NDIS providers: quality, respect & safety

What can you expect from NDIS providers?

Your child’s NDIS providers should give your child and your family supports and services that are:

good quality
respectful
safe.

What NDIS providers should do to give you good-quality NDIS services and supports

Here are things NDIS providers should do to ensure that your child gets good-quality services and supports:

Supply only services that they’re qualified and trained to supply – for example, your child’s speech therapist should focus only on communication, eating, swallowing and so on.
Use evidence-based practices – for example, your child’s provider should use only therapies and supports that scientific research has shown to be effective.
Act on concerns about quality and safety – for example, your child’s provider might change the way they use public transport with your child if you’ve told them you have concerns about your child wandering.
Be honest, clear and realistic with you – for example, your child’s NDIS provider should explain how a therapy will help your child work towards their NDIS goals.
Be transparent about their services – for example, your child’s NDIS provider should tell you about their fees and any additional costs you can expect, like fees for writing reports.

What NDIS providers should do to give you respectful NDIS services and supports

Here are things NDIS providers should do to ensure that your child gets respectful services and supports:

Involve your child in decisions when possible – for example, a younger child might be able to choose the colour of their eating aid, and an older child might be able to choose between therapists or decide which NDIS goal to focus on first.
Give information that you, your child and your child’s other carers can understand – for example, NDIS providers might organise an interpreter to explain a therapy in your family’s language, or they might use language that your younger child can understand.
Respect your child’s background, beliefs, gender and sexuality – for example, your child’s therapist should offer to remove their shoes before entering your home if that’s polite in your culture.
Keep information about your child and family private – for example, NDIS providers must store information in accordance with privacy laws and share it with other providers only when you say they can.
Respect your child’s privacy by keeping conversations focused on your child’s therapy goals – for example, if your child has 2 mothers, your child’s therapist shouldn’t ask questions about how your child was conceived.

Being respectful is about making sure that providers use language and offer information that relates to the experiences of all families, including LGBTIQ+ families, single-parent families, and blended families.

What NDIS providers should do to give you safe NDIS services and supports

Here are things NDIS providers should do to ensure that your child gets safe services and supports:

Provide a physically safe space – for example, your child should be able to move around with their walker without bumping into things.
Provide a verbally safe space – for example, people should speak to you and your child in kind and gentle ways that focus on your child’s strengths.
Provide an emotionally safe space – for example, you and your child should feel comfortable to say that something isn’t working for you.
Provide a culturally safe space – for example, people should recognise and respect your traditions and cultures.
Provide an inclusive environment – for example, their posters and handouts should include images of different types of families, like families with 2 mums and 2 dads, or families from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Safety is also about protecting your child from harm, including physical violence, verbal aggression, sexual abuse, insults, humiliation and neglect. The law says that NDIS providers must take all reasonable steps to prevent these forms of harm from affecting your child.

NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission: ensuring quality, respect and safety from NDIS providers

All NDIS providers are regulated by an Australian Government agency called the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.

The NDIS Commission has Practice Standards and a Code of Conduct. The Practice Standards are for registered NDIS providers and the Code of Conduct is for registered and unregistered NDIS providers. Both have rules and requirements about how NDIS providers should give services and supports to NDIS participants like your child.

The NDIS Commission:

makes sure NDIS providers know and follow rules about quality, respect and safety
helps with and responds to complaints, concerns and serious incidents related to NDIS providers and their workers
keeps a list of registered NDIS providers, who must do extra things to ensure the quality and safety of their services and supports.

The NDIS Commission can take action against NDIS providers or workers who aren’t treating people the way that the NDIS Code of Conduct or Practice Standards say they should. For example, the NDIS Commission can ban providers from working with NDIS participants.

If your child or you are unhappy with the way an NDIS provider is treating you or the quality of their services, it’s always OK to speak up. It’s best to raise your concern with the NDIS provider first. You can also make a complaint to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.