NDIS Participants’ Voices Highlight Scheme’s Deepest Issues
Finding the Right Fit: What Families Say About NDIS Behaviour Support
For families and carers helping someone navigate NDIS behaviour support, a new national study has echoed a common feeling: finding the right practitioner can be incredibly challenging. It’s often hard to know if the person you’re considering is truly the best fit, and crucial information to make that judgment can be scarce.
This important research surveyed 123 informal supporters – mostly parents assisting their own children – to understand their experiences with behaviour support practitioners. The findings, published recently, were funded by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, the body responsible for overseeing NDIS services.
This article explores what these families shared, what quality behaviour support should look like, and the practical questions you can ask to make more informed choices.
Understanding Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)
Positive Behaviour Support, often called PBS, is a core part of the NDIS approach. It’s a person-centred and rights-based way of working. Instead of trying to control a person’s behaviour, PBS focuses on understanding the underlying unmet needs or environmental barriers that might lead to challenging behaviours.
The ultimate goal of PBS is to improve the person’s quality of life and empower them. A key aim is also to reduce what are known as restrictive practices. These are any actions that limit a person’s rights or freedom, such as physical restraint or restricting access to parts of their home.
Effective behaviour support should always work towards lessening these restrictive practices over time, ensuring a person’s dignity and autonomy are upheld. The recent study sheds light on how well this ideal is being delivered on the ground.
Families Share Their Experiences: The Mixed Picture
The study painted a mixed picture of families’ experiences. Many valued practitioners who communicated well, showed genuine empathy, collaborated effectively, and explained complex ideas in clear, everyday language. When these qualities were present, families generally reported positive interactions.
However, confidence in practitioners’ skills and knowledge was often uneven. While 64% of supporters felt they understood the practitioner’s role, only 32% rated their overall confidence in a practitioner’s expertise as ‘moderate’ or higher. Many rated it much lower.
Confidence dipped significantly in several key areas crucial for truly person-centred support:
- Involving the Person with Disability: Less than 4 out of 10 families felt practitioners were highly skilled at including the person with disability in setting their own behaviour support goals.
- Reflecting Values and Preferences: Many families questioned if the support plan truly reflected the person’s individual values and preferences.
- Practical Implementation: Supporting the plan to actually be put into practice day-to-day received the lowest common rating (1 out of 5), highlighting a gap between planning and real-world outcomes.
- Reducing Restrictive Practices: More than half of families rated practitioners’ skill at developing a plan to fade out restrictive practices as low (1 or 2 out of 5).
Families also voiced concerns that some practitioners seemed to prioritise compliance and paperwork over achieving real, tangible outcomes for the person they support. They worried about a lack of specific disability knowledge and insufficient practical help to make plans work.
One family reported spending over $50,000 across three years with a practitioner, seeing no change in their son’s behaviour and receiving no completed plan. Another shared the exhausting experience of trying eight different practitioners before a single plan was finally finalised.
The Challenge of Informed Choice
A recurring theme was the lack of clear information. Families often didn’t have enough detail about a practitioner’s qualifications, experience, or approach before deciding to work with them. This left many feeling unable to make a truly informed choice.
Researchers highlighted that while the NDIS allows people to search for registered practitioners, a listing only confirms availability. It doesn’t provide the crucial information needed to judge if a practitioner has the right skills or approach for a specific situation.
As lead author Dr. Alinka Fisher noted, meaningful choice requires more than just a provider being listed. Participants and their supporters need transparent information about qualifications, experience, areas of expertise, and approach before making a commitment.
Availability: Still a Significant Barrier
Beyond finding the ‘right’ practitioner, many families face the fundamental challenge of finding any practitioner at all. The study revealed limited local availability and long waitlists are common, with the problem particularly acute in regional, rural, and remote areas.
One supporter described interviewing over six practitioners before finding a suitable one. Another shared that the few providers in their area seemed to hold a monopoly, limiting genuine choice. For many, the practical question isn’t about finding the best fit, but simply whether anyone is available to provide support.
