1. Pricing must support sector sustainability 
2. 2024–25 pricing must send a message to providers to stay the course 
3. A new approach to pricing is needed 
4. The sector needs support to respond to the multiple reforms expected over the next five years.

To amplify our message, we encourage members to use these four key messages, together with the more detailed background information below, to make their own short submission to the review.  

• How do NDIS prices affect your participants, your workforce, your community, your organisation and its future?  
• What changes would support your organisation’s sustainability and keep you operating effectively in the sector? 
• Are you worried about your organisation’s capacity to survive the wave of reforms that are coming our way? What support would help you ride this wave?

If you only have a few minutes, a brief submission that touches on one of these points is still valuable. If you have more time, the more detailed information that you can give the review the better.

Background 

• 34 percent of providers reported a loss in 2022–23  
• 69 percent are worried that they will not be able to provide supports at NDIS prices 
• 82 percent received requests for services that they could not meet 
• 78 percent found it difficult to recruit disability support workers.

Against this background NDS’s key messages to government and the NDIA are:

1. Pricing must support sector sustainability.

The sector requires urgent action to increase pricing. Pricing must recognise wage increases and CPI, along with the cost of workers compensation and general insurance, non-billable training and costs of compliance for registered providers.

The sector experienced their worse financial year ever and many are running on dwindling financial reserves.

We know that providers who are committed to meeting the needs of participants, providing good employment conditions and adequate supervisory support for staff, focussed on the health and safety of their staff and open to meeting all the additional safeguarding measures of registration are running a deficit. 

2. 2024–25 pricing must send a message to providers to stay the course. 

While we work toward transitioning to the NDIS that participants deserve and the provider sector want, we need providers to remain in the sector, delivering high quality support. 

Intermediary providers are facing an uncertain future. At the same time, they are critical in supporting participants navigate the complexities of the NDIS. We need pricing that allows intermediaries to continue to provide supports and invest in their workforce. 

3. We need a new approach to pricing. 

Cost modelling is flawed. Where modelling exists, underpinning assumptions are either flawed or not transparent. 

An independent pricing approach must be implemented that provides fairer, best practice pricing in the NDIS. A scheme of this size and importance deserves no less. 

4. The sector needs support to respond to the many reforms expected over the next five years.

Beyond 2024–25 pricing, the sector needs resources to respond to and implement NDIS reforms and continue to support the rights and inclusion of people with disability. 

We all want to the NDIS to reach its potential, to continue to change the lives of people with disability, but we want it to be better. A transformation fund will support the wholesale structural adjustments that the sector will undergo. 

We have developed a suite of resources to help members respond to the Annual Pricing Review Provider Consultation Paper. 

You can also view our presentation: