What to provide with your child's Access Request
You can contact a local early childhood partner to support you with gathering evidence and applying to the NDIS
To allow the National Disability Insurance Agency to determine whether your child meets the early intervention or developmental delay requirements, you will need to provide evidence of your child's permanent disability or developmental delay to support their access request. This includes information on what your child's condition is, how long it will last and its impact on their life.
You can provide evidence of your child's disability or developmental delay by having their treating doctor or specialist complete the Professional's Report section in section 2 of the Access Request Form, the NDIS Supporting Evidence Form or you can provide the same information in a different format, such as copies of existing assessments and reports. The information must be provided with the Access Request Form.
If you choose not to use the the Professional's Report section in the Access Request Form or the NDIS Supporting Evidence Form it is important that you make sure the information you provide contains the same information that the form collects.
If you are not sure whether you have enough information to support your child's access request, or you have trouble getting the information, we may be able to help you.
Diagnosis
You must provide us with evidence of the diagnosis of your child's disability from your child's treating doctor or specialist.
Section 2 of the Access Request Form and the NDIS Supporting Evidence Form collects this information, or you can give us other written evidence of your child's diagnosis from their treating doctor or specialist. This needs to include information about any treatment/s your child is receiving.
Please note: for a child to meet the developmental delay requirements for the NDIS they must be aged under 6 years. Further information on the developmental delay is available in the Operational Guideline – Access – Early Intervention Requirements .
Evidence of the impact of your child's disability or developmental delay
If your child has a condition we have already identified as always resulting in permanent impairment and substantially reduced functional capacity, or as always benefiting from early intervention, then we do not require any further information. A list of these conditions can be found in the Operational Guidelines List D .
If your child's condition is not on the list of 'Permanent impairment/functional capacity – no further assessment required' you must provide evidence of the impact of your child's condition on their life, including any impact on their mobility, communication, social interaction, learning, self-care and self-management.
You can provide this information by getting your child's specialist or an allied health professional to complete the Professional's Report section in Section 2 of the Access Request Form, the NDIS Supporting Evidence Form or you can provide us with other written evidence from their specialist or a health professional.
'A health professional' includes a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist, speech pathologist, a psychologist or a nurse.
'Other written evidence' could include existing assessments or reports which were prepared by a specialist or allied health professional that provide the equivalent information on the impact of your child's condition on their life.
Submitting evidence
The evidence about your child's disability or developmental delay must be submitted with you access request when required by the NDIA. Their access request will not be considered complete unless we have received all the information we need. We will use the information about your child's disability or developmental delay to help us determine whether your child can become a participant in the NDIS.
Find out how long this takes in our Participant Service Guarantee .
Pedi-CAT functional capacity assessment
The Pedi-CAT is a functional capacity assessment for children, visit the FAQ page for information about the Pedi-CAT.
Find out how long this takes in ourParticipant Service Guarantee .