NDIS Therapies and Allied Health: A Complete Guide to OT, Speech Pathology and Social Work (2026)

Written by

Dr Atif KHAN (MBBS FRACGP MPH MHM). Last updated: 8 October 2026.

Quick answer: NDIS therapies are allied health supports such as occupational therapy, speech pathology and social work. They are funded from the Improved Daily Living part of your plan when they meet the reasonable and necessary test. In 2026-27, occupational therapy and speech pathology are capped at $193.99 an hour, and you choose your provider.

If you or a family member has an NDIS plan, you have probably been told to "get therapy" without much explanation of what that means. This guide covers the three services people ask about most: occupational therapy, speech pathology and social work. It explains what each one does, what the NDIS will and will not pay for, what it costs under the 2026-27 NDIS Pricing Schedule, and how to book your first session.

The rules have moved a lot this year, so the first section lists what is new. If your plan review is coming up, read it before anything else.

What Changed in 2026 (Read This First)

Several changes took effect or were announced between July and October 2026. Each one can affect how far your therapy budget goes.

Change	What it means for therapy	Date
New NDIS Pricing Schedule replaces the old Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits document	Therapy price limits are now listed as a prices-only schedule, with a separate annual pricing review for guidance	1 July 2026
Therapy claim codes now carry letter suffixes	Cancellations (CA), non-face-to-face work (NF), provider travel (PT), NDIS-requested reports (RR) and telehealth (TH) are claimed on separate lines	1 July 2026
Occupational therapy and speech pathology price limits held steady at $193.99 an hour	No increase, no cut. Psychology rose, while dietetics and exercise physiology fell	1 July 2026
Reductions to Improved Daily Living and social participation budgets	A 10% reduction applies to the Improved Daily Living budget set at new plans and reassessments, and 50% to Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation	From 1 October 2026 for new and reassessed plans, 1 February 2027 for renewals, phased through 30 September 2027
Thriving Kids begins	New supports outside the NDIS for children aged 8 and under with developmental delay or autism and low to moderate support needs	From 1 October 2026
New framework planning delayed	A standardised support needs assessment will replace the current planning meeting, with rollout now set to begin on 1 April 2027	1 April 2027

Therapy supports sit mostly inside the Improved Daily Living category, which is why the 10% reduction matters here. The NDIA applies it to the reasonable and necessary amount it works out for your new plan. It is not a straight cut to your old budget. Some supports inside the category are excluded, including disability-related health supports, high intensity supports, intensive and complex behaviour supports, employment supports, customised and wearable technology, and hearing services. Check with your plan manager or support coordinator whether any exclusion applies to you.

What Are NDIS Therapies and Allied Health Supports?

Allied health covers health professionals who are not doctors or nurses. Under the NDIS, the term usually means therapists who help a person build skills, regain function or manage daily life with disability. The NDIS does not provide therapy itself. It gives you a budget, and you use that budget to buy therapy from a provider you pick.

How allied health fits into your NDIS plan

Therapy is listed in plans as a capacity building support, under Improved Daily Living. The idea is that therapy should help you do more for yourself over time, so a good therapy plan has goals, a start point and a way of measuring progress. Therapy that only maintains a routine with no stated goal is harder to justify at review.

Core, capacity building and capital supports

Budget type	What it pays for	Typical examples
Core	Everyday help	Personal care, household tasks, transport
Capacity building	Skills and independence	Therapy, support coordination, employment help
Capital	Equipment and adjustments	Assistive technology, home modifications

An occupational therapist often works across two of these. The therapy hours come from capacity building, while the equipment they recommend is bought from capital funding.

The reasonable and necessary test, in plain terms

Every NDIS-funded support has to be reasonable and necessary. In practice, the NDIA looks at whether the support:

relates to your disability
helps you reach your goals
is good value compared with other options
is likely to work, based on evidence
is not something other systems, such as health or education, should pay for

A therapy report that links a specific therapy to a specific goal and shows what it will cost answers most of these points at once.

Key takeaway: Therapy is funded to build skills toward your goals. The more clearly a therapist can show how a session connects to a goal, the easier it is to keep that funding.

Which NDIS Therapy Fits Your Goal?

Most people do not start by asking for a profession. They start with a problem. Use this table to match the problem to the therapist most likely to help.

