Key Takeaways
- New Framework Planning commences 1 July 2026, starting with adults aged 18 and over with less complex needs. All participants aged 16 and over will transition by 2 October 2029.
- Children under 16 are scheduled to begin transitioning from 1 July 2027, though no validated assessment tool for this age group has been confirmed by the NDIA.
- Support Needs Assessments will be conducted by NDIA staff (APS Level 6) using the I-CAN v6 tool. Allied health background is described as "highly desirable but not mandatory" for assessors.
- I-CAN v6 covers 12 areas of daily life and scores both the frequency and level of support a person needs. The assessment takes approximately 3 hours and can be split across multiple sessions.
- Functional capacity assessments will remain relevant for complex cases, plan reviews, and appeals, but will no longer be the automatic primary evidence source for standard adult plans.
- Under the new system, plan budgets are simplified to 17 support type categories. Five of those categories can be designated as flexible, meaning participants can spend that funding across any NDIS-approved support.
- Allied health providers can train as I-CAN assessors through a program developed by the University of Melbourne and the Centre for Disability Studies. Enrolments are temporarily closed due to demand but the pathway remains open.
From 1 July 2026, the NDIS planning process changes in ways that will directly affect the referral volumes, role, and positioning of occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and speech pathologists across Australia. The NDIA will begin rolling out New Framework Planning: a system where trained assessors using the I-CAN v6 tool, rather than independent allied health professionals, will determine most adult participants' support needs and plan budgets.
This is not a marginal adjustment. For providers whose practice depends on NDIS-funded functional capacity assessment work, or on being the primary source of evidence for plan budgets, the shift requires a considered response. For providers who primarily deliver therapy services, the implications are more nuanced but still significant.
This guide covers what I-CAN v6 actually is, how the rollout timeline works, what flexible budgets mean in practice, and what allied health providers should be doing now.
What New Framework Planning Actually Changes
Under the current system, allied health providers play two distinct roles in NDIS planning. The first is as service providers delivering funded supports. The second is as report writers, producing functional capacity assessments and specialist reports that form the primary evidence base for a participant's plan budget.
New Framework Planning significantly reduces the second role for most adult participants. From 1 July 2026, participants transitioning to the new system will have their support needs determined through a structured conversation with a trained NDIA assessor, using the I-CAN v6 instrument. The NDIA assessor, not a treating allied health professional, will complete the assessment and submit the report to the NDIA.
Assessors will be NDIA staff at APS Level 6. Having an allied health background is "highly desirable but not mandatory." The assessment takes approximately three hours, which can be split across multiple sessions, and can be conducted in person or by video.
Allied health reports from treating providers can still be submitted as supporting information, and participants with complex needs may be specifically asked to provide them. But they will no longer be the automatic evidence source for standard plan budgets.
Understanding I-CAN v6
The Instrument for the Classification and Assessment of Support Needs (I-CAN v6) was developed by the Centre for Disability Studies and has been used in disability services for over 20 years. For the NDIS rollout, the NDIA partnered with the University of Melbourne and the Centre for Disability Studies to develop and implement the new assessment process.
I-CAN v6 covers 12 areas of daily life. For each area, the assessor scores both the frequency of support needed (from 0 meaning never, to 5 meaning continuously) and the level of support required (from 0 meaning fully independent, to 5 meaning pervasive support). The assessor also records an "I can" statement for each subdomain, describing what the person can do with the right supports in place.
The tool is deliberately person-centred and strengths-based. This is a material shift from the deficit-focused framing common in many functional capacity assessments, which document what a person cannot do. Allied health providers who want their reports to remain useful as supporting information will need to frame clinical findings in terms of support needs and functional strengths, not just limitations.
The Rollout Timeline
The rollout is phased and will take several years to complete.
From 1 July 2026, the NDIA will begin New Framework Planning with adults aged 18 and over who have less complex needs. This is the first cohort to transition.
By 2 October 2029, all participants aged 16 and over will be on New Framework Planning.
Participants under 16 are scheduled to begin transitioning from 1 July 2027, with the full transition completing by 2 October 2029. The NDIA has acknowledged that no validated assessment tool for this age group has been finalised, which introduces real uncertainty about what the under-16 rollout will look like in practice.
