Functional Capacity Assessments in Liverpool
Mobile, evidence-based functional capacity assessments for NDIS participants across Liverpool and South West Sydney. Our AHPRA-registered occupational therapists come to you, and build a thorough, well-evidenced picture the NDIS can rely on.
What is a functional capacity assessment, and do you need one?
A functional capacity assessment (FCA) is an occupational therapy assessment of how you manage everyday activities, and the supports that would help you live more independently. The findings go into a written report used for NDIS planning, plan reviews and appeals.
- ✓ You are applying for the NDIS, or preparing for a plan review
- ✓ You need evidence of how your disability affects daily life
- ✓ A support coordinator, planner, GP or allied health professional has requested one
- ✓ You are seeking supports such as therapy, equipment, home modifications or support workers
- ✓ You are preparing for an external review at the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) and need robust, independent evidence
What areas does a functional capacity assessment cover?
We look at how you manage across the areas of daily life that matter most, what you can do independently, what you can do with support, and where the right supports would make the biggest difference.
Self-care
Showering, dressing, grooming, toileting and personal hygiene.
Mobility & transfers
Moving around your home, getting in and out of bed and chairs, and falls risk.
Domestic tasks
Cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping and managing the home.
Community access
Transport, appointments, shopping and taking part in the community.
Cognition
Memory, attention, planning, problem-solving and decision-making.
Communication & safety
Communication, social interaction, and safety at home and out in the community.
Who we assess in Liverpool, from early childhood to older age
We assess function rather than diagnosis, so there is no list you need to appear on. This is simply a guide to what we are asked about most often, grouped by the stage of life the assessment usually sits in.
Children and young people
- Autism and developmental delay
- Intellectual disability
- ADHD and executive function difficulty
- Cerebral palsy and congenital physical conditions
- Learning and communication difficulties
- Young people leaving school and moving into adult supports
Working-age adults
- Brain injury, including traumatic and acquired
- Stroke, and the changes that persist afterwards
- Spinal cord injury and mobility conditions
- Multiple sclerosis and other progressive conditions
- Psychosocial disability, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
- Chronic pain and persistent fatigue that limits daily activity
Older adults
- Dementia and other changes to memory and thinking
- Parkinson’s disease
- Falls, frailty and reduced mobility
- Recovery after a fall, a fracture or a long hospital stay
- Vision and hearing loss affecting daily safety
- Multiple conditions interacting at once
Lifelong and complex needs
- Dual disability, for example intellectual disability with a mental health condition
- Several health conditions needing coordinated care
- Communication difficulty alongside any of the above
- Situations where several services are already involved
- Cases where earlier reports do not agree with one another
Not sure whether your situation fits, or which report you need? Call us on 1300 316 664. We would rather spend ten minutes pointing you to the right thing than take a booking that does not help.
We don’t rely on a single visit. We build the full picture.
A rushed, one-off assessment can miss what really matters. We gather evidence from several angles, so your report is thorough, accurate and defensible.
We start with your goals
Before we assess anything, we take time to understand what you want to be able to do, and what is getting in the way.
In-home assessment
We observe how you manage real, everyday tasks in your own environment, rather than in an unfamiliar clinic.
Functional and community observation
Where relevant, we look at how you get out and about, accessing the community, shops and transport, because independence is about more than the home.
We speak with your support network
With your consent, we gather insight from the people who know you best, family, carers, support workers and your treating team.
We review the documentary evidence
We read the existing evidence, medical reports, hospital discharge summaries and previous allied health reports, so your assessment builds on the full history.
Standardised assessment tools
Where appropriate, we use validated tools such as the WHODAS 2.0, COPM, Lawton IADL Scale, Vineland-3, ABAS-3 and Pedi-CAT, for objective, evidence-based measures.
We compile it all into one report
Everything is brought together into a single, comprehensive, evidence-based report that clearly links your function to the supports you need.
Read our full assessment methodology, including the evidence standard every recommendation is written to.
Different disabilities need different kinds of support, not just different amounts
Most reports get the findings roughly right and still produce the wrong plan, because they describe how much support someone needs without describing what kind. These are the three patterns we see most.
Often the answer is the environment, not more hours
Where the limitation is physical, the instinct is to fund support-worker hours. Frequently that is the most expensive way to solve the problem and the least useful to the person.
A great deal of physical difficulty is created by the building rather than the body. Someone who cannot shower safely may be entirely capable of showering in a bathroom with a level entry and a rail in the right place. One of those answers is daily paid support for years; the other is a fitting and an afternoon’s work.
So we separate what is the person, what is the condition and what is the house, and we say which is which. A report that recommends hours without examining the environment quietly commits a plan to the most expensive option available.
Supervision and prompting, not physical assistance
The support someone needs with cognition rarely looks like helping them do a task. They can usually do the task. What they need is someone to start it, keep it in sequence, notice when it has gone off track, and be there again tomorrow.
That is a completely different kind of support from physical assistance, and it is costed differently. It is also easy to under-describe: a report saying a person can prepare a meal is accurate and, on its own, deeply misleading if nobody prompts them to eat.
We describe the type of support, not just the amount. Prompting, supervision, set-up before a task, checking afterwards, and the difference between someone being present and someone doing it for them.
Capacity moves, so a fixed roster fits badly
Psychosocial disability is the one most often given the wrong shape of support, because capacity varies week to week and most support is arranged as a fixed weekly pattern.
In a good fortnight the allocated hours go unused, which later reads as evidence the support was not needed. In a bad one, the same hours are nowhere near enough, and that is precisely when disengagement, missed appointments and crisis happen. Averaging the two describes nobody.
We document the range and the pattern rather than a weekly figure, including what the harder weeks actually look like, so the support can be built with the flexibility the condition requires instead of a number that only fits the middle.
