Reference Group members connected with the community to find out about issues that affect them.

This includes issues that affect participants.

Participants are people with disability who take part in the NDIS.

Members shared reports about these issues with the NDIA.

People from the NDIA also shared their response to some of these issues.

Reference Group members said people are worried about how changes to the NDIS will affect NDIS plans.

An NDIS plan has information about:

• a participant and their goals
• what supports a participant needs
• what the NDIS will pay for.

People are worried participants will lose funding for supports that help them to take part in the community.

Funding is money from a participant’s NDIS plan that pays for the supports they need.

These supports are important because they have a good effect on the lives of people with disability.

Members said the NDIA should include people with disability when it makes decisions.

This includes when the NDIA makes decisions about its rules and laws.

The NDIS Amendment Bill is a new law to change some parts of the NDIS.

In this document, we call it the Bill.

Reference Group members said people were not happy about the way the NDIA checked the Bill.

People said:

bullet there was not enough time to share their ideas about the Bill

bullet there were not enough meetings to hear from people in the community.end of list

Members said they think the report about the Bill will miss important information.

For example, it will not include information from children and young people.

Reference Group members said people are worried about foundational supports.

Foundational supports are disability supports for all people with disability.

This includes people with disability who don’t take part in the NDIS.

People are worried there is not enough information about foundational supports.

This includes how foundational supports work outside of the Thriving Kids program.

Thriving Kids is a new program for children who need extra support.

For example, children with developmental delay.

A developmental delay is when a child takes longer than usual to learn things like walking or talking.

Not having this information means people are:

• feeling stressed
• thinking the worst.

Participants don’t know how to plan for the future if the NDIA gets rid of the supports they need.

Reference Group members said people are scared about changes to who can take part in the NDIS.

People are scared some participants:

bullet can no longer take part in the NDIS

bullet are losing funding for some supports.end of list

Members suggest the NDIA use co-design when it makes decisions.

Co-design is when people work together to plan something new.

For example, the NDIA should use co-design with people with disability.

The NDIA said they understand the community feels stressed.

The NDIA said it is working to make sure people understand the changes to the NDIS.

The NDIA also said it values the information it gets from:

bullet the IAC

bullet the IAC Reference Groups.end of list

The NDIA also said the Thriving Kids program will start 1 January 2028.