Functional Capacity Assessment Template: Every Section, and What the NDIA Reads Each One For

Every section of an NDIS FCA template

That is the whole template. The rest of this guide is what belongs in each part, the mistakes that get reports sent back, and the OT version.

Who this template is for, and who can do an FCA

The NDIA’s own page says "Occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists or medical specialists do the assessment." The same page says something a lot of practices get wrong in their marketing: "You don’t have to do a functional capacity assessment to be eligible for NDIS." An FCA is evidence, not a toll gate. It helps the person show how a permanent impairment reduces their functional capacity, and it is the report the NDIA uses to decide what kinds of supports belong in the plan.

So the template has two jobs at once. It has to describe function in the NDIA’s six areas, and it has to justify supports against the reasonable and necessary tests. Templates that do only the first job read as clinical notes. Templates that do only the second read as advocacy. The order above makes you do both.

Section 1: cover and details

Participant name, date of birth, NDIS number, plan dates, primary and secondary disability as diagnosed and by whom, and the participant’s preferred contact. Then the clinician’s name, profession, AHPRA registration number, practice, and the date of assessment. Put the date of the report separately from the date of assessment; they are often weeks apart and the NDIA wants evidence that is recent.

One line on consent and who was present. If a support worker or family member gave information, name their role. A delegate reads a report differently when they know which observations were first-hand.

Section 2: reason for referral and NDIS goals

Two short paragraphs. Why the report was requested (plan reassessment, access request, SIL or home modification evidence, change of circumstances) and the participant’s NDIS goals copied in their own words from the plan. Every recommendation in section 9 has to point back to one of these goals, so write them here once and number them.

Section 3: summary of recommendations

A planner with forty reports in the queue reads this table and the recommendations table and skims the rest. Give them a table: support, amount (hours per week, sessions per fortnight, or an item and its estimated cost), duration, and the goal number it serves. No justification here. That comes in section 9.

If you cannot fill this table in three minutes from your notes, the assessment is not finished.

Section 4: background

Diagnosis and the source of the diagnosis. Relevant medical history and what has been tried. Current living situation: who the person lives with, the type of dwelling, what formal and informal supports are in place now and how many hours. Education and work. The NDIA asks evidence to cover previous treatment and outcomes as well as future treatment options and expected outcomes, so include both, briefly.

Keep this section shorter than section 6. Background that runs to three pages is the most common reason an FCA reads like a discharge summary rather than a functional assessment.

Section 5: assessment method

List the standardised tools by full name and version, the settings where you observed the person (home, community, clinic), the interviews you did and with whom, and the time spent. The NDIA tells participants an FCA "can take anywhere from 1 hour to 10 hours"; your method section is where those hours become visible.

Section 6: functional findings across the six NDIA areas

This is the heart of the template and the section most templates get wrong. The NDIA evaluates six categories: "communication, learning, mobility, self-care, self-management, social interactions."

Use those six as your sub-headings. Not "cognition, mental health, physical", and not the ICF chapters. A delegate mapping your report to the access criteria should not have to translate.

Under each area write three things: what the person can do, what they cannot do or need help with, and what the disability has to do with it. A finding that does not connect the limitation to the impairment is a finding a delegate cannot use. "Mrs A cannot manage her medications" tells them nothing. "Mrs A’s short-term memory impairment following her stroke means she cannot reliably recall whether she has taken her morning medications; on two of three observed mornings she took a second dose" is a finding.

For an occupational therapist, self-care and self-management will usually be the longest sub-sections, with mobility and communication cross-referenced to the physiotherapist or speech pathologist where they have assessed.

Section 7: activities of daily living table

A table with four columns: task, current level of assistance, what the person can and cannot do within the task, and the impairment it relates to. Personal ADLs first (showering, dressing, toileting, eating, transfers), then instrumental ADLs (meals, medications, money, shopping, transport, household tasks, communication and technology).

The NDIA’s evidence page asks for the tasks a person can and cannot complete within each activity domain. A table that only says "requires assistance" in every row does not answer that. Say what part of the task the person does and what part someone else does.

Section 8: standardised assessment results

Report each tool by name, version, date administered, the score, and one sentence of interpretation. Never invent a score, never round one to make a point, and never report a tool you did not administer. If a domain of a tool was not completed, say so.

Choose tools that measure what the six NDIA areas ask about and that can be repeated. The NDIA’s advice to allied health providers writing reassessment reports is to summarise functional capacity at the start of the plan period using measures like the Timed Up and Go test, the 6-minute walk test or the Berg Balance Scale, then show how function is progressing towards the therapy outcomes and goals. A baseline you can repeat in twelve months is worth more than a broader tool you cannot. For a domain-by-domain measure that maps closely to the NDIA’s six areas, see using WHODAS 2.0 in an NDIS FCA.

