What the NDIS Reforms 2026 Mean for Your Supports
The NDIS is going through the biggest set of changes since the scheme started, and a lot of participants are trying to work out what it means for them. This post covers what is actually happening, what the timeline looks like, and what it means for therapeutic supports like counselling specifically.
Why the NDIS is changing
The government's position is that the scheme has grown faster than expected. Participant numbers have increased significantly, plan costs have risen, and the view is that without reform the scheme will not be financially sustainable over the long term.
Whether you agree with that reasoning or not, the changes are now law. The National Cabinet agreed to a major package of disability and health reforms in January 2026. The NDIS Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Act 2026 passed Parliament on 1 April 2026 and received Royal Assent on 8 April. A further bill, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill, was introduced to Parliament on 14 May 2026.
These are not proposals. They are legislative changes that are already in effect or being staged in now. The reforms will roll out in stages over several years, which means most participants are not facing immediate disruption.
What is actually changing and when
There are several changes happening at different times. Here is what is most relevant to participants who are currently using or thinking about using therapeutic supports.
From around July 2026, the NDIA will begin rolling out a new planning framework. Instead of plans being based mainly on diagnosis, they will be shaped by a formal assessment of how your disability affects your daily functioning. This rollout is gradual. Your current plan stays in place until it is reviewed. You will not wake up to find your supports have changed without notice.
A formal definition of what counts as an NDIS support has been introduced. This is designed to make funding decisions clearer. In practice, it means supports need to be more explicitly connected to your disability and your plan goals. Supports that have always been appropriate for NDIS funding should not be at risk if the connection is visible and documented.
From 1 October 2026, funding for social and community participation and capacity building supports will start to be progressively adjusted. If your counselling or other therapeutic supports sit within these categories, it is worth knowing that before your next review.
Looking further ahead, a new approach to plan management takes effect from 1 October 2027, and changes to how support coordination works are coming from 1 July 2028. These are further away, but worth noting if you rely on either of those supports.
What the NDIS reforms 2026 mean for counselling
Counselling sits under therapeutic supports in the NDIS. Nothing in the current reforms removes counselling as a fundable support. What changes is the weight placed on how that support is justified and documented.
Going forward, it matters more that your counselling is directly connected to your disability and to your NDIS goals. It also matters that your counsellor documents sessions in a way that makes that connection clear. If the goals you are working on in sessions are not reflected anywhere in your plan, that gap is worth addressing now rather than at review time.
This does not mean sessions need to be rigid or clinical. Individual counselling can cover a wide range of things depending on what your disability affects day to day. The link to your NDIS goals just needs to be visible in how your supports are recorded.
If you are not sure what individual counselling actually involves or whether it fits your situation, the individual counselling page on this site covers what to expect.
Mental health and psychosocial disability are among the most common disability types in the NDIS. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare publishes data on this regularly. Therapeutic supports are well-established as appropriate NDIS funding and the reforms are not designed to change that.
For more detail on what falls under therapeutic supports and how counselling is funded, the NDIS therapeutic support page on this site covers the specifics.
Will my counselling funding be cut under the NDIS reforms?
Not automatically. The reforms are not designed to remove therapeutic supports from people who have a genuine need for them. They are designed to make sure funding is clearly linked to disability-related needs and goals. If your counselling is connected to your disability, documented properly, and included in your plan for genuine reasons, there is no automatic reason it should be affected.
What to do before your next plan review
You do not need to act urgently. Most of the significant changes are rolling out gradually and your current plan remains in place until it is reviewed. That said, a few practical things are worth doing now rather than later.
Find out what category your counselling sits under in your current plan. Your plan manager or support coordinator can tell you this. Knowing where your supports sit in the plan structure helps you ask better questions at review time.
Talk to your counsellor about your goals. Are the things you are working on in sessions connected to what is in your NDIS plan? They do not need to match exactly, but there should be a clear link. If there is not, it is better to address that before a review than to be caught out during one.
When your review comes around, ask specific questions. Ask how the new planning framework will apply to your situation. Ask what documentation will be expected to justify your therapeutic supports going forward. These are reasonable questions and a good plan manager or support coordinator should be able to help you prepare.
If you are self-managing your plan, there are some additional things worth knowing about how you can use your funding. The NDIS counselling for self-managed participants post covers that in more detail.
What I have seen working with NDIS participants
I have been working in and around the NDIS since 2018. I came into counselling through support coordination, so I have sat on both sides of the planning process and have a clear sense of how changes like this actually play out for participants.
What I notice right now is that the uncertainty about these reforms is its own source of stress. People are reading different things and getting conflicting information. Some of it is alarmist and some of it is reassuring but vague. The honest answer is that a lot of the detail is still being worked out and nobody has the full picture yet.
What I can say from years of working alongside participants through reviews and NDIS changes is this: participants whose supports are well-documented and clearly connected to their disability and goals have consistently been in a stronger position than those whose supports have drifted from their original purpose. That has held true across every change the scheme has gone through. It will be true for this one too.
Getting in touch
If you are an NDIS participant and you are wondering whether counselling fits your situation, you can find out more about how I work with NDIS clients on the NDIS counselling in Cairns page. You are also welcome to reach out directly through the contact page.
Written by Allan Bunyan, CPCA
Counsellor at Strong Foundation Support, Cairns. Allan works with adults and young people aged 14 and over, in person in Cairns and via telehealth across Australia.
