If you or someone you know has been mistreated by a disability support worker, the NDIS Commission takes complaints about whether an NDIS funded service has been provided in a safe way and to an appropriate standard. Anyone can make a complaint about a provider.
What is the NDIS Commission?
The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission is an independent agency established to improve the quality and safety of NDIS supports and services. The NDIS Commission regulates the NDIS market and handles complaints about the quality and safety of NDIS supports and services.
How can the NDIS Commission help me?
For NDIS participants, the NDIS Commission will:
- help you, and your families and carers, by responding to your concerns or complaints
- require providers to uphold your right to be free from harm
- promote safety and quality services
- oversee a new NDIS Code of Conduct and Practice Standards for providers and workers
- require registered NDIS providers manage incidents involving participants
- require registered NDIS providers to report incidents, including abuse and neglect, to the NDIS Commission
- provide national oversight of, and leadership in relation to, behaviour support
- identify areas for improvement across the NDIS market and provide information and advice to improve future services.
The service is independent and confidential.
You can make a complaint to the NDIS Commission
It’s OK to make a complaint – speaking up can help to improve services for you and other people. You have the right to raise a concern about NDIS supports if you are not happy. The Commission will work with you, and with providers and workers, to resolve problems and improve the quality and safety of NDIS supports – for you and other participants.
If you have a concern, you may wish to talk to your provider first. You can ask someone you trust, or an independent disability advocate, to help you. If you’re not sure who to contact, they will help connect you with the right organisation.
What is an independent disability advocate?
You may choose to have an independent disability advocate speak, act or write on your behalf. It is their job to assist you to exercise choice and control and to have your voice heard in matters that affect you.
Independent disability advocates are not part of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA, the NDIS Commission or any NDIS providers providing supports or services to the person with disability.
You can find an advocate using the Disability Advocacy Finder. Please note that you cannot access the Disability Advocacy Finder using an Internet Explorer browser, only Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome.
NDIS Provider Registration
Providers who were registered with the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) before the NDIS Commission commenced in their state or territory are now registered under the NDIS Commission.
The new arrangements have replaced the current quality assurance checks in all states and territories.
There is now a single registration and regulatory system for providers across Australia, giving people with disability, their families, and their carers peace of mind that they can expect the same standards of supports and services wherever they live.
The NDIS Practice Standards and the NDIS Commission’s registration process set the quality expectations for NDIS providers, while supporting them to maintain or improve their level of quality.
NDIS Worker Screening Check
Worker screening is a way to check that the people who are working or wish to work with the NDIS do not present an unacceptable risk to people with disability. It is an important tool for employers’ recruitment, selection and screening processes, and in the ongoing review of the suitability of their workers.
The NDIS Worker Screening Check is available nationally. If you are a self-managed participant, you are able to ask workers providing NDIS supports and services to you to demonstrate they have a clearance, or to ask them to obtain a clearance by undergoing an NDIS Worker Screening Check.
If your plan is self-managed and you use supports and services from unregistered NDIS providers, the provider (if an individual) or their workers are not required to have undergone an NDIS Worker Screening Check. However, if they have not had an NDIS Worker Screening Check they may not have had a criminal history check. You can ask an individual who is an unregistered NDIS provider and workers who provide your supports and services to have an NDIS Worker Screening Check.
You can also ask workers to demonstrate that they have an alternative check or clearance that meets the requirements in the transitional and special arrangements that apply in the state or territory where you live.
The NDIS Worker Screening Database allows self-managed participants to verify and check the NDIS Worker Screening clearance status of workers engaged to provide NDIS supports and services. The NDIS Commission is responsible for establishing, operating and maintaining the database.
You can apply to access the NDIS Worker Screening Database to support the NDIS Worker Screening Check.
What about the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)?
The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA):
- delivers the NDIS – providing individualised plans and support to people with disability and coordinating service bookings, payments and access to plans for providers
- handles complaints about the NDIA and participant plans.
You can learn more about the types of complaints the NDA handle here.
