NDIS navigator proposals: what has changed since the Review?

What is an NDIS Navigator and how do they help?

By Clickability · Originally published 17 September 2024

Illustration of a person reading a map beside a signpost

Deeper review: 6 October 2026. The deeper review adds article-specific decisions and audience guidance. Historical passages and their adjacent corrections remain preserved.

Original article and dated context

In 2023, the NDIS Review recommended the NDIA introduce NDIS Navigators, to help people with disabilities understand what’s available to them and maximise their NDIS Plans.

Although much is still uncertain about what this role will look like in practice, we’re here to unpack what we know and reassure you that any changes won’t be implemented for some time.

Without delay, let’s dig in.

What was the NDIS Review?

We covered the NDIS Review here. Basically, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten announced a review into the scheme all the way back in October 2022, after much media attention around the scheme’s issues.

Professor Bruce Bonyhady AM and Ms Lisa Paul AO PSM co-chaired the panel responsible for the review, with the task to ‘put people with disability back at the centre of the NDIS’.

After evaluating the design, operations, and sustainability of the scheme, the review was released, with a series of recommendations – including the introduction of the Navigator.

Why did it recommend NDIS Navigators?

In its review, the panel suggested that the NDIS was currently the only ‘lifeboat in the ocean’ for people with disabilities – if you weren’t on it, you got nothing.

It recommended that the NDIS be just one part of a broader disability system, with the introduction of foundational supports, which would help people with disability in health and education.

With this much broader focus, the review recommended that people with disability would need help to navigate this new system and the navigator would be the role to do this.

These Navigators would be in your local community, with the NDIA funding them directly. Importantly, every NDIS participant would have access to a Navigator.

[Clickability update, September 2026: This describes the Review’s recommended model, not a current individual entitlement. The announced commissioned service from 1 July 2028 is a later reform, with design and transition detail still being developed. Read the current government announcement.]

What will a NDIS Navigator do?

An NDIS Navigator would assume the role of Support Coordinators and Local Area Coordinators (LACs) and help people with disability find and connect with service providers and access the NDIS.

In this way, they would essentially serve as a case manager, being available to you to answer any questions you might have and point you in the right direction.

It recommended that there are different types of Navigators, including:

General Navigators
Specialist Navigators
Housing and Living Navigators
Shared Support Facilitator
Lead Practitioner (for children and families)

In our next blog post in our Navigator series, we will look at how each of these Navigators specialise. In the meantime, you can read more about NDIS Navigators in this fact sheet.

What’s next?

The Government recently passed a Bill to change the NDIS Act, which we summarise here. This change is to give the Government the ability to begin implementing the Review’s recommendations.

This can seem an uncertain time as a result. We get that. But any changes, particularly the introduction of NDIS Navigators will be gradual, with a keen focus on continuity of support.

This means that your current Support Coordinator might even become a NDIS Navigator; at the very least, they will help you with the transition to these new processes.

Much co-design still needs to be undertaken before any changes take place, so we can realistically expect at least two years before we begin to see Navigators in practice.

[Clickability update, September 2026: The estimate in this 2024 article is not the current implementation timetable. Do not assume your coordinator has become a navigator or that services automatically change in September 2026. Check the current staged reform information.]

While this happens, we will bring you all the news in easy-to-understand, bite-size pieces.

Follow the published timetable while arranging support now

Check which navigation help exists now

The original article explains the NDIS Review’s navigator recommendation. It is not evidence that every participant currently has an entitlement to that proposed role. The announced commissioned support coordination and connection service is planned from 1 July 2028; its final design follows consultation. Read the official guidance

Use your existing NDIS contact or funded coordinator for decisions that need resolving today. Ask who owns each action and how you can follow up. Do not stop an existing support simply because a future model uses a different job title.

For service options, compare current support coordination services against the tasks and communication you need.

Turn reform uncertainty into an orderly handover plan

Keep a list of current participant commitments, consent arrangements, outstanding referrals and contact preferences. Explain what is confirmed separately from what remains a proposal. If an organisation predicts that current workers will automatically become navigators, ask for the published authority and relevant implementation date.

Build information that can transfer with the participant’s permission: useful provider contacts, actions already tried and current unresolved barriers. Avoid asking the person to repeatedly recount their history merely to prepare for a reform whose final arrangements have not been settled.

Do not market a proposed role as a current qualification or guaranteed job pathway.

Treat the consultation deadline as a date, not a standing invitation

The published design consultation closed on 2 October 2026. It should now be described as closed, rather than promoted as a live action. Watch official updates for later stages; the 2023 recommendation, the 2026 consultation and a 2028 service commencement are different milestones. Read the official guidance

Use those stages when briefing staff and participants. A proposed audit topic or sector commentary can identify concerns but does not establish the operational design or an individual entitlement.

Questions readers ask

Does an old navigator timeline change my current plan?

No. Use your actual plan and any applicable NDIA decision or official transition notice. Official guidance

Has the NDIS navigator recommendation already replaced my support coordinator?

The Review recommendation alone does not replace your current arrangement. Check the published implementation stage and your own plan; the announced new commissioned service is planned from July 2028. Official guidance

Find help with the services in your current plan

Describe the coordination you need through Clickability. Compare reviewed and rated support coordinators and confirm the service they currently offer.

Find current support coordination · Browse support coordination providers