NDIS Behaviour Support: What It Is & Isn’t

NDIS Behaviour Support: What It Is (and What It Isn’t)

Good behaviour support helps people have their needs understood, build useful skills and improve everyday life, while respecting their rights and choices.

“Behaviour support” can sound like a service for correcting someone who has done something wrong. Families may hear the term after a difficult incident, without a clear explanation of what happens next.

Within the NDIS, behaviour support has a different purpose. It looks at why behaviours of concern are happening and what support the person needs. The aim is to improve their quality of life and reduce harm, with strategies built around their circumstances.

Understanding that purpose makes it easier to ask questions, choose a provider and recognise what good support should look like.

What Is NDIS Behaviour Support?

NDIS behaviour support is a specialist support that helps understand and address behaviours of concern. These are behaviours that can cause harm to the person or others, or significantly affect their everyday life.

For example, someone may hurt themselves when distressed or strike out during personal care. Those examples describe what is happening; they do not tell us why.

Positive behaviour support looks for ways to meet the person’s needs, improve their surroundings and help the people supporting them respond appropriately. It may include communication skills, changes to routines or guidance for family members and support workers.

Behaviour support is individual. A disability diagnosis alone does not tell a practitioner which strategies someone needs.

Understanding What Is Behind the Behaviour

Behaviour can give important clues about an unmet need, discomfort or something the person wants changed. A useful assessment considers their whole situation, including communication, sensory needs, relationships, health and past experiences.

The practitioner also looks at what happens before and after a behaviour, where it occurs and when it is less likely to happen. This is part of a functional behaviour assessment: gathering evidence to understand the behaviour’s purpose rather than guessing.

Imagine someone regularly becomes distressed during a shopping trip. The team might explore whether noise, waiting, unclear instructions or difficulty asking for a break contributes to the distress. Depending on the assessment, the plan might include quieter shopping times or a clearer way to communicate that a break is needed.

These are possibilities to investigate, not explanations to assume. The NDIS Commission’s assessment practice guide emphasises understanding the person and the context in which behaviour occurs.

Two Women Reviewing Paperwork Together at Home

What Happens During Behaviour Support?

The practitioner should get to know you, hear your views and explain the process in a way you can understand. With appropriate consent, they may also speak with family members, carers and workers who know you well.

That information helps develop a behaviour support plan. This is a separate document from your NDIS funding plan. It gives the people supporting you practical guidance about meeting your needs and responding to behaviours of concern.

A comprehensive plan is informed by assessment. It can include:

Changes to surroundings or routines that may prevent distress.
Skills to build, such as communicating a need or asking for help.
Signs that you may need extra support.
Agreed responses when a behaviour occurs.
How the team will check whether the strategies are helping.

An interim plan may be needed to address immediate risks while further assessment and a comprehensive plan are completed.

The plan needs to work in everyday settings. The Commission’s guidance on what to expect from a provider includes training, putting the plan into action and reviewing progress. A document sitting unread in a folder cannot guide the next support shift.

What Behaviour Support Isn’t

Punishment or a Way to Make Someone Obey

Positive behaviour support should not use punishment, humiliation or strategies that hurt someone. It should help others understand the person and provide support that respects their dignity.

The Commission’s participant information makes this clear. Seeking help does not mean a family has failed or a participant is a “bad” person.

A Reason to Change Harmless Differences

Saying no, preferring a different routine or communicating differently does not automatically make someone’s behaviour a problem requiring specialist intervention.

The Commission’s assessment guidance says features of a person’s disability or differences in how they process information should not be targeted for change. The focus should be on support needs, harm and quality of life, with the person’s preferences taken seriously.

A Substitute for Healthcare or Emergency Assistance

Pain, illness or medication effects may contribute to a change in behaviour. Behaviour support does not replace appropriate medical assessment or mental health treatment, and health concerns should not simply be labelled as behavioural.

