Capacity Building budget: Behaviour Supports Explained

Key information

• Before PACE, this support was funded under Improved Relationships. Some legacy plans may still show this.  

• Behaviour Supports is a Capacity Building support that helps participants address and manage behaviours of concern in day-to-day life. It includes assessment and tailored strategies to support your needs and goals.  

• There are two types of behaviour support plans: Comprehensive, and interim. Comprehensive plans use positive behaviour support to reduce behaviours of concern. Interim plans are for urgent or last resort supports such as restrictive practices.  

Behaviour support under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) sits in the Capacity Building budget. Like other Capacity Building supports, this is designed to help you learn strategies and skills to help improve your quality of life – specifically, addressing behaviours of concern over time.  

In older (pre-PACE) plans, this kind of support was listed under Improved Relationships. In the PACE system, Behaviour Support exists as its own category.  

Related: NDIS PACE Plan 101: Everything You Need to Know 

Why would someone need Behaviour Support? 

If you show behaviours that cause harm to you or to others (physical or otherwise), these may be referred to as behaviours of concern (also called challenging behaviours). 

This could include:  

• Hitting someone  

• Yelling at someone  

• Property damage  

• Any behaviour that affects your health, dignity, relationships, independence – or the rights and wellbeing of the people around you  

All behaviour has a purpose. It communicates a message. Maybe you have a need that’s not being met, or there’s something in your environment you want to change, or you feel you’re not being understood.   

For example, someone who becomes aggressive in noisy environments might be trying to communicate that they’re feeling overwhelmed. Behaviour Support helps uncover those triggers. It funds supports to understand and address the behaviour itself, developing the best strategies to help you manage daily life and recover from any incidents.  

How does NDIS Behaviour Support work? 

Your behaviour support practitioner will do a behaviour assessment with you to make sure you get the right kind of supports for your needs. They’ll talk to you, your family, support workers or carers, and look at any assessments or behaviour plans you’ve had before to help them understand your needs. The kind of information they’re looking for is: 

• Antecedents: What happens before the behaviour of concern, and what might be causing it. 

• Behaviour: The behaviour itself – what it looks like, how often it happens, how long it happens for, and how it impacts you and others. 

• Consequences: What happens after the behaviour. For example, if you get to spend more time by yourself or get something you wanted because the behaviour occurred. 

Your practitioner will then work with you and your support team to reduce behaviours of concern over time. They will do this by developing a tailored plan of behaviour support strategies, which will be reviewed and updated as needed. 

What is Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)? 

Positive behaviour support isn’t about punishment or control – it’s about helping you feel safe, heard and understood. The strategies include practical and personalised ways to help you navigate your daily life while avoiding or reducing behaviours of concern, such as:  

• Making changes to your environment (e.g. noise, lighting) 

• Helping you express your needs in safer ways 

• Building routines to reduce stress 

What about restrictive practice? 

Restrictive practices are sometimes used as a last resort to keep a person living with disability, or the people around them, safe. They are a last resort because they limit a person’s freedom of movement, and don’t provide the long-term capacity building benefits that positive behaviour support does.  

Use of regulated restrictive practices is monitored by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. There are rules in place to protect NDIS participants, and to reduce and eliminate restrictive practices in behaviour support plans over time. 

Understanding Behaviour Support Plans 

This is the plan written by your NDIS behaviour support practitioner, with the goal of improving your quality of life. The exact details and strategies will depend on what you need, your goals, and what works for you.  

There are two types of behaviour support plans:  

1. Comprehensive behaviour support – this is detailed and based on a formal assessment.  

2. Interim behaviour support – short-term support for urgent needs, especially where restrictive practices are used.  

What’s a comprehensive behaviour support plan? 

This provides positive behaviour support strategies for you, your family, and carers or support workers. It’s built around your needs, aiming to work with your current support team and other relevant professionals to:  

• Provide guidance about the best ways to support you (for carers, family, friends)  

• Make changes to your environment where needed  

• Support your personal safety and wellbeing  

• Build on your strengths – like your skills, interests, and the things you want to do or learn  

• Build your capacity and help you connect with other (mainstream and community) supports, so you can achieve your goals!  

• Increase your life skills to make day-to-day activities easier and safer  

• Make sure your goals and needs are met over time  

A comprehensive behaviour support plan may also include restrictive practices. If this is the case, the behaviour support plan must be reviewed at least every 12 months.  

What’s an interim behaviour support plan? 

An interim support plan is shorter, prepared by an NDIS behaviour support practitioner, and may also include restrictive practice.  

You’ll need an interim behaviour support plan if:  

• Your support workers use a restrictive practice, and they don’t yet have authorisation from your state or territory. For example: if there was an emergency where a restrictive practice was required to keep you and others safe. 

• Your support workers use a restrictive practice that isn’t in line with your behaviour support plan and the use of this practice is likely to continue.  

• If you need restrictive practices in place.  

Your practitioner needs to prepare your interim support plan within a month of the first day they know a restrictive practice has been used. They must also have a comprehensive behaviour support plan for you within 6 months of that same date.  

All behaviour supports (interim and comprehensive) must follow the NDIS (Restrictive Practices and Behaviour Support) Rules 2018.  

Who can provide Behaviour Support services? 

Only registered NDIS providers and specialist behaviour support practitioners can carry out behaviour support assessments (like functional behaviour assessments) and develop behaviour support plans. If you have this funding in your NDIS plan, you must use a suitably qualified specialist behaviour support provider.  

How to get Behaviour Supports funding in your NDIS Plan 

As an NDIS participant, you have a right to request a review of your plan at any time. If your disability needs are changing and you need more, less or different supports, you should contact the NDIS as soon as possible.  

If you would like to add Behaviour Support to your NDIS plan (either at a review or at your next plan renewal), contact your Local Area Coordinator (LAC), Support Coordinator, or NDIS Planner.   

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) will need to approve your request for funding before it’s added to your budget. You’ll need to be able to show the NDIA that:  

• This is a ‘reasonable and necessary’ support, specific to your disability needs  

• You have any required evidence from relevant, qualified healthcare professionals (remember to check on evidence requirements ahead of time!)  

• Behaviour support will help you build your capacity, have greater independence, and reach related goals – for example, “I want to be able to self-manage my reactions and behaviour so I can be more social with friends.”  

Managing your NDIS funding is easier with NDSP 

As a registered NDIS provider, NDSP is here to support you on your NDIS journey. We handle the financial aspects of your NDIS Plan (financial administration, processing provider invoices, keeping records, budget tracking) so you can stay focused on what matters most to you.  

Our friendly team of NDIS specialists know the complex funding system inside and out, including the changes rolling out with the new PACE system. You also get the benefit of clear communication, prompt provider payment, all the handy resources in our free participant toolbox, and access to our user-friendly Nappa portal.  

Ready to get started? Why not contact NDSP today and find out how we can help you make the most of your NDIS funding.