Your goal	Best-fit therapy	What they do	Where it sits in your plan
Cook, shower, dress or manage a routine more independently	Occupational therapy	Assess function, teach skills, adapt tasks and equipment	Improved Daily Living
Get equipment or home changes approved	Occupational therapy	Functional assessment and written recommendation	Capital supports, with the assessment from capacity building
Speak, understand or be understood more easily	Speech pathology	Assess language and speech, build communication skills	Improved Daily Living
Eat and drink safely	Speech pathology	Assess swallowing, set mealtime plans	Improved Daily Living
Use a communication device	Speech pathology	Assess, trial and train in augmentative and alternative communication	Improved Daily Living, with the device from capital supports
Manage relationships, stress or complex life situations	Social work	Counselling, advocacy, linking you with services	Improved Daily Living
Move from school to work	Occupational therapy, with social work or an employment support as needed	Skill building and planning	Improved Daily Living or employment supports

More than one therapy can run at the same time, as long as each has its own goal and the budget covers it.

NDIS Occupational Therapy: Services and Funding

What does an NDIS occupational therapist do?

An NDIS occupational therapist looks at how your disability affects the things you want or need to do each day, then works out how to make those things easier. That might mean teaching a new method, changing the task, changing the space or recommending equipment. In Australia, occupational therapists are registered with Ahpra, and many belong to Occupational Therapy Australia.

OT services the NDIS commonly funds

Daily living skills, such as meal preparation, personal care and managing a household
Sensory processing support, mostly for children and some adults
Fine and gross motor skill programs
Functional capacity assessments, which describe how your disability affects daily tasks and are widely used as evidence at plan reviews
Assistive technology assessments and trials
Home modification assessments and written recommendations
Support with transitions, such as moving out of the family home or starting work

Whether a specific item is funded depends on your plan and the reasonable and necessary test. An OT cannot promise funding, but a good report improves the case.

OT for children and adults

For children, OT focuses on play, handwriting, self-care, sensory needs, emotional regulation and school participation. Sessions often involve parents and teachers so that skills carry over into daily life.

For adults, OT is more likely to centre on independent living, work, community access, equipment and home safety. Adults with psychosocial disability also use OT to build routines and manage energy and daily tasks.

How to find NDIS occupational therapy providers

Start with the NDIS Find a registered provider tool. If you self-manage or use a plan manager, you can also work with unregistered occupational therapy NDIS providers. Whichever route you take, check three things:

The therapist holds current Ahpra registration. You can look this up on the Ahpra website.
They have experience with your age group and disability type.
They can explain how they will measure progress and what reports they will write.

The NDIS Commission also publishes enforcement action on its NDIS Provider Register, which is worth a look for any provider you are unsure about.

Example: how an OT assessment supports an equipment request

The following is a hypothetical example, written to show the process. It is not a real client.

An adult with a spinal cord injury finds that transferring from bed to chair is getting harder. Their plan has no funding for a bed lifter. They book an occupational therapist, who visits the home, watches the transfer, measures the room and tests two options. The therapist then writes a report that states the problem, the goal, the options considered, the cheaper options ruled out and why, and the recommended item with a quote. That report is what the NDIA reads when it decides whether the item is reasonable and necessary. Most of the work that wins or loses the request happens in the report, not the phone call.

Key takeaway: OT is the main route to equipment, home changes and functional capacity reports. Ask any OT how their reports are structured before you book.

NDIS Speech Pathology: Communication and Swallowing

What does an NDIS speech pathologist do?

An NDIS speech pathologist assesses and treats difficulties with speech, language, voice, fluency, social communication and swallowing. They work with babies, children and adults. Speech pathologists in Australia are accredited through Speech Pathology Australia, and the Certified Practising Speech Pathologist credential is the one to look for.

Who needs speech therapy under the NDIS?

Children with language delay, unclear speech or social communication differences
People who stutter
People who use or need augmentative and alternative communication, including picture systems and speech-generating devices
People with swallowing difficulty (dysphagia) who need safe mealtime plans
Adults after stroke, brain injury or with a progressive condition
People with intellectual disability or autism who need support to be understood in daily life

Speech therapy NDIS funding covers assessment, direct therapy, training for family and support workers, and written plans. A mealtime management plan, for example, is something support workers can follow at every meal, which is often worth more than the sessions that produced it.

What counts as an NDIS approved speech therapist?

The NDIS does not approve individual therapists. What you will see in search results is a mix of two things. A provider may be registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, or it may be unregistered. Both can deliver speech therapy, but the way you pay them depends on how your plan is managed (see the registered versus unregistered section below). Neither status tells you how skilled the therapist is, so check professional accreditation and experience as well.

The NDIS Commission has also published a booklet on quality supports for children that lists questions you can ask any early childhood or therapy provider. It is a helpful checklist for a first call.