Empowering Your Choice: Questions to Ask
It’s important to remember that you have every right to ask questions before engaging a behaviour support practitioner, and to continue asking them throughout the process. The study highlights the areas where families most needed clarity.
Before you commit to a practitioner, it is perfectly reasonable, and highly recommended, to ask:
- What are your specific qualifications, and how much experience do you have with this particular disability or situation?
- How will you actively involve the person with disability in setting their own behaviour support goals?
- How will you ensure the support plan truly reflects the person’s unique values, preferences, and daily life?
- What is your clear plan to reduce restrictive practices over time, and what steps will that involve?
- Beyond writing the plan, how will you support the people around the person (like family and support workers) to actually carry out the plan effectively in daily life?
- Can we have a short, informal meeting first, before we formally engage your services, to see if you are truly the right fit for us?
This last question is especially important. One of the study’s key recommendations is that families should have the opportunity to meet a practitioner before formally committing, rather than having to make such an important decision “blind.”
Your Rights and Where to Find Support
Behaviour support services and the use of restrictive practices within the NDIS are regulated by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. This is the same body that funded the research discussed here.
The Commission sets the rules that practitioners must follow, monitors the use of restrictive practices, and is the place to raise a concern or make a complaint about a provider if you are unhappy with the service you receive.
If a practitioner isn’t the right fit for you or the person you support, you are always able to change providers. It’s helpful to plan such a switch carefully to ensure support isn’t interrupted and that any existing plans and records transfer smoothly to the new provider.
What Researchers Hope to Achieve
The study doesn’t just identify problems; it offers concrete recommendations for a system that would be much easier for families and participants to navigate:
- Increased Transparency: More open information about practitioners’ qualifications and areas of expertise, allowing families to genuinely compare and choose.
- Pre-Engagement Meetings: The option for families to meet a practitioner for an initial chat before formally hiring them.
- Greater Inclusion: Stronger, more meaningful inclusion of the person with disability in all stages of planning and implementing their own support.
- Genuine Expertise: Ensuring practitioners have authentic positive behaviour support knowledge and specific expertise relevant to disability.
- Workforce Support: Investing in funding, supervision, and quality assurance for the behaviour support workforce, so quality isn’t just a matter of luck.
For NDIS participants, families, and carers, the message is clear: You are entitled to ask questions about qualifications and approach, to expect the person you support to be at the centre of their own plan, and to seek alternative support if the fit isn’t right.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Positive Behaviour Support under the NDIS?
Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) is a person-centred, rights-based approach. It aims to understand the unmet needs and barriers that lead to challenging behaviours, working to improve a person’s quality of life and reduce restrictive practices over time. It’s delivered by behaviour support practitioners and funded through your NDIS plan.
What is a restrictive practice?
A restrictive practice is any action or intervention that limits a person’s rights or freedom of movement. Examples include physical restraint, seclusion, or restricting access to parts of a home. Positive Behaviour Support aims to reduce their use, and their implementation is strictly regulated by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
How do I choose a good behaviour support practitioner?
Ask about their qualifications and experience with the specific disability, how they will involve the person in setting goals, and how the plan will reflect that person’s values and daily life. Crucially, ask about their plan to reduce restrictive practices over time. You can also request a short introductory meeting before formally engaging them.
Can I change my behaviour support practitioner?
Yes. If a practitioner is not the right fit for you or the person you support, you have the right to move to another provider. Planning this switch carefully helps ensure support is not interrupted and that your existing plan and records transfer smoothly.
Who regulates NDIS behaviour support?
The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission is responsible for setting the rules for behaviour support and restrictive practices, overseeing their use, and handling any concerns or complaints about providers.
What did the new study find about NDIS behaviour support?
A recent national survey of 123 informal supporters found that while families valued practitioners who communicated well and collaborated, many lacked information to properly judge qualifications. Confidence was lower regarding involving the person in goal-setting, reflecting their preferences, supporting practical implementation of plans, and reducing restrictive practices. Availability and long waitlists also remain significant barriers, especially in regional and remote areas.