In practice most people have more than one of these in play at once, which is the strongest argument for assessing across several sessions and several settings rather than in a single appointment. An hour in a lounge room can tell you what somebody managed that morning. It cannot tell you what kind of help they need on a Thursday evening in a bad week, and that is the thing a plan has to be built on.
Why families and support coordinators choose us
There are many OT providers in South West Sydney. Here is what sets our assessments apart.
Evidence from multiple sources
We don’t rely on a single snapshot. We combine in-home observation, your support network and documentary evidence into a rounded, defensible picture.
Local to Liverpool
We know the Liverpool and South West Sydney community, and we come to you, at home, in supported accommodation or in the community.
Clear, NDIS-ready reports
Practical reports written against the reasonable and necessary criteria, usually delivered within 2 to 3 weeks, depending on complexity.
Culturally responsive
Liverpool is one of Australia’s most diverse communities. We tailor assessments to your language and culture, with interpreter support where appropriate.
Adults and children
Our AHPRA-registered occupational therapists work across the lifespan, from paediatric to older-adult assessments.
We keep your team in the loop
With your consent, we collaborate with your support coordinator, GP and existing care team, and keep them updated.
What’s in your functional capacity assessment report
Assessment summary & history
A clear overview of your situation and the relevant background.
Standardised tool results
Objective measures, where used, explained in plain English.
Functional domain ratings
Self-care, mobility and transfers, domestic tasks, community access, communication and cognition.
Barriers and risks
What is affecting your daily functioning and safety, and where support is needed.
Recommendations
Specific supports, therapy, assistive technology or home modifications.
Evidence for the NDIS
Findings aligned to the reasonable and necessary criteria to support planning and reviews.
How a functional capacity assessment supports your NDIS plan
An FCA is one of the most important pieces of evidence in NDIS planning. A clear, well-evidenced report helps in several ways.
- ✓ Access requests: shows how your disability affects everyday functioning
- ✓ Plan reviews: justifies the supports you are asking for, with evidence
- ✓ Appeals and external review (ART): provides robust, independent evidence to strengthen your case at the Administrative Review Tribunal
- ✓ The right supports: guides the mix of therapy, assistive technology, home modifications and support workers
- ✓ Clear reasoning: because our evidence is drawn from several sources, planners get a defensible basis for decisions
How we approach a real assessment
An in-depth, illustrative example of our multi-avenue approach in practice.
Supporting an adult with an acquired brain injury, Liverpool
This is a worked example, written to show how we would approach an assessment of this kind. It does not describe a real person or a real assessment. Funding outcomes depend on individual circumstances and are decided by the funder.
The situation
Consider a support coordinator referring an adult in Liverpool who has sustained an acquired brain injury. A plan review is approaching and clear evidence of current functional capacity and support needs is required. The participant lives at home with family, who provide a lot of day-to-day help.
What we would do
Rather than a single visit, we would build the picture from several angles. We would begin with a conversation about the person’s goals, commonly staying at home safely and returning to community activities they have stopped. We would complete an in-home assessment, observing how they manage showering, preparing a simple meal and moving between rooms, and noting where fatigue and memory changes affect safety.
We would then observe a short community task, a walk to a nearby shop, which shows how planning, road safety and fatigue play out beyond the home. With the participant’s consent, we would speak with a partner and a support worker, who typically describe the parts of the day that are hardest. We would review the neuropsychology report, the hospital discharge summary and any previous physiotherapy report, and use the WHODAS 2.0 and COPM to give objective, comparable measures.
What the report would set out
Everything compiled into one comprehensive report that links specific functional limitations to the supports requested, with the reasoning behind each recommendation explained. Because the evidence is drawn from several sources rather than a single snapshot, it gives a planner a clear, well-rounded and defensible picture to inform their decision.
Read our full guide to functional capacity assessment for acquired brain injury, including how we assess initiation, cognitive fatigue and reduced insight.
How your assessment is funded
A functional capacity assessment is charged by the hour, at the NDIS occupational therapy price of $193.99 per hour in 2026-27, based on the time the assessment and report take. See how OT is priced for a full breakdown.
| Funding type | What it means |
|---|---|
| NDIS – plan-managed | Your plan manager pays our invoices from your plan. The most common option. |
| NDIS – self-managed | You manage and pay invoices directly from your plan funding. |
| Home Care Package (Levels 1–4) | Occupational therapy for older adults, funded through your package provider. |
| CHSP | Entry-level aged care support, subject to eligibility. |
| Medicare | Up to five allied health sessions a year with a GP care plan (a gap may apply). |
| Private | Pay directly, no referral required. |
For NDIS participants, an FCA is generally funded from the Capacity Building – Improved Daily Living budget, depending on your plan. Funding is not guaranteed, so check with your support coordinator or planner.
Functional capacity assessments across Liverpool and South West Sydney
We are a mobile service and come to you, throughout Liverpool (2170) and the surrounding suburbs, including Green Valley, Fairfield, Bankstown, Campbelltown and the wider South West Sydney region.
Functional capacity assessments in Liverpool: your questions
Do you offer NDIS occupational therapy in Liverpool?
Can you complete a functional capacity assessment in Liverpool?
Do you come to me in Liverpool?
How long does an FCA take, and when will I get the report?
What areas does an FCA cover?
Why do you gather information from different sources?
Will the NDIS fund my FCA?
Do you see children as well as adults?
Request a functional capacity assessment in Liverpool
Send a referral or an enquiry below, or call 1300 316 664. We aim to respond within one business day.
Thorough, evidence-based assessments that come to you
Talk to our mobile OT team about a functional capacity assessment in Liverpool. No obligation.
Make a referral or call 1300 316 664