NDIS Commission Provider Newsletter - September 2025

Message from the Acting Commissioner

Welcome to the September edition of our Provider Newsletter.

With Commissioner Louise Glanville on leave, taking a well-deserved break from
11 September to 6 October, I have been Acting Commissioner. It is a privilege to lead the NDIS Commission and continue our work to ensure people with disability receive safe and quality services.

I am pleased to report that earlier this month, the NDIS Commission launched our first Disability Action Plan (DAP). The DAP sets out how we’ll create a foundation for inclusion and accessibility, strengthen disability leadership, and improve outcomes for people and staff with disability. Thank you for your contributions to our work and I look forward to providing future updates on our implementation of the DAP and work in this space.

We have produced four engaging educational videos, each of which covers a different element of the NDIS Code of Conduct. I hope these will offer an effective way to remind everyone involved in delivering services to NDIS participants that they must abide by the Code of Conduct and what that entails. I strongly encourage you to have a look at the videos and provide your feedback. We will deliver more of these in the new year.

Louise and I are deeply committed to sharing our work and learnings but also hearing directly from participants and providers. In the month ahead, Louise will deliver the keynote at the 2025 NDIS Providers Summit. This will be a great chance for her to meet providers and discuss, among other things, the NDIS Commission’s regulatory priorities and how changes to the NDIS will affect providers. Louise and I will also have an opportunity to update advocates when we address the online Disability Advocacy Forum the NDIS Commission is hosting on 21 October.

You’ll find more information on the DAP and the Code of Conduct videos below, as well as articles on:

Positive behaviour support training
How we publish information about regulatory actions
Improving our social media
Corporate Plan 2025–2026 and Quarterly Performance Report now on our website.

Natalie Wade
Acting NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioner

Our first action plan for disability inclusion

We have now published our first disability action plan as we work towards our vision of a world where people with disability can achieve their goals.

The Disability Action Plan 2025–2030 sets out how the NDIS Commission will:

create a foundation for inclusion and accessibility
strengthen disability leadership
improve outcomes for people and staff with disability.

The plan has three objectives that provide the direction for the action the NDIS Commission will take to ensure people with disability feel valued, respected and empowered. They are:

ensuring accessibility in our environments and digital systems
that the NDIS Commission is an employer of choice for people with disability
that the NDIS Commission leads disability inclusion.

People with disability are central to all aspects of the NDIS. The plan has been shaped by people with disability – both NDIS Commission staff and external stakeholders, from diverse backgrounds and communities.

The NDIS Commission will continue to listen to and learn from people with lived experience of disability as we implement the plan, and in all areas of our work.

The NDIS Commission has also committed to developing annual implementation plans and publicly reporting on our progress.

The Disability Action Plan is available in various formats, including Easy Read and Braille.

New Code of Conduct video: safety and competency

The NDIS Commission has produced four new short educational videos that will help providers and workers better understand their obligations under the NDIS Code of Conduct.

One of these is about Safety and competency – one of eight elements that make up the Code of Conduct. Safety and competency mean the NDIS supports and services you are responsible for are provided in a safe and competent manner, with care and skill.

Harm to participants is more likely to occur when person-centred approaches are not in place, when workers are not skilled and when NDIS values are not applied by providers.

Providers need to ensure workers have the necessary training, competence and qualifications for the supports and services delivered.

The video shows what this element means for providers through a real-world scenario that illustrates how the Code works in practice. It emphasises that it's essential you meet your obligations under the NDIS Code of Conduct.

Illustrations of four people using mobile devices

Update on free Positive Behaviour Support Training

Registrations for the free Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) Training Package have been strong, with more than 11,000 disability support workers enrolled to date.

The package is capped at 15,000 places, so if you’re interested, please register soon.

The PBS Training Package helps disability support workers provide safe, respectful, and person-centred supports consistent with the NDIS Practice Standards and Code of Conduct. The three modules that make up the Package can be completed flexibly online, and workers will receive a certificate of completion for each one.

If you register after the cap is reached, we’ll put you on a waitlist for a limited number of places we expect will become available in the future.

Learn more and register at: Positive Behaviour Support Training Package etrainu page.

Launch of behaviour-support practitioner toolkit

Did you know some NDIS participants who have a behaviour support plan have not been involved in developing their own plan? Without authentic engagement with people with disability and their families, these plans can be ineffective at best. At worst, they can override people's human rights and contribute to abuse and neglect.

A free toolkit called The Right Direction is now available to guide behaviour support practitioners to effectively consult with participants when developing behaviour support plans. The Right Direction – funded by the NDIS Commission’s Grants Program – is based on a principle that’s central to the NDIS: nothing about us without us.

The Right Direction was developed by a team of researchers led by the University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland following extensive research and a national consultation and co-design process with:

behaviour support practitioners
service providers
people with disability.

The Right Direction website includes practical resources and tools, many of which are customisable, that assist NDIS practitioners and participants throughout the behaviour support planning and implementation process.

The NDIS Commission has also released resources to help behaviour support practitioners when talking with participants about restrictive practices.

Using these resources will help behaviour support practitioners meet NDIS requirements and uphold the human rights of participants.

Publishing information about regulatory actions

When the NDIS Commission takes regulatory actions against providers or workers, we sometimes publish information about those actions on the Digital Compliance Register on our website. This helps keep participants safe and encourages providers to follow the rules.

When we publish

We review each action to decide if it should be published, based on our Publishing Regulatory Activity Policy.

We use a consistent approach that balances privacy and fairness with legal and policy requirements.

We consider:

the seriousness and potential risk
the type of action (e.g. banning order)
whether publishing serves the public interest.

What we publish

We may publish:

the name of the provider or person
location details (suburb and postcode)
a summary of the action
the reasons for the action (where appropriate)
relevant dates.

We ensure the information is clear, accurate, and accessible, while also protecting the privacy of any NDIS participants involved.

Learn more about Compliance and enforcement on the NDIS Commission website.

Latest corporate reports published

We’ve recently published our Corporate Plan 2025–2026 as well as the latest Quarterly Performance Report.

The Corporate Plan 2025–2026 is an important document that positions us to deliver our strategic purpose, priorities and direction over the next 12 months to four years. It details important programs of work that are ongoing and presents new strategic commitments we are making to deliver impact across the NDIS.

The Quarterly Performance Report provides an overview of the NDIS Commission’s performance and regulatory operations from 1 April to 30 June 2025.

You’ll find both on the Corporate reports page of the NDIS Commission website. The reports and other documents on this page define our strategic directions, track our work and provide useful information to the public.

We’re now on Instagram

We are expanding our social media reach by returning to Instagram, where we share updates on safety and quality in the NDIS. If you’re on Instagram, please come and follow us there; it’s a great way to keep on top of important developments.

You can also like, share and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn, where Commissioner Louise Glanville and Associate Commissioner Natalie Wade recently published a blogpost on listening with purpose.

Resources for providers

Our website has a range of resources to support you deliver safe and quality services and comply with your registration:

Resources for behaviour support practitioners

Connect with us

Stay in touch with the NDIS Commission on social media:

General enquiries

1800 035 544 (free call from landlines)

Our contact centre is open Monday to Friday 9am - 5:30pm AEST, excluding public holidays.

To provide feedback, contact the NDIS Commission by emailing
contactcentre@ndiscommission.gov.au.

Thanks for reading!

You can find past issues of the NDIS Commission provider newsletter on our website.