Functional Capacity Assessments

A Functional Capacity Assessment can be helpful when you need a more comprehensive understanding of how your child manages everyday life and the support they need.

Families may seek an FCA when:

• the NDIS has requested information about their child’s functional capacity or support needs 
• they are applying to the NDIS or preparing for a reassessment 
• their child’s needs or level of independence have changed 
• existing reports no longer reflect how their child is currently functioning 
• they need clearer recommendations about supports, equipment or intervention 
• they want to better understand how their child manages across home, school and the community. 

The reason for the assessment helps guide what information we gather and what needs to be included in the report.

No. Although FCAs are commonly used to provide evidence for the NDIS, the assessment itself is about understanding your child’s everyday functioning and support needs.

An FCA can be useful whenever a comprehensive picture of your child’s participation, independence and support needs would help with planning their supports.

Yes. An FCA can provide evidence about how your child’s disability or impairment affects their everyday functioning and the support they require.

If you need the assessment or report for the NDIS, it’s important to let us know when you book. NDIS reports need to address particular areas of everyday functioning and clearly draw the links between your child’s disability, the support they need and how these compares with what would typically be expected for their age.

Knowing that the report is for the NDIS from the beginning helps your Occupational Therapist plan the assessment, gather the right information and make sure the report is written to address the relevant NDIS requirements.

If the NDIS, your Support Coordinator or another professional has asked for particular information, please send this through to us as well.

An FCA can provide supporting evidence for the NDIS, but it does not determine whether your child will gain access to the NDIS or what supports will be included in their plan. These decisions are made by the NDIA.

The NDIS considers functional capacity across six broad areas: communication, social interaction, learning, mobility, self-care and self-management.

For children and young people, these areas need to be considered in the context of their age. For example, needing help to prepare a meal means something very different for a five-year-old than it does for a 16-year-old.

An FCA therefore looks not only at whether your child needs help, but at how their level of support compares with what would ordinarily be expected for someone of a similar age.

There isn't one assessment tool that is right for every child.

Your Occupational Therapist will choose assessment tools based on your child’s age, needs and the purpose of the FCA. This may include standardised questionnaires and assessments alongside parent/carer interview, observation and information from other people who know your child well.

We’ll select the components that help answer the questions relevant to your child rather than using the same assessment battery for every family.

Often, yes. How a child manages can vary depending on the environment, expectations and support available.

With your consent, we may ask an educator to complete a questionnaire, speak with them about your child’s functioning, review information they have already provided, or recommend an observation in the educational setting.

Your Occupational Therapist will discuss what information would be useful for your child’s assessment.

Yes, where an outreach assessment would provide important information that we can't reasonably gather another way.

Observing your child in an everyday environment can sometimes help us understand how they manage routines, participate in the classroom, navigate their environment or complete everyday activities.

However, we don't routinely include outreach visits in every Functional Capacity Assessment. Outreach involves additional appointment and travel time, which can increase the overall cost of the assessment. Where we can gather the information we need through clinic appointments, questionnaires, educator consultation or existing reports, we'll generally do that instead.

If your Occupational Therapist believes seeing your child in an everyday environment would add important information to the assessment, they'll discuss this with you before including an outreach visit.

Yes. Please send through any relevant reports or assessments you already have.

Previous reports can provide useful background about your child’s development, diagnoses and support history. 

A Functional Capacity Assessment is focused on how your child is functioning now, so we may still need to gather updated information about their everyday abilities and support needs. It just depends on how recent and relevant the assessment data is. 

We don't need to reassess an existing diagnosis as part of an FCA — the focus is on your child’s current functioning.

Your Occupational Therapist will review the information you already have and work out what, if anything, needs to be updated.

We can add additional assessment components where they are relevant to the questions being explored.

This might include more detailed assessment of motor skills, sensory processing, handwriting or another area of occupational performance. Where Psychology or Speech Pathology assessment would add useful information, this can also be incorporated.

Because of the flexible way we structure our assessments, relevant areas can be explored together rather than automatically requiring completely separate assessment processes and reports. This can save families significant time and cost compared with completing one assessment and then starting another from the beginning.

The timeframe depends on your child’s needs, the information required and the components included in their assessment.

An FCA includes both the appointments you attend and clinical work completed outside those appointments. This may include reviewing existing information, scoring and interpreting assessments, speaking with other people involved with your child, analysing the findings and preparing the report.

At your first appointment, your Occupational Therapist will discuss the assessment pathway and expected timeframe with you.

Not necessarily. A Functional Capacity Assessment assesses function rather than diagnosing a condition.

However, if the FCA is being completed specifically for the NDIS, the evidence required will depend on the purpose of the assessment and your child’s individual circumstances. An FCA can provide evidence about functional impact, but it does not replace other evidence the NDIA may require about disability or eligibility.

Your Occupational Therapist can make clinical recommendations about the supports your child needs based on the assessment findings.

We don't determine what the NDIS will fund or recommend a particular funding decision. Those decisions are made by the NDIA.

Our role is to clearly describe your child’s functioning, the impact on their everyday life, the support they require and the clinical recommendations arising from the assessment.