A Functional Capacity Assessment is a detailed look at what you can do, what you need help with, and what would change that. It's the evidence the NDIS uses to decide what supports go into a plan.
An FCA is not a form filled in during a single appointment. It is a structured piece of work that usually runs across two to three contacts.
The initial conversation covers your goals, your diagnosis and history where relevant, what supports you have now, and what's not working. This is where we find out what you actually want the plan to make possible.
Assessment in your own home and community is the core of it. Capacity looks different in a clinic than it does in the kitchen where you actually cook, or on the walk to the bus you actually catch. We watch tasks being done, not described.
Standardised assessment tools are used alongside observation and interview where the funding request needs formal measures. We'll tell you which tool we're using and why, before we use it.
Input from the people around you — family, support workers, other clinicians — with your consent. Their picture of a typical week is often more accurate than anyone's memory of one.
A written report that links function to support need, in language the reader can follow.
If you're not sure whether you need an FCA or a shorter piece of assessment, ask. Some funding requests need far less than a full FCA, and we'd rather tell you that than sell you one.
Under the NDIS, functional capacity assessment sits in Capacity Building — Improved Daily Living. If there is Improved Daily Living funding in the plan, an FCA can usually be paid for from it.
Self-managed and plan-managed participants can engage any provider, including us. NDIA-managed participants need an NDIS-registered provider, so we are not able to take those plans.
Functional assessments outside the NDIS — under aged care funding, or privately — are worth a phone call first so we can work out what the funder actually needs.
A written report covering background and referral reason, your goals, the assessments used, findings by functional domain, current supports, and recommendations linked to what was actually observed.
Reports are with you one week from the final assessment session.
It's written for the person making the funding decision: clear evidence, clear reasoning, no padding. You get a copy before it goes anywhere else where practical, and factual errors get corrected.
Typically two to three contacts, then one week for the report. If you have a plan review date, tell us at the first call and we'll work back from it.
Yes. FCAs are done at your home and in the community wherever possible, because that's where capacity actually shows.
Six to eight weeks is comfortable. That allows for the assessment, any follow-up, the report, and time for your coordinator or planner to read it.
Tell us. Factual errors get corrected. Clinical findings we'll explain rather than change — but you should never be surprised by what's in your own report.
Home and living assessments for SIL and SDA evidence are part of the practice's scope. These are detailed pieces of work with their own requirements — call and we'll talk through what's involved before anything is booked.
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