The content on this page contains references to activities and policies that are no long proceeding.

Independent Assessment Framework

The Independent Assessment Toolkit

Independent assessment pilots

From 2018 to 2021 the NDIA ran two pilot programs to test and get feedback from participants about independent assessments.

The first independent assessment pilot

From November 2018 to April 2019, the first independent assessment pilot ran in nine regions across NSW. The pilot was voluntary, free of charge, and available to people aged 7 to 64 years, with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Disability and Psychosocial Disability; and 

  • people who already applied to the NDIS and were waiting for an access decision
  • new participants who were yet to develop a plan
  • people who were approaching a scheduled plan review.

The assessments were offered for free and completed with a trained health professional experienced in disability.

Recommendations from the Productivity Commission Report informed the design of the first independent assessment pilot.

What we found in the first pilot

The second independent assessment pilot

We started the second pilot in late 2019, but we had to postpone it in March 2020 because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

We restarted the pilot in October 2020 to continue testing how we will introduce independent assessments. The second pilot ended on 31 May 2021.

Evaluation of the second independent assessment pilot

The evaluation was completed by the NDIA Research and Evaluation Branch. It also includes an independent review by the Centre for Disability Studies and the Centre for Disability Policy and Research at the University of Sydney.

Read the evaluation.

Personalised budgets

Personalised Budgets - technical information paper 

Personalised Budgets - information paper for participants, their families and carers

Easy Read Guide - A new way to work out how much funding you receive in your NDIS plan

Participant journey maps 

We released participant journey maps of the proposed processes for existing participants and people wanting to join the NDIS

This page current as of
22 July 2021
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