NEBS Therapy

22/05/2026

Question for the mums still awake doing the second shift.

If the Government decided your family should just "manage" with less support, what would actually be the first thing to break?

Your job?

Your sleep?

Therapy appointments?

Your relationship?

Your own health?

Because buried in the new NDIS Bill are changes that could mean some families are expected to carry more of the load themselves.

That might look like a child’s funding being reduced because parents are assumed to cover more care.

It might look like support being approved at less than what it actually costs in the real world.

It might look like being told a treatment "exists", even if you cannot realistically afford it or access it.

The Senate is taking submissions right now, and they close 29 May.

You do not need policy expertise to tell Parliament what these decisions would mean in an actual household.

We made a free guide to make that easier if you want to put your story on the record. Have a look - it's below.

We've also popped in a tool for reading it aloud to you if you are tired af and reading one more thing is just too much.

We know you're tired. So are we. That's why we've made you this short cut.

Will you make a noise with us - and make it clear?

17/05/2026

Dr Keith McVilly has always been a respected voice within the disability sector and helped shape my early understanding of Positive Behaviour Support.

If he is worried, that says enough for me.

I was around in “the old days” too and witnessed the despair experienced by people with disability and their families under the previous system.

We waited more than 5 years for my sister to move 10 hours closer to our family. Her relocation was repeatedly declined because she never met the threshold for “priority”. She was not considered homeless, so she never ranked highly enough at panel meetings when vacancies became available.

Because she had no capacity to travel to me, I drove 10 hours to see her several times each year. Any annual leave I could accrue, was spent travelling to see her.

That was not choice. It was being trapped in a system that did not value the stories, relationships, or humanity of people with disability and their families.

Eventually, a vacancy became available an hour away that nobody else wanted, so we accepted it immediately. That is how the system worked. It was not what we wanted, but there was always the fear that if you did not take what was offered, there may never be another opportunity.

At the time, I was grateful to drive one hour instead of 10. But it did not take long to realise she still was not close enough for us to rebuild the bond we once had.

Under the NDIS, my sister finally had greater choice about where and how she lived, and with that came a move to Tamworth and a whole new quality of life.

I will always be grateful that, through the NDIS, she was finally able to live close to family and truly be part of our lives. We spent the last few years of her life doing ordinary sister things. I would pick her up and bring her to our house, pick her up for some KFC and a drive thru car wash or chill at her house.

For the first time in a long time, we genuinely felt like sisters.

That is what choice and control means.

And that is what is at risk of being lost.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-17/will-ndis-cuts-lead-to-the-mistakes-of-the-past/106665656?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=safari

The states are once again on the hook for disability services due to the Commonwealth's drastic NDIS cuts. Can the mistakes of the past be avoided?

15/05/2026

Over the next several years, we will see major reforms to:

👉🏽 Accessing to the NDIS
👉🏽 Eligibility assessments
👉🏽 Therapy and community participation funding
👉🏽 Support coordination
👉🏽 Plan management

It’s important you know what can change so you can prepare for it.

You can find more information at:

🖥️ www.health.gov.au and search NDIS
🖥️ www.dcj.nsw.gov.au and search NDIS
🖥️ www.ndis.gov.au and search Getting the NDIS back on track

Be sure to follow:

📱 Every Australian Counts
📱 People with Disability Australia
📱 Team DSC
📱 Australian Neurodivergent Parents Association - ANPA
📱 Senator Jordon Steele-John
📱 Physical Disability Australia - PDA
📱 The Growing Space

15/05/2026

The NDIS sector is changing rapidly; and honestly, it is worrying.

There is absolutely no doubt that the Scheme has grown beyond what was originally intended, with vague legislation, inconsistent interpretations of guidelines and significant variation in decision making.

The changes being implemented to reduce spending come with very real risks for people with disability, families and the disability workforce.

For many people with disabilities, it is unlikely that supports will continue in the same way they have previously. Even for those who remain eligible for the Scheme, there will likely be reductions to social and community participation and therapy.

These changes will also have a significant impact on the disability workforce, including support workers, therapists, support coordinators and plan managers who walk alongside participants every day.

If there are supports, therapies, reports or resources that you currently need, or may need into the future, now is the time to do something about it.

Consider:
👉🏽 Requesting updated therapy reports and assessments
👉🏽 Gathering supporting documentation and evidence of functional impact
👉🏽 Discussing future planning needs with your allied health team
👉🏽 Accessing resources, strategies and recommendations that can continue to support you outside of direct therapy and into the future

No one can predict exactly what the future of the NDIS will look like, but preparation, advocacy and documentation will matter more than ever.

