At Westside Support Services, we know that the early years of a child's life are a whirlwind of milestones and growth. When a developmental concern arises, the last thing a family needs is a mountain of repetitive paperwork. The NDIS recognizes this, which is why they created List D—a specialized pathway designed to fast-track access for children under seven.
This guide explores what List D means for your family and how it simplifies the journey toward early intervention support.
What is List D?
List D is a specific category within the NDIS Operational Guidelines titled: "Permanent impairment/Early intervention, under 7 years. No further assessment required."
Essentially, List D is a "fast-pass." If a child younger than seven is diagnosed with a condition on this list, the NDIA (National Disability Insurance Agency) will automatically decide that the child meets the early intervention requirements. This means the family does not have to undergo the lengthy process of proving that the impairment is likely to be permanent or demonstrating a "substantially reduced functional capacity" through separate assessments.
Why Does List D Exist?
The philosophy behind List D is rooted in the "Early Intervention" model. The NDIS acknowledges that:
- Time is Critical: For children under seven, providing support now can significantly reduce the impact of an impairment in the future.
- Predictable Needs: Certain conditions are medically recognized as having a lifelong impact from the moment of diagnosis.
- Reducing Stress: By waiving further functional assessments for eligibility, the NDIS allows families to move straight to the planning stage, where they can start receiving actual support faster.
Who is Eligible Under List D?
To utilize the List D pathway, a child must meet three basic criteria:
- Age: They must be younger than seven years old at the time of the application.
- Diagnosis: They must have a formal diagnosis of a condition included on List D.
- Residency: Like all participants, they must live in Australia and be an Australian citizen or permanent resident.
Common Conditions on List D
While the full list is maintained by the NDIA, List D typically includes conditions where early, interdisciplinary support is proven to be highly beneficial. This often includes:
- Moderate to Severe Intellectual Disability
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (Level 2 or 3)
- Cerebral Palsy (scored at certain levels on functional scales)
- Genetic Conditions such as Down Syndrome
- Severe Sensory Impairments (such as permanent blindness or profound hearing loss)
For Full list click here
The "No Further Assessment" Rule
One of the most important aspects of List D is the phrase "No further assessment required."
In a standard application, you would need to show that your child's delay "substantially reduces" their ability to do everyday things compared to other children their age. This often involves multiple reports from OTs, speech pathologists, and psychologists.
For List D, however, the diagnosis itself is the evidence. Once a registered health professional (such as a pediatrician or specialist) provides evidence of the diagnosis, the NDIA accepts that the criteria for early intervention have been met.
What Happens When the Child Turns Seven?
It is important to remember that List D is a gateway for Early Intervention. The NDIS will regularly check a child's eligibility, especially as they grow.
If a child no longer meets the early intervention requirements as they get older, the NDIA will then check if they meet the disability requirements for long-term, lifetime support. Because the conditions on List D are generally permanent, this transition is often straightforward, but it may require updated functional evidence at that time.
How Westside Support Services Helps List D Families
Even with a streamlined pathway, navigating the NDIS for the first time is a major life event. At Westside Support Services, we support List D families by:
- Coordinating Evidence: We ensure your specialist's report is in the exact format the NDIA needs to trigger the List D pathway immediately.
- First Plan Preparation: Since List D skips the assessment phase, you move to your "First Plan" meeting quickly. We help you identify the goals and supports your child needs right now.
- Connecting with Early Childhood Partners: For children under nine, we help you work with NDIS Early Childhood Partners to ensure your "early connections" are strong and effective.
Conclusion: A Proactive Start
List D is a testament to the NDIS's commitment to proactive care. By removing administrative barriers for our youngest children, the scheme ensures that families can focus on what truly matters: giving their child the best possible start in life.
Is your child's condition on List D? Don't wait for assessments that might not be necessary. Contact Westside Support Services today, and let’s get your child’s support journey started.
Complete List D Conditions, Check if your conditions falls under this list.
Synonyms for conditions are also shown (e.g. condition / synonym / synonym).
Conditions primarily resulting in Intellectual/ learning impairment
Chromosomal abnormalities resulting in permanent impairment
· Global Developmental Delay
· Aicardi syndrome
· Aicardi-Goutières syndrome
· Angelman syndrome
· CHARGE syndrome
· Cockayne syndrome/ Types I and Type II / Cerebro-oculo-faciao-skeletal (COFS) syndrome/ Pena Shokeir syndrome Type II / Weber-Cockayne syndrome/ Neill-Dingwall syndrome
· Coffin-Lowry syndrome
· Cohen syndrome
· Cornelia de Lange syndrome
· Cri du Chat syndrome
· Dandy-Walker syndrome
· DiGeorge syndrome/ 22q11.2 deletion syndrome/ Velocardiofacial syndrome/ Shprintzen syndrome/ Conotruncal anomaly face syndrome
· Down syndrome/ Trisomy 21
· Edwards syndrome/ Trisomy 18
· Fragile X syndrome
· Kabuki syndrome
· Lesch-Nyhan syndrome/ Nyhan’s syndrome/ Kelley-Seegmiller syndrome/ Juvenile gout
· Leigh syndrome/ Leigh’s disease/ subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy
· Menkes disease
· Patau syndrome/ Trisomy 13
· Prader-Willi syndrome
· Rett syndrome
· Seckel syndrome/ microcephalic primordial dwarfism/ Harper’s syndrome/ Virchow-Seckel dwarfism
· Smith-Lemli-Optiz syndrome
· Smith-Magenis syndrome
· Sturge-Weber syndrome
· Trisomy 9
· Tuberous sclerosis
· Williams syndrome
· Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome.
