Impairment Notices: What Support Coordinators Must Know

Impairment notices are a key talking point in the NDIS world. Get up to speed about what they are, how they impact participants and what it all means for Support Coordinators.

ByMary Ingerton, Managing Director at Support Coordination Academy.

In the ever-changing NDIS landscape, there’s another subject Support Coordinators must be across.

Impairment notices.

These notices are part of sweeping NDIS legislation changes, which came into effect in late 2024.

What are impairment notices exactly? Why are they being issued by the NDIS? And what is a Support Coordinator’s role in helping participants to understand them?

We explore these important questions and so much more in this in-depth article.

What Are Impairment Notices?

As you are likely aware, eligible NDIS participants receive an access decision letter, which confirms that they have successfully met the criteria for funding.

From 1 January 2025, the information included within that letter changed for all new participants – following the 2024 legislation reforms. Now, it includes an impairment notice.

Essentially, an impairment notice outlines how participants met the NDIS access criteria, including disability or early intervention requirements, via a series of six defined categories – more on those below.

In short, the notice considers how the participant’s impairment could directly impact and create barriers to accessing the supports they need to complete daily activities and participate in NDIS processes. 

The impact of that impairment directly relates to the disability-related supports the NDIS proposes to fund in a participant’s NDIS plan.

Why Were Impairment Notices Introduced?

The introduction of impairment notices is in response to recommendations that arose from the 2023 independent review of the NDIS, notably participant requests for greater clarity and transparency regarding the basis of their access to the NDIS. 

This shift moves away from focusing solely on a person’s disability diagnosis and assumptions about their NDIS support needs.

Instead, it acknowledges that individuals with the same diagnosis may experience different impairments and varying impacts on their functional capacity and living situation, therefore requiring tailored supports to meet their unique needs.

How Does the NDIS Assess Impairment?

When the NDIS receives an Access Request Form, they assess the reduction or loss in a person’s ability to do things across all life domains due to an impairment.

An impairment relates to a loss of or damage to body structure or function.

The NDIS will refer to six defined categories of impairment:

1. Intellectual Impairments

• How a person speaks and listens, reads and writes, solves problems and processes and recalls information.

An intellectual impairment may become apparent at an early age or during a child’s early development.

2. Cognitive Impairments

• How a person might think, learn new things, use judgement to make decisions and pay attention.

There are some similarities with intellectual impairments, but cognitive impairments may appear at a later stage in life or after a sudden event or injury.

3. Neurological Impairments

• How a person’s nervous system may function.

Neurological impairments can happen when there is a change in the function of the nervous system, such as in the brain or spinal cord.

Damage to these parts of the body may affect the way the nervous system processes information.

4. Sensory Impairments

• How a person sees and hears.

Sensory impairments usually relate to hearing or vision loss but may include all senses.

5. Physical Impairments

• A person’s ability to move or control parts of their body.

Physical impairments may affect a person’s stamina or how quickly their body tires.

6. Impairments Relating to a Psychosocial Disability

• How a person has reduced capacity to perform daily life activities and tasks due to their mental health.

There are a few additional points worth noting:

• For a child with a developmental delay aged under six, the impairment notice will state this fact and not include other impairment categories.
• A person may have been born with an impairment, or an impairment could have been acquired from an injury, accident or health condition.
• A person may have one or multiple impairments.

Disability Access Requirements

Let’s review the disability access requirements to understand how impairment notices fit into these criteria.

To meet the disability access requirements, a person with disability must provide evidence that they meet all of the following criteria:

• The person has a disability related to or regarded as being attributed to one or more
• The person’s impairment is permanent or likely to be permanent, meaning the impairment is enduring and the person will require NDIS supports ongoing across their lifetime.

Note: A person’s impairment may be episodic in nature but will still be considered permanent, due to the overall impact on their daily life, across their lifetime.

An impairment is not considered likely to be permanent if there are known, available and appropriate evidence-based clinical, medical or other treatment options that are likely to remedy the impairment’s impact.