If someone is in immediate danger or needs emergency assistance, call 000. A behaviour support appointment is not an emergency response service.

Young worried man in wheelchair communicating with support worker

Who Can Provide Specialist Behaviour Support?

There is a distinction between developing a specialist behaviour support plan and helping put that plan into practice.

Specialist assessments and plans must be provided through a registered specialist behaviour support provider, using an NDIS behaviour support practitioner whom the NDIS Commission has considered suitable. This applies even when the plan contains no restrictive practices.

You still need a registered specialist provider if your NDIS funding is self-managed or plan-managed. General experience as a support worker does not qualify someone to undertake a specialist assessment or write the plan.

Support workers can contribute observations and, with the required training and guidance, follow the agreed strategies during daily support. Providers and practitioners need to work together, as outlined in the Commission’s rules for specialist behaviour support providers and practitioners.

Behaviour Support and Restrictive Practices

A behaviour support plan does not automatically include restrictive practices.

Restrictive practices limit a person’s rights or freedom of movement. The five regulated types are seclusion, chemical restraint, mechanical restraint, physical restraint and environmental restraint. Preventing access to parts of someone’s home or possessions can be a restrictive practice; it is not limited to physically holding someone.

Restrictive practices must be a last resort to prevent harm, after other strategies have been explored and applied. They must be the least restrictive option, proportionate to the risk and used for the shortest possible time.

NDIS providers using regulated restrictive practices must meet registration, record-keeping and reporting requirements. They must also follow an appropriate behaviour support plan and the applicable state or territory authorisation requirements. The focus must remain on reducing and eliminating their use.

A plan is not blanket permission to restrict someone. A family member’s agreement alone does not replace the applicable legal requirements.

You can ask why a restriction is proposed, what alternatives have been considered and how its use will be reduced. The Commission’s participant fact sheet on restrictive practices explains what providers must do.

Participant and Support Worker Gardening Together

Your Voice Should Be Part of the Plan

You have a right to be involved in developing your behaviour support plan, ask questions and receive explanations you can understand. Communication support may be needed so your views can be heard.

Family members and carers can contribute valuable knowledge, but the person receiving support should remain central to decisions. Goals should reflect what a better everyday life means to them.

For example, a useful question might be: “Is this helping me take part in an activity I enjoy?” alongside checking whether harm has reduced.

You can raise concerns with your provider or make a complaint to the NDIS Commission if an approach is uncomfortable or does not seem to help. The Commission’s Understanding your rights fact sheet explains these rights.

How Is Behaviour Support Funded?

The NDIA may fund behaviour support when it is related to your disability and meets the NDIS funding criteria. Depending on assessed needs, funding may cover assessments, plans and training for the people supporting you.

Check what your own plan includes before booking. The NDIA’s behaviour support guideline explains the supports it may fund. Do not assume money allocated to another support can automatically be used for specialist behaviour support.

If the need is new or your current funding seems insufficient, speak with your my NDIS contact or support coordinator about the evidence needed and whether a change to your NDIS plan should be requested.

Before choosing a provider, ask who will complete the assessment, what experience they have with your needs, how you will be involved and what the service will cost. Check whether assessment, reports, worker training and reviews are included in the proposed agreement.

Talk to JNJ About Your Support Needs

JNJ Community Support Services supports participants across Bundaberg, Childers, Gin Gin, Rosedale, Woodgate and surrounding communities.

If you are exploring behavioural support, tell us what is happening, what you need help with and whether you already have a behaviour support plan. Our team can discuss the services available and how they may fit your support needs.

If you have Support Coordination funding, JNJ’s Support Coordination service can help you understand your plan and explore suitable providers.

References

Disclaimer

This article provides general information and does not replace individual clinical, legal or NDIS funding advice. Behaviour support should be tailored to each person’s needs and circumstances. NDIS rules and funding requirements may change. Speak with your NDIS behaviour support practitioner, treating healthcare professional or the NDIA for guidance relevant to your situation.

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