Speech therapy via telehealth

Telehealth is billed on its own line, using the TH suffix introduced on 1 July 2026. It works well for parent coaching, language therapy with older children, stuttering programs and regular check-ins, and it opens up specialist access for people outside major cities. It suits some assessments less well, particularly swallowing assessments, which usually need someone in the room.

Key takeaway: Speech pathology covers far more than "speech". Swallowing, communication devices and mealtime plans are often the highest-value parts of a speech pathology plan.

NDIS Social Workers: What They Do and When You Need One

NDIS social worker vs support coordinator vs psychologist

These three roles overlap, and people often book the wrong one.

Role	Main job	Funded as
Social worker	Counselling, advocacy, family and relationship support, linking you with services	Therapeutic support, usually under counselling or the other professional line
Support coordinator	Helps you use your plan, find providers and arrange supports	Support coordination, a separate budget
Psychologist	Assessment and treatment of mental health conditions, behaviour assessment	Therapeutic support, with a higher price limit

If you need help understanding your plan and lining up providers, you want a support coordinator. If you need someone to talk through a life situation and help with practical problems at the same time, a social worker is a good fit. If you need a diagnosis or a clinical treatment program, see a psychologist.

Supports social workers commonly provide

Counselling for adjustment to disability, grief, relationship stress and life transitions
Advocacy with services, schools, housing providers and government agencies
Family and carer support, including help for siblings and parents
Help with applications, reviews and appeals
Case work across health, housing, justice and community services

How social work is funded varies between plans, and the line item used can depend on the provider and the nature of the support. In 2026-27 the counselling line and the other professional therapy line both sit at $156.16 an hour nationally, but confirm the exact item with your provider before you book.

Social work for psychosocial disability and carers

People with psychosocial disability often use social workers to build routines, rebuild relationships and manage the practical side of recovery. Accredited Mental Health Social Workers, recognised by the Australian Association of Social Workers, have extra training for this work. Carers of NDIS participants may be able to get counselling and advice through other programs, so ask a local support service what is available to you outside the participant's plan.

Key takeaway: A social worker is not the same as a support coordinator. Pick the role that matches the problem you are trying to solve.

How to Start NDIS Therapy, Step by Step

Check your plan for funding. Look in your plan or the participant portal for capacity building funding under Improved Daily Living. If you are unsure, ask your plan manager or support coordinator.
Write your therapy goals. Start from what you want to do, not the therapy you think you need. "Cook a simple meal on my own twice a week" is better than "OT sessions".
Decide how your plan is managed. You can be NDIA-managed, plan-managed or self-managed. This decides which providers you can use.
Choose a provider. Look at registration status, professional accreditation, experience and availability. Ask how they write reports.
Book an initial assessment. The first session is usually about your goals, your history and what has worked before. Bring your plan and any earlier reports.
Agree on a service agreement. The agreement should state the support, the hourly rate, travel charges, cancellation terms and how you can end it. Read the guidance on service agreements before you sign.
Track progress and keep reports. Ask for a progress report before your plan review. These reports are the main evidence the NDIA uses when it decides your next budget.

You do not generally need a GP referral to use NDIS funds for therapy, although some providers will ask for diagnostic information and earlier reports.

NDIS Therapy Costs and Price Limits

How therapy is billed

The NDIA sets a maximum price for each support item. Providers can charge less, never more. The 2026-27 national limits for common therapy items are below, and the full schedule can be searched by item number.

Therapy	National price limit per hour (from 1 July 2026)
Occupational therapy	$193.99
Speech pathology	$193.99
Physiotherapy	$183.99
Psychology	$252.99
Dietetics	$178.99
Exercise physiology	$161.99
Counselling and other professional therapy	$156.16
Therapy assistant, level 2	$86.79

Remote and very remote limits are higher. As an example, a rehabilitation counsellor line that is $193.99 nationally rises to $271.59 in remote areas and $290.99 in very remote areas.

Since 1 July 2026, a single session can produce more than one line on your invoice:

No suffix: direct support
CA: cancellation
NF: non-face-to-face time, such as report writing
PT: provider travel
RR: reports requested by the NDIA
TH: telehealth

A short-notice cancellation can be claimed at the same price limit as the session itself, but only in the circumstances the rules allow and only if your service agreement says so. See this plain explanation of when providers can charge for cancelled appointments.

Making your budget last across multiple therapies

Ask whether group sessions suit your goals. Shared supports can cut cost per person where they are a good fit.
Ask your provider to explain travel and non-face-to-face charges, and whether any can be reduced.
Where the clinical approach allows it, ask whether a therapy assistant can deliver part of a program under the therapist's supervision. The limit for a level 2 assistant is $86.79 an hour.
Split goals across funding periods so the budget does not run out before the end of the plan. This guide to funding periods is a good starting point.
If your provider raises rates, they have to tell you first and agree the change with you. You are allowed to ask questions and compare other providers.