14/05/2026

14/05/2026

NDIS Minister Mark Butler has introduced the NDIS (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill to the House of Representatives.

The Bill is the first step towards implementing the Scheme re-design that the Minister outlined at National Press Club in late April.

Today, we're just sharing a very basic overview. We will be publishing an in-depth analysis of the new legislation and its implications in next week's newsletter. We've opted for accuracy over speed, because the consequences of this Bill are far-reaching and legislation takes time to get your head around.

What we can say today is that the new Bill:

- Defines functional capacity for NDIS eligibility. A Technical Advisory Group will later advise the government on what is the appropriate level of functional capacity to qualify for the NDIS.

- Tightens the criteria for plan reassessments, so they can only occur when there is a ‘genuine and ongoing’ change in the person’s support needs and can only be requested by participants or plan nominees (not providers).

- Reinforces participants can only receive funding for impairments that have met the eligibility criteria.

- Allows the government to reduce the funding for particular groups of supports, like social and community participation.
Requires all plans to have an end date. When a plan ends, unspent funds will not roll over. New plans would contain the same funding minus any one off funding allocations, plus indexation.

- Redefines the reasonable and necessary criteria. Including through considering what it is reasonable to expect the NDIA to fund, with regard to consistency with other schemes, NDIS sustainability and family contributions.

- Tightens the criteria around establishing that a disability is ‘permanent,’ including by requiring people to have undertaken all appropriate treatments.

- Allows the NDIA to take into account an applicant’s eligibility for other government schemes when assessing NDIS eligibility.

- Amends the definition of an NDIS provider, considering the recommendations of the NDIS Registration Taskforce.

- Gives the NDIA more compliance and enforcement powers.

- Requires participants, plan nominees and providers to retain records for a certain period of time. Civil penalties will apply for failing to do so.

- Requires claims to be made within 90 days of delivering a support.

- Enables a new approach to plan management- where participants can select from a panel of approved plan managers. Plan managers could also be banned from providing other services under the NDIS.

- Enables the Minister to set prices for NDIS services.

- Allows for automated decision-making in the NDIS.

- Prohibits participants or plan nominees from managing NDIS funds if they’ve been convicted of certain offences.

There are also some minor amendments to facilitate the rollout of new framework plans and transitional matters related to the implementation of this Bill.

We know these are big changes, and there’s a lot to take in. Stay tuned for our more detailed analysis next week.

You can find the Bill and Explanatory Memorandum here: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fems%2Fr7487_ems_35e6531f-c440-4faf-98d6-7c7ddd8bd539%22

12/05/2026

Does the NDIS need reform? Yes.

Does it need waste cut and to be trimmed? Also yes.

But the 2023 NDIA Capability and Culture Review did not say to cut disabled people’s supports. It said the opposite.

It did not say cut children’s therapy.

It did not say push parents out of work.

It did not say shift care onto exhausted families.

It said the NDIA is an expensive mess because it has problems with:

- poor decision-making

- duplicated bureaucracy

- weak accountability

- expensive legal conflict

- bad risk management

- and internal dysfunction.

So start there. Don't start with us.

Cut waste.
Cut admin churn.
Cut duplicated processes.
Cut unnecessary legal fights.
Cut executive bloat.

Cut bad governance.

Keep children’s supports.
Keep family supports.
Keep the things that help disabled people live, work, learn and stay safe.

If the goal is sustainability, fix the broken system around disabled people.

Don’t make disabled people and their loved ones pay for it. Because we are not a problem to be fixed, or a budget item to be cut.

We just want to live. Just like you. But for us - we need the NDIS to do that safely, equally and with dignity.

You are one car accident away from needing it too. If you became permanently disabled tomorrow -

What would you want your life to look like?

Would you need support so it could?

❤️



[Image: Chloé Hayden in ELLE Australia walking for Jam Clothing . She is wearing black boots and a navy jacket. On the back in white letters it says Fix The System Not Me. She is looking back at the camera defiantly.]

11/05/2026

For many neurodivergent children, asking for help can feel vulnerable, overwhelming or hard to communicate in the moment 🥴

Creating playful, low-pressure ways to practise this skill can help build trust, self-advocacy and regulation over time ☺️

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08/05/2026

Do it for Dolly 💙

Be kind | Be curious | Be the person who makes someone feel safe to be themselves.

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25/04/2026

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.