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Functional Capacity Assessment
A functional capacity assessment is a detailed Occupational Therapy assessment of what you can do for yourself, what you can do with support, and what gets in the way, across every part of daily life: personal care, moving around, running a home, thinking and planning, communication, and taking part in your community. The result is a written report with clear recommendations, in the language the NDIS, housing providers, and insurers use to make decisions, so the people deciding your supports understand your day the way you live it.
Optimum runs the assessment at three levels: standard, complex, and a shorter version for when a plan has limited funds left. Complex means several diagnoses, an advocate involved, or significant behaviour support needs. Whichever applies, we aim to have the report to you within 10 business days of the assessment.
Participants, families and carers
For Support Coordinators, plan managers and referrers
Our Occupational Therapists run functional capacity assessments across New South Wales and Tasmania, usually in the person’s own home, with a Physiotherapist or Speech Pathologist adding a part where a report needs it. Every report goes through a quality assurance review against our assessment checklist before it leaves us.
How do I fund a functional capacity assessment?
Most people pay privately, because the assessment usually comes before NDIS funding.
NDIS: participants with a plan use Improved Daily Living under Capacity Building.
My Aged Care, DVA and insurers: also accepted, including Home Care Package and workers compensation.
Private: you’ll get a clear picture of the costs before you book.
If you are not sure which funding applies to you, call us on 1800 678 647 or email hello@opt.net.au. We will sort it out before your first appointment.
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What a functional capacity assessment involves
01
What does a functional capacity assessment consist of?
A face-to-face assessment, usually about two hours and usually in your own home, followed by a written report.
Your Occupational Therapist will talk through your day with you, and with family or support workers if you want them there, and watch you do some everyday tasks.
They look at six areas: personal care, moving around, running a home, thinking and planning, communication, and taking part in your community. Alongside observation they use standardised tools where they add something, which might be a questionnaire that scores your abilities on a set scale, or a short cognitive or balance screen.
Each task is then rated on a level of independence scale, from independent through supervision to total assist. That way a reader who doesn’t know you gets the picture quickly.
02
Who can administer a functional capacity assessment?
Occupational Therapists do most of them, because looking at how a person manages daily tasks in their own home is the core of Occupational Therapy.
The NDIS lists occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists and medical specialists as the professionals who do the assessment.
At Optimum the assessment is led by our Occupational Therapy team. For some people a Physiotherapist or Speech Pathologist adds a part, for example where mobility or communication is the main area of need.
When another discipline contributes, that practitioner’s confirmation and registration number are recorded in the report, so the funder can see who assessed what.
03
Can you give me an example of a functional capacity assessment?
Showering is a great example. Two people can both say they need help in the bathroom and need very different things.
One needs a support worker in the room for the whole task. The other can shower alone withe a rail or a shower chair. The assessment records which it is, because they lead to very different recommendations.
The report does the same across every area. It covers mobility and transfers, physical function, cognition, executive functioning, communication, psychosocial function, personal, domestic and community activities of daily living, and the home environment.
It closes with the Occupational Therapist’s impression and recommendations, set out against the Core, Capacity Building and Capital Supports budgets, with each recommendation linked back to your goals. A standard report runs to 20 to 25 pages.
04
What conditions require a functional capacity evaluation?
No particular condition does.
A functional capacity assessment is requested when a decision is about to be made, whatever the diagnosis behind it.
A Support Coordinator may need one before a plan reassessment, a housing provider may ask for one with an application, or a GP may suggest one when daily life has changed.
It’s also used outside the NDIS, for aged care, insurance schemes and return-to-work planning.
Optimum writes several versions to suit the reader: an adult NDIS report, a paediatric report, and a My Aged Care report.
If you already have a report, a new assessment is needed once it’s older than 12 months, or older than six months if another provider wrote it.
05
How many hours does a functional capacity assessment take?
The visit itself is usually about two hours, and the NDIS says the assessment can take anywhere from one to ten hours depending on the person. The report takes longer than the visit.
For a standard assessment the whole piece of work, from the pre-assessment calls through to the finished report, comes to about 14 hours of Occupational Therapy time plus travel.
A complex assessment, where there are multiple diagnoses, an advocate involved or significant behaviour support needs, comes to about 17 hours. Where a plan has limited funds left, a shorter 10 to 15 page report can be written in 10 to 12 hours.
We aim to send the report within 10 business days of the assessment date, or of the final stakeholder contact for a complex assessment, after a quality assurance review.
06
Does NDIS pay for functional capacity assessment?
Only if you already have a plan. For a first application there’s no plan budget yet, so the assessment is paid privately.
Participants with a plan use Improved Daily Living under Capacity Building.
Right now the NDIS accepts a functional capacity assessment as evidence of your support needs, and you don’t have to do one to be eligible. The rules are changing.
On 19 August 2026 Parliament passed the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations legislation. From August 2026 only you, your nominee or your child’s representative can ask for an early plan reassessment after a significant change, and the NDIA has 90 days to decide.
From April 2027 support needs will be assessed by accredited assessors using a tool called I-CAN, starting with participants aged 16 and over.
From January 2028 access for new applicants will rest on a standardised assessment run by the NDIS. If you’ve been asked for an assessment now, the current process still applies.
How our Occupational Therapists run the functional capacity assessment
It starts before the visit. Once the referral and service agreement are in, your Occupational Therapist will call you to find out why the assessment has been requested and who is going to read it. A report for a plan reassessment reads differently from one for a housing application. They will also call your Support Coordinator, if you have one, to confirm the goals and the reporting outcomes needed. On the morning of the appointment they’ll call again to confirm.
Then comes the assessment itself, at your home wherever possible, because that’s where daily life happens and that’s what the report is about. Your Occupational Therapist will discuss your day with you and the people you want there, watch some everyday tasks, and use standardised tools where they help. Afterwards they score and analyse what they saw, draft the report, and bring in our other disciplines where a section needs them.
Functional capacity assessments and the NDIS, including what's changing
For participants with a plan, the assessment is funded from Improved Daily Living under Capacity Building. The recommendations in the report are set out against the Core, Capacity Building and Capital Supports budgets, so the NDIA can read them straight into a plan. From February 2027 plan renewals replace plan continuations and unspent funds won’t carry over, which is one reason a reassessment report needs to be current. Support Coordinators and plan managers can refer directly through our Referrers Hub, and we’ll confirm the funding line before the first appointment. As the new arrangements start, we’ll keep this page current.
NDIS
Referrals
14 clinics across NSW & Tasmania
Email us
hello@opt.net.au
Speak to us
1800 678 647
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Where we offer functional capacity assessments
Common questions about functional capacity assessments
Can a GP do a capacity assessment?
What does a functional capacity assessment consist of?
Who can administer a functional capacity assessment?
How many hours does a functional capacity assessment take?
How much does a full functional capacity assessment cost?
Does NDIS pay for functional capacity assessment?
Does Medicare cover functional capacity assessment?
Can you pass or fail a functional capacity assessment?
What conditions require a functional capacity evaluation?
Reviewed by Sarah-Louise higgins
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