Quick cost example

A $15,000 therapy budget at the national limit of $193.99 an hour covers about 77 one-hour occupational therapy or speech pathology sessions, if nothing else is claimed. Add report writing, travel and the odd late cancellation, and the real number is lower. The same budget at the $156.16 counselling limit buys about 96 hours. These are maximum-price figures, and many providers charge less.

Registered vs Unregistered NDIS Providers

A registered provider has been approved by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission and must follow the NDIS Practice Standards and the NDIS Code of Conduct. Unregistered providers must still follow the Code of Conduct, but they are not audited in the same way.

	Registered	Unregistered
Can be used if NDIA-managed	Yes	No
Can be used if plan-managed or self-managed	Yes	Yes
Audited against Practice Standards	Yes	No
Subject to the Code of Conduct	Yes	Yes
Worker screening	Required for workers in certain roles	Individuals can still apply

Some services that used to be deliverable without registration now require it. From 1 July 2026 this was widened, and from 1 October 2026 mandatory registration applies to supported independent living and certain digital platforms. The sources reviewed for this guide did not list therapy among them, but rules change, so ask any provider to confirm their status and check the NDIS Commission website.

It also helps to know that a separate 10% price reduction for unregistered providers will apply from 1 January 2027, but only within social, community and civic participation supports. It does not apply to therapy.

Why Trust This Guide?

This guide was written by [Author name, credentials, years practising in NDIS allied health], and reviewed by [Reviewer name, credentials]. Prices, dates and rules come from the NDIA, the NDIS Commission and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, and from industry sources that reproduce the 2026-27 pricing schedule. Every figure here was checked against those sources on 8 October 2026.

NDIS policy is changing quickly. Where a rule is still being phased in, this guide says so. This guide is general information and not personal advice. Your plan, your goals and your provider's service agreement decide what applies to you.

Common Questions About NDIS Allied Health

Can I choose my own OT, speech therapist or social worker?

Yes. You choose your provider. If your plan is NDIA-managed, you need a registered provider. If it is plan-managed or self-managed, you can also use unregistered providers.

Does the NDIS fund therapy for children?

Yes, for children who are NDIS participants. From 1 October 2026, children aged 8 and under with developmental delay or autism and low to moderate support needs can also get help through Thriving Kids, which does not need a diagnosis. The government has said nothing changes for children who already have NDIS supports, and that changes to NDIS access for this group begin from 1 January 2028. Children with higher support needs stay eligible for the NDIS. A starting point for families is the Autism Helpline on 1300 654 789, which was launched with the first phase of Thriving Kids.

How many hours of therapy will I get?

There is no standard number. It depends on the budget the NDIA set in your plan and the goals you are working on. Use the cost example above to see roughly how many hours a given budget buys.

Can I use more than one therapy at the same time?

Yes, provided your plan has enough funding and each therapy has a distinct goal. If your budget is limited, ask your therapists to agree on priorities so their work does not overlap.

What is the difference between NDIS speech therapy and school-based speech therapy?

Schools and education departments are responsible for supports a child needs to learn at school, and the NDIS generally does not fund what education systems should provide. NDIS speech therapy covers disability-related communication and swallowing needs across daily life. In practice the two should work together, and your speech pathologist can share goals with the school.

Do I need a referral?

Usually not. Providers may ask for a diagnosis letter or earlier reports, and a GP or specialist letter can help the NDIA at review, but a referral is not a standard requirement for using NDIS therapy funding.

Will new framework planning change my therapy funding?

Possibly, but not yet. The new support needs assessment and budget method are set to start on 1 April 2027 and will phase in over several years. Existing plans stay in place until your plan ends. Up-to-date therapy reports that describe your current support needs are useful whichever planning model applies to you.

Next Steps: Book an Assessment or Download the Checklist

If you are ready to start, book an assessment with one of our therapists. If you would rather prepare first, download the Therapy Goals and Plan Budget worksheet, which walks you through writing three clear goals and checking them against your plan.

If your plan review is due soon, gather your latest therapy reports now, and ask each therapist whether their next report can describe your day-to-day support needs in plain language.

Sources and References

Last updated: 8 October 2026. Next review: January 2027. Update triggers: changes to NDIS price limits, the start of new framework planning, changes to the Improved Daily Living reductions, provider registration rule changes, and Thriving Kids rollout updates.v

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