NDIS Navigator
Preparing for Your NDIS Plan Review
A plan review with the National Disability Insurance Scheme is an important opportunity to ensure that supports continue to meet your child’s and your family’s needs. Taking the time to prepare can make a meaningful difference to the outcome and help ensure the right supports are in place.
At its core, a plan review is your chance to share your story. It’s about describing what daily life really looks like, what is working well, and where additional support is needed to make life safe, sustainable, and meaningful.
A key part of preparation is gathering strong, up-to-date evidence. Reports from therapists, medical professionals, and schools play an important role in helping planners understand your child’s needs. The most helpful reports clearly describe how your child’s disability impacts their everyday functioning, what supports are required, and what may happen if those supports are not in place. Including school reports, therapy updates, and any relevant behaviour or incident records can strengthen your case.
When preparing for your review, it is important to focus on daily functioning rather than diagnosis alone. The NDIS looks at how a disability affects areas such as communication, personal care, safety, and access to the community. Being clear and specific—for example, explaining the need for constant supervision to ensure safety—helps paint an accurate picture of your child’s needs.
Goals are another important part of your plan, as funding is directly linked to them. Taking time to review and update goals ensures they reflect your child’s current needs and priorities. Goals should be meaningful, practical, and clearly connected to the supports you are seeking. If a support is not linked to a goal, it can be more difficult for it to be included in your plan.
It is also important to be open and honest about challenges. Many families are used to “just managing,” but a plan review is the time to clearly explain where supports are not enough, where gaps exist, and the impact this has on daily life. This might include difficulty accessing appropriate programs, increased supervision needs, or the strain of unmet supports.
Alongside this, the impact on parents and carers should not be overlooked. The NDIS considers whether informal supports are sustainable, so it is important to outline the realities of caring. This may include the impact on work, fatigue and burnout, and the flow-on effects for the whole family. Sharing this information helps demonstrate why additional or ongoing supports are necessary.
Having a simple overview of your current supports can also be helpful. Knowing what funding is in place, what is being used, and where it may be running out early provides clear evidence of changing or increasing needs.
All supports requested through the NDIS must meet the criteria of being “reasonable and necessary.” This means they should be directly related to the disability, support daily functioning and independence, represent value for money, and not be more appropriately funded through other systems.
As your review approaches, it can help to write down key points you would like to discuss, prioritise your most important needs, and be ready to describe a typical day. This can make it easier to communicate clearly during the meeting.
It is also important to remember your rights. If you receive a phone call from an NDIS delegate asking to complete your review on the spot, you are not required to proceed immediately. You can request a time that suits you, have a support person present, and ask for a face-to-face meeting if that is your preference.
Preparing for a plan review can feel overwhelming, but with clear information, strong evidence, and a focus on everyday needs, you can approach the process with greater confidence.
If you would like support preparing for your child’s review, please reach out to the school and ask to speak with the NDIS navigator.
Information Session with the NDI
