RS-03: Theme 3 — Essential Fields for Statement Templates

KB Type: Source Summary
Domain Area: Practice
Confidence: Researched (Andrew via NbLM, RS-03) — 90%
Depth Hint: Standard
Version: 1.0 — 2026-04-22
Status: Active

Grounding Summary

A legally robust Participant Statement template must simultaneously capture the participant's voice to satisfy Section 33(1) of the NDIS Act 2013 and provide the strict evidentiary requirements needed by an NDIA delegate to approve funded supports under Sections 33(2) and 34(1). To be highly effective under the 2024 amendments and the 2026 PACE framework, the template must link requested supports directly to goals, provide clinical evidence of effectiveness, and explicitly offer a value for money justification. A robust template also bridges legacy systems and new frameworks by capturing Primary and Secondary Disability diagnoses using ICD-10 or ICD-11 medical codes alongside PACE functional impairment classifications. Five blocks of information are required: participant identity and clinical context, environmental and personal context, goals and aspirations, evidence and support justification, and budget architecture and risk management.

Detail

What Fields Must Be Captured

A comprehensive master template encompasses five main blocks:

Block 1 — Participant Identity and Clinical Context: Demographics, NDIS number, plan dates, and exact clinical diagnoses with corresponding ICD codes and PACE impairment types.
Block 2 — Environmental and Personal Context: Living arrangements, informal supports, mainstream system involvement, social and economic participation, and progress against previous goals.
Block 3 — Goals, Objectives and Aspirations: Short-term goals (next 12 months) and medium-to-long-term aspirations (2–5 years), directly mapped to NDIS Outcome Domains.
Block 4 — Evidence, Value and Support Justification: Proposed supports mapped to PACE item codes, direct links to goals, clinical evidence of effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness justifications.
Block 5 — Budget Architecture and Risk Management: Proposed funding periods and release intervals, risk-based budget controls (Digital Locks, Stated Items), plan management preferences, and triggers for early plan reassessment.

Environmental Context Requirements

The environmental and personal context section is mandatory under Section 33(1)(b). The NDIA uses this information to determine the boundaries between what the NDIS should fund, what informal networks should provide, and what mainstream systems are responsible for. It also captures the participant's baseline for social and economic participation — employment, study, volunteering, and community engagement.

Living Arrangements Documentation

The template must describe the participant's current housing situation (e.g., private rental, Supported Independent Living, living with parents) and specify who they live with. Crucially, it must also document any risks to the sustainability of the arrangement — housing instability, breakdown of care — which is particularly vital for participants with complex needs or psychosocial disabilities.

Informal and Mainstream Supports Documentation

Informal Supports: Detail unpaid care from family, friends, and neighbours — exactly what they do and how often. Assess whether this level of care is sustainable or whether carer burnout risk exists. The NDIA must legally consider what is reasonable to expect informal networks to provide.
Mainstream Supports: Capture the participant's involvement with other government systems — health, clinical mental health, education, justice, child protection. This ensures requested NDIS supports are appropriately funded by the Scheme and do not replace services that are the responsibility of other general systems.

Short-Term and Long-Term Goal Documentation

Goals must be separated into two distinct categories:

Short-Term Goals (Next 12 months): Specific, actionable goals written in the participant's own words. In a PACE-ready template, these goals must be directly mapped to one of the eight NDIS Outcome Domains (e.g., Daily Living, Social and Community, Choice and Control).
Medium to Long-Term Goals (2–5 years): Broader life aspirations, such as moving out of home or gaining open employment. Separating longer-term visions from immediate actionable goals makes it easier for NDIA delegates to map supports effectively.

Legislative Basis

Reference	Provision	Relevance
NDIS Act 2013 s33(1)	Participant's statement — mandatory content	Requires environmental and personal context including living arrangements, informal and community supports, and social and economic participation.
NDIS Act 2013 s33(1)(b)	Environmental context	Mandates documentation of the participant's environmental context as a component of the participant's statement.
NDIS Act 2013 s34(1)(c)	Value for money	Requires explicit cost-effectiveness justification for proposed supports.
NDIS Act 2013 s34(1)(e)	Informal networks	NDIA must consider what informal networks should reasonably provide — making informal support documentation legally critical.

(To be populated by ingest agent)

Open Questions

Whether ICD-10 vs ICD-11 codes are both accepted by the current NDIA CRM system, or whether there is a preferred standard, is not confirmed in the research.
The research describes a five-block master template but does not confirm whether this structure has been formally adopted by the NDIA or remains a practitioner best-practice recommendation.

Entity Tags

entity: rs-03-t3-essential-fields-statement-templates
type: Source
domain: Practice
confidence: Researched
links: [[concepts/participant-statement]] via source
links: [[concepts/ndis-outcome-domains]] via source
links: [[concepts/informal-mainstream-supports]] via source
links: [[concepts/plan-reassessment]] via source
links: [[concepts/digital-lock]] via source
links: [[concepts/stated-supports]] via source
links: [[concepts/pace-framework]] via source

Change History

Date	Change	Source
2026-04-22	Initial article created	Claude preprocess — NbLM per-theme query from RS-03

RS-03-T3-essential-fields-statement-templates-2026-04-22