The NDIS reforms and social supports: reading the signals
What the proposed changes suggest about how social participation will be funded — and what it means for the people using those supports.
Wednesday 9 September 2026 · 12:30–1:15pm AEST · Microsoft Teams · Free
On 22 April 2026 the Australian Government announced a package of reforms to the NDIS, built around four stated pillars: fighting fraud, slowing rapid cost increases, clearer eligibility requirements, and delivering quality services and support to participants. These are being given effect through the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.
The Bill has not passed Parliament. Until it does, current NDIS eligibility and planning policies remain in place, and participants should continue to access the supports set out in their existing plans.
That has not stopped a great deal of speculation, and a good deal of worry, particularly among people whose plans fund social and community participation. This session is an attempt to look carefully at what has actually been announced, what has not been decided, and what the shape of the proposed changes appears to signal about how social supports will be funded in future.
What the session covers
The first part deals with the documents rather than the commentary: what was announced in April, what is contained in the Bill, where the Bill currently sits, and what remains genuinely undecided. Where something is settled it will be described as settled. Where it is proposed, contested or unknown, it will be described that way.
The second part is interpretation, and will be clearly identified as such. The proposed reforms are not uniform across categories of support, and the pattern of what is being reduced most and least says something about what governments intend to keep funding. That reading belongs to the presenter, not to any government document, and attendees are invited to disagree with it.
The third part is practical. If a plan funds social participation and the funding environment tightens, the useful question stops being which support and becomes what produces durable capability from a smaller amount of money. The session sets out how different supports — community access, social groups, mentoring, individual therapy and structured skill-building programs — each do a different job, why they work best in sequence rather than in competition, and four questions worth asking of any support before funding it.
What the session cannot do
It cannot tell you what will happen to an individual plan. It is not legal or financial advice, and it is not a substitute for independent disability advocacy. The final section of the session points to where to get help that has nothing to do with Unified Care Solutions.
Who it is for
- Support coordinators and plan managers
- Allied health and medical referrers — psychologists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, paediatricians and general practitioners
- School wellbeing and education staff
- Participants, families and carers
The session assumes no prior knowledge of the reforms or of any particular program. Cameras and microphones can stay off, and nobody will be asked to speak or introduce themselves. Questions are typed and answered in the final fifteen minutes.
Format
Thirty minutes of content followed by fifteen minutes of questions. The presentation is recorded and the recording is made available to registrants afterwards; the question and answer session is not recorded.
Reform of this kind moves. The content will be updated to reflect the position as at the date of the session, and where the honest answer is that something has not been published, that is what you will hear.
About the presenter
Zac Eaton is a Registered Nurse and Clinical Nurse Consultant working in intellectual and developmental disability, and the founder and Director of Unified Care Solutions, a nurse-led disability service provider based near Ballarat. He holds a Bachelor of Nursing and Bachelor of Paramedicine and a Graduate Diploma in Clinical Nursing, and is a PEERS® Certified Provider.
A note on our position
Unified Care Solutions delivers structured social skills programs, and this session argues that the proposed reforms favour structured, measurable skill-building. That is a commercial interest and it is declared openly in the first two minutes of the session rather than left for anyone to point out. No provider, including this one, can protect a participant’s funding, and this session does not suggest otherwise. We work with plan-managed and self-managed participants.
Registering
Registration is free and closes at midday on 9 September. Your confirmation is sent by Microsoft Teams — if it does not appear, check your junk folder.