Article
Start twelve months out, not two weeks out
A reassessment looks at what’s changed, what’s working and what you still need. All three of those are questions about the past year, and the past year is either documented or it isn’t.
The practical version of this is a folder, digital or physical, that you add to as things happen. It takes a few minutes at a time and it’s worth more than any amount of preparation in the final fortnight.
What counts as strong evidence
Current reports from allied health professionals are the strongest thing you can bring. A functional assessment from an occupational therapist, a physiotherapy report, a speech pathology summary, a psychologist’s letter. Current matters. A report from three years ago describes someone who may no longer exist.
Progress notes and records from your support providers. These show what supports were actually delivered, how often, and what happened as a result.
Evidence of change in either direction. If you’ve built capacity, show it, because it proves the funding worked. If function has declined, show that too, with dates.
A day-in-the-life account, written by you or someone who knows you well. Not a general description, but a specific one. What happens between waking up and leaving the house, and how long each part takes.
Records of what didn’t work. A support that was tried and failed is useful evidence, not an admission of failure.
Photographs and short videos, where they’re appropriate and you’re comfortable with them. A thirty second clip of a transfer that takes four minutes and two people conveys something no written description manages. Only use these if the person they show has agreed.
What tends not to persuade anyone
Descriptions of how hard things are, without specifics. Everyone at a reassessment is finding things hard. What distinguishes a strong case is detail: how often, how long, what happens when the support isn’t there.
Old reports, as covered above.
Asking for the same funding because you had it last time. Continuity is not a reason on its own, and plans built on a previous plan get trimmed.
Understating your needs, which is the one that catches out the most people. There’s a strong instinct to describe your best days, particularly with a stranger asking. If your capacity fluctuates, describe the bad weeks as well as the good, because the plan has to cover both.
The trap of doing well
Participants worry, reasonably, that showing progress will get their funding cut. It’s a real fear and it deserves a proper answer.
Progress is best framed as evidence that the support is working and should continue, alongside a clear account of what happens without it. Someone managing their morning routine independently after two years of skill building has a strong case that the support achieved something and a strong case for redirecting those hours to the next goal.
What doesn’t work is hiding progress. It rarely holds up and it undermines your credibility on everything else you’re saying.
How we record skill progress →Get your reports organised early
Allied health waits in Queensland are long, particularly for occupational therapy. If you need a current functional assessment for a reassessment in March, booking it in February is not a plan.
Ask your therapists three to four months out. Tell them what the report is for and when you need it, and follow up. A report that arrives the week after your meeting is worth nothing.
Therapeutic supports →
Write your goals before the meeting
It also helps to know roughly what the meeting itself involves. It’s usually a conversation with an NDIA planner or a partner in the community, covering what’s changed since the last plan, how your current supports are going, and what you’re working towards. You can bring someone with you, and most people should.
A support coordinator, a family member or a provider who knows your situation can catch the things you’ll forget under pressure and take notes so you aren’t trying to listen and record at the same time.
Goals get written in the meeting, under time pressure, and end up vague. Improve independence gives nobody anything to fund against.
Bring goals you’ve already thought about, written concretely. Travel independently to my TAFE course by public transport. Prepare four meals without assistance. Attend a community activity weekly without a support worker present.
Specific goals attract specific funding. Vague goals attract vague funding, and vague funding is the first thing trimmed at the following reassessment.