23/09/2025
The Duckett review into music and art therapy and the NDIS has been made public. In case you missed it, the NDIS initiated a review into the pricing of music and art therapy under the scheme, and whether we met the evidence standards to still be considered a ‘therapy’.
We had some wins out of this report. Music and art therapy will remain as therapeutic supports under the NDIS, and more checks and balances will be put in place to crack down on people delivering these services without appropriate qualifications.
However, it’s not all good news. From 24th November, music and art therapy will have their hourly rate cut, reducing our session fee to $156.16/hour. It’s currently $193.99/hour which is the same as most other allied health professionals on the scheme.
For a small business, this is an enormous decrease. This money is used for overheads such as paying staff, venue hire, insurance, professional registration, petrol, tax, superannuation, bookkeeping and accounting fees, and equipment/instrument maintenance.
Sounds for Change intends to kick on until the very end, but for some small businesses, this cut might force them to close their doors.
We are currently reviewing our fee structure, and will send out more information on the changes to our participants in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, if you know a music therapist working under the NDIS, please send them some love. They’re probably burnt out and exhausted from this 10 month long fight, and probably just want to get on with the job of making people’s lives better with music.
We are more than just numbers on a ledger, numbers of dollars cut from the NDIS. We are people with families, mortgages, bills to pay. Please keep this in mind next time you see a media report about NDIS spending 💜
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