Conditions primarily resulting in Neurological impairment
Systemic atrophies primarily affecting the central nervous system
· Friedrich’s ataxia
· Hereditary spastic paraplegia/ Infantile-onset ascending hereditary spastic paralysis/ L1 syndrome/ spastic paraplegias types 2 and 11
· Louis-Bar syndrome/ Ataxia-telangiectasia
· Niemann-Pick disease (Types A and C)
· Progressive bulbar palsy of childhood/ Fazio-Londe disease.
The following spinal muscular atrophies
· Spinal muscular atrophy Type I/ Werdnig Hoffmann disease/ infantile SMA
· Spinal muscular atrophy Type II/ Dubowitz disease
· Spinal muscular atrophy Type III Kugelberg-Welander disease/ juvenile SMA
· Spinal muscular atrophy lower extremity dominant/ SMA-LED
· X-linked spinal muscular atrophy.
Extrapyramidal and movement disorders
· Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome / Pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN)/ neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation 1 (NBIA 1)
· Alpers disease/ Alpers syndrome/ Grey-matter degeneration/ Progressive sclerosing poliodystrophy/ Progressive infantile poliodystrophy
· Demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system
· Adrenoleukodystrophy / X-linked childhood cerebral form
· Alexander disease
· Canavan disease
· Krabbe disease/ Globoid cell leukodystrophy
· Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease.
Episodic and paroxysmal disorders
· Lennox-Gastaut syndrome/ Lennox syndrome
· West’s syndrome.
Polyneuropathies and other disorders of the peripheral nervous system
· Dejerine-Sottas disease/ Dejerine-Sottas syndrome/ Dejerine-Sottas neuropathy/ progressive hypertrophic interstitial polyneuropathy of childhood/onion bulb neuropathy
· Infantile Refsum disease.
Conditions primarily resulting in physical impairment
· Amputation
· Diamond-Blackfan anaemia
· Epidermolysis bullosa
· Harlequin type icthyosis
· Hay Wells syndrome/ ankyloblepharon/ ectodermal dysplasia/ clefting [AEC] syndrome
· Joint or limb deformities resulting in impaired mobility
· Juvenile arthritis/ Stills Disease
· Osteogenesis imperfecta
· Sjogren Larsson syndrome.
Diseases of myoneural junction and muscle
· Congenital muscular dystrophy
· Congenital myotonia / Thomsens disease/ Becker myotonia
· Distal muscular dystrophy
· Duchenne muscular dystrophy
· Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy
· Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy
· Myotubular myopathy
· Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy
· Paramyotonia Congenita.
Cerebral palsy and other paralytic syndromes
· Cerebral palsy
· Diplegia
· Hemiplegia
· Monoplegia
· Paraplegia
· Quadriplegia
· Tetraplegia.
Conditions resulting in sensory and/or speech impairment
· Permanent blindness in both eyes, diagnosed and assessed by an ophthalmologist as follows either:
o Corrected visual acuity (extent to which an object can be brought into focus) on the Snellen Scale must be less than or equal to 6/60 in both eyes
o Constriction to within 10 degrees or less of arc of central fixation in the better eye, irrespective of corrected visual acuity (i.e. visual fields are reduced to a measured arc of 10 degrees or less)
o A combination of visual defects resulting in the same degree of visual impairment as that occurring in the above points.
(An optometrist report is not sufficient for NDIS purposes.)
· Deafblindness confirmed by ophthalmologist and audiologist and assessed as resulting in permanent and severe to total impairment of visual function and hearing.
Conditions resulting in multiple types of impairment
· Aceruloplasminemia
· Addison-Schilder disease/ Adrenoleukodystrophy /
· Albinism
· Arginosuccinic aciduria
· Aspartylglucosaminuria
· Cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis/ cerebral cholesterosis
· Congenital cytomegalovirus infection
· Congenital hypothyroidism
· Congenital iodine-deficiency syndrome /cretinism
· Congenital rubella syndrome
· Galactosaemia with long term learning disabilities and neurological impairment
· Glycine encephalopathy/ non-ketotic hyperglycinaemia
· GM1 gangliosidosis
· Hartnup disease
· Homocystinuria
· Lowe syndrome/ Oculocerebrorenal syndrome
· Mannosidosis
· Menkes disease
· Mucolipidosis II / I-cell disease
· Mucolipidosis III / pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy
· Mucolipidosis IV
· Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis
· Niemann-Pick disease
· Phenylketonuria
· Pyruvate carboxylase deficiency
· Pyruvate dehydrogenase deficiency
· Sialidosis
· Sulfite oxidase deficiency.
The following mucopolysaccharidoses
· Hurler syndrome/MPS1-H
· Scheie syndrome/ MPS 1-S
· Hurler-Scheie syndrome/ MPS 1 H-S
· Hunter syndrome/ MPS II
· San Fillipo syndrome/ MPS III
· Morquio syndrome/ MPS IVA
· Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome/ MPS VI
· Sly syndrome/ MPS VII.
The following lysosomal storage disorders
· Gaucher disease Types 2 and 3
· Niemann-Pick disease (Types A and C)
· Pompe disease
· Sandhoff disease (infantile form)
· Schindler disease (Type 1)
· Tay-Sachs disease (infantile form).
Congenital conditions – cases where malformations cannot be corrected by surgery or other treatment and result in permanent impairment
· Chiari malformation/Arnold-Chiari malformation
· Congenital absence of limb(s)
· Congenital hydrocephalus
· Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
· Fetal hydantoin syndrome
· Microcephaly
· Spina bifida
· VATER syndrome (VACTERL association).
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References:
- Applying to the NDIS (OG - Applying to the NDIS.docx)