Quality support for children

If your child has NDIS funding for early childhood intervention, therapy supports or behaviour support, you want to know your provider uses quality practices.

We partnered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission to develop a guide to explain what quality practices do and don’t look like, and help you choose the right provider for you and your child.

We detail how a provider must:

put the safety and wellbeing of your child at the centre of what they do
offer quality service that represents best practice
focus on positive outcomes for your child and family
meet your needs and expectations
promote inclusion and social participation
make sure their support improves the quality of life for your child and family.

In the guide, we cover topics with examples in the following areas:

Decision-making: providers must respect your child’s rights to freedom of expression, self-determination and decision-making.
Privacy and dignity: providers must respect your child’s right to privacy and protect their dignity.
Safety checks: providers must offer services to NDIS participants in a safe manner with care and skill.
Competent and professional services: providers must offer supports to NDIS participants in a competent manner with care and skill.
Early childhood supports: providers must offer high-quality and safe supports to NDIS participants.
Specialist behaviour support: providers must offer positive behaviour support appropriate to a child’s needs, use evidence-informed practices, and follow state and territory laws.
Integrity, honesty and transparency: providers must act with honesty and transparency and do the right thing.

We also offer the following:

Questions you can ask when choosing a provider for your child.
Your options if you want to make a complaint.

Download the guide:

Who to contact if you have questions, concerns or to make a complaint

Most NDIS providers do their best to provide quality supports and services to people with disability, but issues can occur. You have the right to:

ask questions
seek explanations
make a complaint.

Speaking up can help improve services for your child and other people.

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s current NDIS support, you can talk to any of the following.

Sometimes talking to your provider can resolve your questions or concerns.

If you don’t get your desired response or things go wrong, you can also make a complaint directly with them.

It is their responsibility to help you feel safe to ask questions or make a complaint without fear of retribution of loss of services.

The NDIS Commission is an independent Commonwealth agency established to improve the quality and safety of NDIS supports and services.

They can take complaints or questions from anyone about:

NDIS services or supports not provided in a safe and respectful way
NDIS services and supports not delivered to an appropriate standard
how an NDIS provider has managed a complaint about service provided to an NDIS participant.

You can make a complaint to the NDIS Commission or ask questions by:

completing a complaint contact form
calling 1800 035 544

For more information, visit the NDIS Commission website .

AHPRA ensures Australia’s registered health practitioners are suitably trained, qualified and safe to practice.

They can look into safety concerns raised about registered health professionals, students and unregistered people claiming to be health professionals.

You can contact AHPRA by:

calling 1300 419 495
submitting an online enquiry

For more information, visit AHPRA website .

These contact details can be found on your child’s NDIS plan.

Advocacy support is for people with disability who face complex challenges.

Family members or carers acting on behalf of people with disability may be able to seek disability advocacy support, as long as there is no conflict of interest.

If you are unable to act, speak or write about a difficult situation on your own, or don’t have a support network to help you, then disability advocacy may be an option.

Find an advocate in your area by:

visiting the Disability Advocacy Finder
contacting the Disability Gateway on 1800 643 787
searching ‘advocates’ at the Disability Gateway .

If you need information in a language other than English, contact the Translating and Interpreting Service:

on the TIS National website
by phone for free on 131 450.
If you are deaf or hard of hearing, contact:
- TTY on 1800 555 677
- National Relay Service on 1800 555 727.