S10 E7 - Less Fluff, More Function: Better NDIS OT Reports

NDIS reporting is changing, but one question remains fundamental for Occupational Therapists: why are we including this information?

Longer reports and more assessments do not automatically create stronger evidence. A useful NDIS OT report needs to demonstrate a participant’s functional needs, connect those needs to their goals and clearly explain why recommended supports are required.

This means moving beyond clinical terminology and assessment scores towards evidence that helps the reader understand what everyday life actually looks like for the participant.

Understand why the report is needed

Before beginning an assessment, Occupational Therapists need to understand why the report has been requested and what decision it is intended to inform.

A plan reassessment based on a change in circumstances requires evidence of a significant and ongoing change. This may involve changes to functional capacity, informal supports or broader life circumstances.

That is different from a situation where a participant believes their existing plan was underfunded. Understanding this distinction early can help avoid spending valuable participant funding on a comprehensive assessment that does not address the issue at hand.

Good onboarding is essential. Clarify what the report is for, what evidence already exists, who else is involved and what information is actually required.

Show what function looks like in everyday life

Once the purpose of the report is clear, the next priority is showing what the participant’s functional needs actually look like.

Occupational Therapists understand terms such as dysregulation, co-regulation, executive functioning and fine motor difficulties. The person reading an NDIS report may not interpret those terms in the same way, so clinical terminology needs to be connected to specific, functional examples.

If a participant became dysregulated during an assessment, what did that look like? What happened and what support did they require? If they have reduced fine motor coordination, how does this affect dressing, eating, handwriting or another meaningful activity?

This is where both top-down and bottom-up thinking have a place. Identifying an impairment such as reduced grip strength, balance or fine motor coordination can provide valuable clinical evidence, but the report also needs to explain what that impairment means for everyday participation.

Functional examples bring the reader into the assessment and make the impact of disability easier to understand.

Choose assessments that add meaningful evidence

With the functional picture established, consider what additional evidence is actually needed to support your clinical reasoning.

Standardised assessments remain an important part of Occupational Therapy practice, but not every available assessment belongs in every NDIS report. Ask: what additional evidence will this assessment provide?

A standardised assessment may validate observations, establish a baseline, support clinical reasoning or provide an outcome measure. In those circumstances, it can be extremely valuable.

However, completing multiple assessments can consume significant participant funding without necessarily changing the recommendations.

The same principle applies to presenting results. Pages of graphs, tables and scores can make a report longer without making it clearer. Often, the Occupational Therapist’s interpretation is more valuable.

Explain what the assessment showed, whether it aligned with other evidence and how the findings informed your recommendations.

Consider value for money

Being selective about assessment also means considering how participant funding is being used.

A useful question is whether you would feel comfortable asking someone to pay privately for everything you are proposing.

This does not mean compromising evidence-based practice or avoiding comprehensive assessment when it is genuinely required. It means being intentional about what each component c