Participants will not all change at once. The rollout is gradual, and many current clients will continue on existing planning arrangements for some time. The point is that transition is certain: the question is timing.
Flexible Budgets: What They Mean for Providers
Current NDIS plans have hundreds of line items, with specific funding tied to specific support categories. That level of specificity has created significant friction for both participants and providers.
Under New Framework Planning, plans will have two types of funding: stated supports and a flexible budget. Stated supports must be used for a specific designated purpose. The flexible budget can be used across any NDIS-approved support, giving participants more choice about which providers they use and for what purposes.
The NDIA is reducing the total number of support type categories to 17, with 5 of those designated as flexible.
For allied health providers, flexible budgets are a mixed picture. Participants with flexible funding will have more freedom to choose how they spend on therapy. The removal of line-item constraints means a participant could redirect flexible funding toward your service even if therapy was not explicitly identified during planning. The risk is that flexible budgets also make it easier for participants to deprioritise therapy in favour of other supports. Providers who maintain strong ongoing relationships with participants and demonstrate clear outcomes will be better positioned than those who rely on prescribed plan funding.
The Thriving Kids Dimension
For allied health providers working with children, the picture is further complicated by the Thriving Kids program, a $2 billion Federal Government investment commencing in October 2026.
From mid-2027, children with mild to moderate developmental delays, including autism where the level of need is mild to moderate, will no longer enter the NDIS through the early intervention stream. Instead, they will access support through Thriving Kids, which delivers occupational therapy, speech pathology, physiotherapy, and psychology through community hubs, schools, and childcare centres.
New Medicare items will be introduced to fund Thriving Kids allied health services. This means the client base of allied health providers working with children will partially shift from NDIS-funded to Medicare-funded, with different billing rules, referral pathways, and reporting requirements.
Providers who serve children with mild to moderate needs should be planning now for this transition. For a broader view of how recent NDIS legislative changes affect provider obligations more generally, see our guide to the NDIS Amendment Bill 2025.
What Allied Health Providers Should Do Now
Audit your current NDIS revenue by source
Identify what proportion of your NDIS revenue comes from functional capacity assessments and specialist planning reports, versus ongoing therapy service delivery. The former is most directly affected by the I-CAN rollout. The latter continues, though with the flexible budget changes described above.
Align your report writing with I-CAN domains
Allied health reports submitted as supporting information will be more useful to assessors if they address the same 12 life areas and use the same strengths-based framing as the I-CAN v6 tool. Review your report templates now and reframe clinical findings in terms of support needs rather than functional deficits.
Stay informed about the I-CAN assessor pathway
The NDIA opened a pathway for allied health professionals with tertiary qualifications to train as I-CAN assessors. Training is delivered through the University of Melbourne and the Centre for Disability Studies. Enrolments are temporarily closed due to demand, but the pathway is worth monitoring for practices that want to take a direct role in the assessment process.
Prepare clients for what to expect
Clients transitioning in the first wave (adults 18 and over with less complex needs from 1 July 2026) will need clear information about what is changing. Use the ClinicComply compliance calendar to track the NDIS reform milestones that apply to your client cohort.
Explore Thriving Kids service delivery
If you work with children, investigate the Thriving Kids service provider model before October 2026. The program will deliver services through community settings with Medicare funding, and early alignment positions your practice well ahead of the mid-2027 access changes.
For providers wanting to review their full NDIS compliance position ahead of the reform period, the NDIS compliance quiz provides a rapid gap assessment. For current billing rules that continue to apply to therapy services, see our guide on NDIS billing for non-face-to-face allied health supports.
How ClinicComply Helps
NDIS compliance for allied health providers spans registration requirements, incident reporting, worker screening, billing practices, and now a fundamental change to how participants enter and move through the planning system. ClinicComply maps all of these obligations in one place, assigns tasks to responsible team members, and sends automated reminders before key deadlines.
As New Framework Planning rolls out, ClinicComply's compliance calendar tracks the reform milestones relevant to your client cohort. The document library stores your updated report templates, policies, and evidence against the specific NDIS obligations they satisfy. For practices with multiple allied health professionals, the team management features let you coordinate compliance across your workforce without relying on shared spreadsheets or email chains.
