The fundamentals of NDIS evidence

Whether you're applying for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), preparing for a reassessment, requesting a support, or planning ahead, you've more than likely heard the term ‘evidence’.

Evidence plays an important role throughout your NDIS journey. It helps the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) understand how your disability affects your everyday life, what supports you require, and how your support needs may change over time.

For many years, evidence provided by health and allied health professionals has been one of the main ways the NDIA has determined eligibility and understood support needs. However, as the Agency introduces its new planning framework, the way information is gathered and used is beginning to evolve.

But even with change on the horizon, evidence will remain a fundamental part of the NDIS – and understanding the different proof points, when they're used, and what they’re used for can help you feel more informed and prepared.

Different types of NDIS evidence

NDIS evidence is information that details how your disability affects your everyday life and explains the supports you need to live as independently as possible. 
Evidence can be formal, such as a specific assessment or test carried out by a medical or allied health practitioner, or informal, like a statement that’s written by you, your family members, or supporters.

While a diagnosis may form part of your evidence, alone it’s rarely enough to explain your support needs. Two people with the same diagnosis can have very different experiences and support requirements, and that’s why the NDIA generally focuses on the functional impact of disability and how it affects daily life.

Evidence can come from many different sources and serve different purposes. Some evidence helps establish eligibility for the Scheme. Some helps explain support needs. And other evidence provides context about your goals, environment, support networks, and lived experience.

The NDIA has resources to help you understand and gather the evidence you need.

Why you need to have accurate evidence

Good evidence helps tell the story of your daily life, including the things that are easy, the things that are difficult, and the supports that help you participate at home, in the community, in education or at work, and as part of anything else you’ve identified as a goal in your NDIS plan.

Evidence provides a snapshot of information that helps the NDIA understand your situation and, depending on your specific circumstances, evidence may be used to:

• help determine your NDIS eligibility (alongside other NDIS assessment tools)
• help develop or review your NDIS plan
• support specific requests for supports or services
• explain changes in your circumstances
• demonstrate the impact of your disability over time

When evidence is strong, it can help demonstrate why particular supports are related to your disability and appropriate to your needs.

Who can provide NDIS evidence?

Many people think evidence only comes from major assessments, but a range of professionals you’re already working with can also provide useful information.

Depending on your circumstances, evidence may come from:

• occupational therapists
• physiotherapists
• speech pathologists
• psychologists
• psychiatrists
• specialists
• GPs
• other treating health professionals involved in your care 

Having a conversation with your providers about the type and level of information that works best for you can help ensure you have records that are useful, accessible and easy to refer back to when needed.

What form can evidence take?

Unless requested, there may not be a need for new formal assessments every time evidence is required. Useful evidence often already exists with the professionals you’re working with regularly.

Evidence can be found in:

• functional capacity assessments
• therapy reports
• specialist reports
• progress reports
• support plans
• recommendation letters
• medical records
• school, employment or community participation reports (where relevant)

You may also be able to request copies of reports, summaries or records from your providers.

The NDIA provides guidance on the types of assessments and evidence that may be helpful for particular disabilities and impairments when applying for and maintaining NDIS supports.

Standardised assessments into the future of the NDIS

As part of the NDIA's new planning framework, the Agency will use a standardised support needs assessment process. This includes the Instrument for Classification and Assessment of Support Needs (I-CAN), alongside a Personal and Environmental Circumstances Questionnaire (PECQ). Together, these tools are designed to help assess a person's disability support needs in a more consistent way.

The NDIA says these assessments may reduce the need for some participants to get expensive reports of their own to secure or maintain their NDIS eligibility. But this doesn’t mean professional evidence is expected to disappear. People with more complex circumstances may still be asked to provide reports from treating health professionals, while existing evidence may continue to help provide context about a person's disability, goals and support needs.

Any information or advice provided by a health professional that isn’t a formally acknowledged assessment is known as supporting evidence. Most treating professionals are required to keep detailed clinical notes and, while these records can be useful, many people find summary reports easier to understand and use. A progress report or summary report may provide the key information you need without overwhelming detail.

When should you collect evidence?

Aside from gathering evidence to support your initial application to join the Scheme, many people only think about evidence when it comes to their plan being reassessed. It can be more helpful, and much less stressful, to collect evidence progressively, throughout the time of your plan.

Some instances where you might collect new evidence include:

• after a major health or functional assessment
• following significant treatment or therapy
• when your support needs change
• after a major life event, such as leaving school, starting work or moving house

Gathering evidence as it becomes available and your circumstances change helps provide a more complete and up to date picture of your life and doesn’t require specific appointments or reports to be written.

What makes evidence effective?

Not all evidence is created equal, but the NDIA outlines that good evidence is: 

• relevant to your disability
• current and reflective of your disability
• prepared by an appropriate health professional
• focused on functional impact
• clear and specific, using direct language
• linked to support recommendations (where appropriate) 

The more clearly evidence connects your everyday challenges to your support needs, the easier it can be for decision-makers to understand your circumstances.
For example, a report that only lists a diagnosis may provide useful background information. A stronger piece of evidence will usually explain how that disability affects your everyday life, the barriers you experience, and why particular supports are needed. 

Sometimes the direct language used in effective evidence can be confronting, so make sure you speak with your health professionals and support networks to get the full picture of what’s being said.

Don't forget your lived experience

Professional reports are important, but they're only one part of the picture. You're the expert in your own life and your informal supports are also a huge wealth of knowledge. 

Lived experience and carer statements are another way you can distil your experience, and the experience of those closest to you, into a form of evidence. 

Keeping general notes about your experiences can help you prepare for conversations with providers, planners and support coordinators. This might include:

• achievements and goals
• challenges you're experiencing
• changes in support needs
• examples of tasks you find difficult
• situations where supports have helped

Your notes don't need to be formal or look a certain way. Notebooks, phone apps, voice recordings and journals can all help you capture information that may be useful immediately or later on.

Building evidence is an ongoing process

The best evidence is collected over time, through relevant and timely assessments, ongoing reports and professional observations from treating professionals, along with your lived experience. By understanding what makes evidence useful – that it accurately reflects your life, right now – you can feel informed and prepared whenever you need to provide or refer to it.