For example, a person with an epilepsy diagnosis, which is related to a neurological impairment, is not likely to be considered as having a permanent impairment. This is due to evidence-based medication and/or therapy being available to manage and effectively reduce the occurrences and impact of seizures. 

• The impact of a person’s impairment has a substantially reduced functional capacity on one or more daily life activities.

These activities include a person’s ability to move around their home and community, communicate effectively, socialise, learn or undertake self-care or self-management tasks.

• The person’s impairment affects their ability to work, study or socialise.
  
  
• The person will likely need NDIS supports for their lifetime.

Challenging an Impairment Notice

If a participant doesn’t agree with their impairment notice, they can apply for a change or request an additional impairment be added. This is called a ‘variation of an impairment notice’.

To change or add an additional impairment, a participant must provide evidence that the impairment meets the disability access requirements outlined above.

For example:

A participant has a disability diagnosis of autism, with a related cognitive impairment.

Due to an accident, the participant is also diagnosed with a disability that relates to a physical impairment. 

If a participant wants to add the physical impairment to their impairment notice and receive supports to overcome barriers related to this impairment, they must provide evidence that the physical impairment meets the disability access requirements. 

If an impairment notice is varied, this does not change the participant’s NDIS eligibility.

If a participant doesn’t agree with the NDIS’ decision to vary or not vary an impairment notice, they can request a review of the decision.

Impairment Notices and the Support Coordinator Role

Support Coordinators play a crucial role in helping NDIS participants navigate and participate in NDIS systems and processes, including having access to necessary supports.

The NDIS previously based their assessments of a participant’s support needs on their disability diagnosis.

For example, two adults with the same autism diagnosis are often assumed to require similar types of support, unless evidence is provided that different or additional supports are required.

The shift towards impairment notices means the NDIS will now focus on how a participant’s impairment impacts their daily life, as opposed to the disability diagnosis itself, recognising that not all people with the same disability diagnosis will require the same supports. 

For this reason, it’s crucial that Support Coordinators have the necessary skills and knowledge to assist participants to articulate and evidence how their impairment impacts their ability to complete everyday tasks and gain independence.

Support Coordinators must possess advanced skills in documenting and gathering evidence of the complexity of a participant’s situation.

This includes assessing and managing risk across the participant’s support network and effectively demonstrating their complex support needs in NDIS reporting.

Thorough reporting is essential to ensure participants can access the supports they need to stay safe and achieve their life goals.

Support Coordination Academy offers specialised professional skills training to address this skills gap.

The NDIS Supports List

Another significant legislation change was the introduction of an NDIS Supports list. This list details 37 categories of goods and services that can be purchased with NDIS funding. 

The NDIS states that these supports are known disability-related supports. This means a participant requires these specific supports and services due to the impact of their impairment and significantly reduced functional capacity, which creates barriers to performing daily activities.

The NDIS Supports list is a precursor to other updated NDIS processes that are due to be rolled out. They include:

• A planning approach: Once a participant has met the access criteria, they will undertake a support needs assessment, which will replace the current planning processes facilitated by a Local Area Coordinator (LAC) or NDIS Planner. This assessment will include a strengths-based evaluation that will focus on a participant’s support needs rather than their functional capacity.
• The support needs assessment will inform the participant’s NDIS budget or funding level.
• Participants will have increased flexibility around how they can use their funding. This includes flexible and non-flexible individualised budgets, which will likely replace the current restrictive Core, Capacity Building and Capital budgets.

For more information about impending NDIS legislation changes, explore the FAQ section of the NDIS website.

Need Help?

The subject of impairment notices is a complex one.

If you have any questions about it or require other assistance as a Support Coordinator, contact us today.

To help you build your skills, Endeavour Foundation has partnered with Support Coordination Academy to offer free webinars for Support Coordinators.

To register your interest in these popular online professional learning sessions, sign up below.

Support Coordination Academy provides essential training and resources for Support Coordinators across Australia.