Use a table: tool, date, score, what the score means for this person.

Section 9: recommendations, one reasonable and necessary case each

The NDIS page on reasonable and necessary supports, updated 1 September 2026, lists seven things a support needs to do: "relate to your disability", "help you work towards your goals", "help you to work, study and take part in social activities", "be value for money", "be likely to be effective and beneficial to you", "work with mainstream supports and others in your network", and "be an NDIS support or agreed replacement support for you". The seventh is new since the 2024 amendments and most older templates do not have a row for it.

For each recommended support, write a short paragraph, or a table row, that answers all seven: the recommendation with its amount, duration and goal number; the disability link back to a finding in section 6 or 7; why the support is effective and beneficial, including what was tried before; why it is value for money against a cheaper or more expensive option; what mainstream and informal supports already provide and why this is not their job; the NDIS support category it falls under; and the risk if it is not funded.

If you want the seven tests unpacked with worked examples, the Section 34 reasonable and necessary guide does that. Section 34 of the NDIS Act 2013 is where the tests live; the NDIS page above is the plain-English version of it.

Section 10: risk, sign-off and attachments

A short risk statement for the report as a whole if it has not already been covered per recommendation, then the clinician’s signature block: name, profession, AHPRA number, date, and a sentence confirming the report reflects the clinician’s own assessment and clinical opinion. Attachments: raw score sheets, photographs of the environment where relevant, quotes for equipment, and any letters from other treating professionals you relied on.

The OT functional capacity assessment template: what changes

The section order does not change for an occupational therapist. The weighting does.

An OT FCA carries the ADL table (section 7) as its evidentiary core, usually a full page or more. It adds an environmental assessment under section 5 or 6: access to the home, bathroom and bedroom layout, steps and thresholds, and community access, because the OT is usually the professional recommending assistive technology or home modifications and those reports lean on this one. It cross-references the assistive technology report and home modification report rather than duplicating them. And in section 9 the OT’s recommendations are commonly support worker hours for personal care and community access, AT, home modifications, and OT capacity-building, each needing its own seven-test case.

Physiotherapists weight mobility and the standardised measures. Psychologists weight self-management, social interaction and learning, and lean on cognitive and adaptive functioning measures. The template is the same. Only the centre of gravity moves.

Five things that get an FCA sent back

None of these is a matter of writing style. Each one is a question the delegate cannot answer from the page.

• Clinical domains instead of NDIA areas. Findings written under "physical, cognitive, psychosocial" force the delegate to translate. Use the six.
• "Requires assistance" with no detail. The evidence page asks what the person can and cannot complete. Say which part of the task.
• A recommendation with no disability link. A support worker for community access is a fine recommendation. Without the finding in section 6 that explains why the person cannot access the community alone, it is a request, not evidence.
• A score with no interpretation, or an interpretation with no score. Both happen. The table in section 8 forces you to have both.
• Nothing on what exists already. Test six asks how the support works with mainstream supports and others in the network. A report that never mentions what the family, the GP or the school already does cannot answer it.

What the April 2027 changes do to this template

The NDIA is introducing support needs assessments from April 2027 (NDIS, New way of planning). Its stated aim is that participants can use their funding on supports rather than paying for reports. Read that carefully: it is about who pays for the assessment that sets a budget, not about clinicians no longer writing functional evidence.

Access requests, change of circumstances, SIL, AT and home modification evidence still come from treating professionals, and the NDIA still asks that evidence be recent and describe the impact of the disability on different areas of life. A template built on the six NDIA areas and the seven tests is the one that survives the change. There is a longer read on I-CAN v6 and the support needs assessment.

Download the template

Free NDIS FCA template (Word). The ten sections above, the six NDIA areas as sub-headings in section 6, an ADL table, a standardised results table, and a recommendations table with a row for each of the seven tests. Put your own letterhead on it and use it as the practice template.

Download the FCA template (.docx)

Using this template with Carearoo

Carearoo drafts the FCA on this template, or on your own practice template, from your assessment notes in about five minutes. The ten sections come back in your format on your letterhead, with a seven-test case written under each recommendation for you to check, change and sign. It is a draft. You read it, you edit it, you sign it.

See how to write an NDIS FCA for the assessment side, and the sample FCA report for what a finished one looks like. If you are weighing up whether AI drafting sits inside your registration obligations, Ahpra’s position and what it means for NDIS reports is the place to start.

Frequently asked questions

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