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After a critical meeting on Friday, state Health Ministers have agreed to take over responsibility for providing psycho-social supports for most children under nine, restricting the NDIS to those with severe, lifelong illness. This agreement sets the stage for significant change in the way services will be delivered.

Although details of the arrangements are yet to be announced by the Commonwealth, the new settings represent the most dramatic change to the NDIS since its formation and promise to significantly reduce the scheme’s exponential cost growth.

Currently, one in five boys under seven is on or applying for the scheme. The new arrangements will see responsibility for psycho-social supports being handed over to the states, while eligibility for the NDIS will be lifted from children under seven to those under-nine.

Speaking after the agreement, Health Minister Mark Butler said the federal government will support the arrangement with new funding dedicated to expand mental health services for young Australians in state-run settings.

“Youth mental health is a real challenge out in the community,” Butler said. “Demand for mental health supports among young people just grows year on year on year.“

“Making sure we have not just the right models of care but enough of those services available” will also be critical, Butler said. “We made a very substantial commitment of about $700 million to expand mental health services for young Australians, including what Pat McGorry calls the missing middle.”

The Minister did guarantee that the NDIS would still be available for people who need really significant psychosocial support but may not currently qualify for the scheme.

Butler said this included those currently “bumping in and out of hospital emergency departments, but just not getting enough support. This is a focus of Commonwealth and state action going forward.”

The revelation that fundamental and dramatic changes are coming to the NDIS came almost as a throwaway comment in an interview by Mark Butler last Friday. He confirmed the nation’s Health Ministers had been working to find ways of supporting children outside the NDIS.

To any parent, that’s a huge story and you can immediately see the (sensational, and correct) headline: ‘children under nine to be kicked off the NDIS’.

The journalist interviewing the minister didn’t realise she’d just been given a huge scoop. And that’s quite understandable, because mainstream reporters can’t be expected to be up on the detail of specialist areas, even if they like to pretend they are.

But that’s exactly why abilityNEWS exists - to follow the critical issues that are important for our community.

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Best, Nic Stuart ([email protected])