What your physio's NDIS report should say, and when to ask for it

Ask six to eight weeks before the reassessment date, and ask for something specific rather than “a report”. A strong therapy report is the difference between funding that continues and funding that gets questioned, and it is largely decided by what the physiotherapist was asked to write.

Almost every guide on this is written for providers. This one is for the person whose plan it is.

What a strong report contains

• Function, not diagnosis.What the person can and cannot do today, described concretely. “Requires two-person assist to transfer from bed” carries weight. “Has cerebral palsy” does not, on its own.
• Measurements that repeat. Sit-to-stand counts, walking distance, transfer assistance levels, times. Numbers that were taken the same way last year and can be taken the same way next year.
• Each plan goal, named, with progress against it. Not a general summary. Goal by goal.
• What happens without the support. The reasonable and necessary test turns on this. A report that does not address it leaves the decision-maker to guess.
• What the next period is for, and roughly how much therapy it takes.

What a thin report looks like

Two paragraphs of narrative, no numbers, no goals named, and a closing line recommending continued therapy. It is not that the physiotherapist is wrong. It is that nothing in it can be checked, compared, or used as evidence.

If a report could have been written about a different person by changing the name, it will not do the job.

When to ask

• Six to eight weeks out. A good report often needs a reassessment session to get current measurements, and that has to be booked.
• Say what it is for. A report for a plan reassessment is a different document from a letter to a GP.
• Ask what it will cost against the budget and factor it in. Report writing is legitimate, claimable, and it uses funding.
• Read it before it goes. You will spot factual errors about daily life that no clinician can.

If the report you get is weak

Ask for specific additions rather than rejecting it. Current measurements. The goals named individually. A sentence on what happens if the support stops. Most physiotherapists will add them, because they are things that should have been in there.

If nothing improves, that is worth knowing about the service generally. A physiotherapist who cannot describe progress in measurable terms may not be tracking it — which is a bigger problem than the report.

The thing that makes reports easy

A report is only as good as the record behind it. If goals were written down at the start, measurements taken regularly, and the program changed as the person changed, the report is a summary of work already done.

If none of that happened, the report is an essay written from memory the week before it is due. That is the real reason to care how the therapy is run, not just whether it happens.

Improved Daily Living covers which budget therapy comes from, and our NDIS page explains how visits work.