide Foundational Supports. Recognition of AHPRA registration/regulation by a professional body (p75).
- Better national sharing of provider information, and better integration of provider registration and worker screening checks (pp75-76).
- Retain individualised plan funding for children with lifelong and severe disability (i.e. for children who meet the disability requirements under s 24 of the NDIS Act) (p57).
Reality check:
These are proposals from a think tank – not government policies. But the report is well-researched and written, and is likely to get the attention of policy decision-makers, as well as media and social media critics of the NDIS.
Bottom line:
Participant and disability advocacy groups will have a lot more to say about the report and the implications for access, and for choice and control over allied health early intervention services.
But paediatric allied health providers should also consider the report when reviewing their business strategies and risks for 2025-26 and beyond.
If implemented, the Grattan proposals would:
- transform early intervention allied health service-delivery across Australia; and
- accelerate the sector-wide shake-out of paediatric allied health service providers.
Go deeper:
Bennett, S., Jessurun, M., and Orban, H. (2025). Saving the NDIS: How to rebalance disability services to get better results. Grattan Institute.
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