See everything ClinicComply does for allied health NDIS compliance at cliniccomply.com.au/features, or start your free 30-day trial at cliniccomply.com.au/signup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will my OT reports still matter after New Framework Planning starts?
Yes, but in a more limited way for most participants. Under New Framework Planning, OT reports and other allied health assessments can still be submitted as supporting information and reviewed by the NDIA assessor. For participants with complex needs, allied health reports may be specifically requested. For most standard adult plans, however, the I-CAN v6 assessment conducted by the NDIA assessor will be the primary evidence source, not an independent functional capacity assessment from a treating provider.
When will my clients transition to New Framework Planning?
Adults aged 18 and over with less complex needs will begin transitioning from 1 July 2026. The rollout is gradual, so many clients will not experience any change immediately. All participants aged 16 and over will be on New Framework Planning by 2 October 2029. Children under 16 will begin transitioning from 1 July 2027, though the assessment tool for this age group has not been finalised by the NDIA.
What is I-CAN v6 and how does it work?
I-CAN v6 (Instrument for the Classification and Assessment of Support Needs, version 6) is a structured assessment tool developed by the Centre for Disability Studies and used by NDIA-trained assessors to determine a participant's support needs. It covers 12 areas of daily life. For each area, the assessor scores the frequency and level of support the person needs, on separate scales from 0 to 5. The assessor also records a strengths-based statement describing what the person can do with the right supports in place. The full assessment takes approximately three hours and can be conducted across multiple sessions.
Can participants request an independent allied health assessment?
Participants have review rights under the new framework, including the right to an internal review of their Support Needs Assessment. They can also escalate to the Administrative Review Tribunal. The ART can order an independent Support Needs Assessment by allied health professionals not employed by the NDIA, where it determines one is warranted. This provides a pathway for allied health reports to remain relevant in contested or complex planning situations, even after the full New Framework Planning rollout.
What are flexible budgets under New Framework Planning?
Flexible budgets are the portion of an NDIS plan where funding can be used across any NDIS-approved support, rather than being tied to a specific line item. Under New Framework Planning, plans will have two types of funding: stated supports (for a specific designated purpose) and a flexible budget. The NDIA is reducing the total number of support categories to 17, with 5 of those designated as flexible. This gives participants more choice about how they spend their funding, but also means that spending on therapy depends on the participant's own priorities rather than being prescribed by the plan.
How should allied health providers prepare for the I-CAN rollout?
Start by auditing how much of your NDIS revenue comes from functional capacity assessments and specialist planning reports, versus ongoing therapy delivery. The former is most directly affected. Then review your report templates to align with the 12 I-CAN life domains and strengths-based framing, since reports written this way will be more useful as supporting information under the new system. Stay informed about the I-CAN assessor training pathway if you want to take a direct role in the assessment process, and begin preparing clients who are likely to transition in the first wave from 1 July 2026.
What is the Thriving Kids program and how does it affect allied health?
Thriving Kids is a $2 billion Federal Government program commencing in October 2026. From mid-2027, children with mild to moderate developmental delays or autism will no longer enter the NDIS, and will instead access occupational therapy, speech pathology, physiotherapy, and psychology through the Thriving Kids program, delivered in community settings such as schools and childcare centres. New Medicare items will fund Thriving Kids services. Allied health providers who work with children should investigate the service delivery and billing model well before mid-2027 to position their practice for this transition.
What is the rollout timeline for children under 16?
Children under 16 are scheduled to begin transitioning to New Framework Planning from 1 July 2027, with the full transition completing by 2 October 2029. The NDIA has acknowledged that no validated assessment tool for participants under 16 has been confirmed yet, which introduces uncertainty about the under-16 rollout. Speech pathologists, OTs, and other providers who primarily serve paediatric clients should monitor NDIA announcements closely as July 2027 approaches.
Do providers need to change how they bill NDIS for therapy services?
The introduction of New Framework Planning does not itself change the NDIS Price Guide rules for delivering and billing therapy supports. Registered providers still need to comply with the NDIS Practice Standards, the Support Catalogue pricing, and the rules around non-face-to-face supports. What changes is how participant budgets are set and structured, not the billing rules that apply once a participant has a plan in place. For a full breakdown of current billing obligations for allied health, see our guide to NDIS billing for non-face-to-face allied health supports.