Restrictive practices: what NDIS providers must record and report

NDIS providers must report every use of a regulated restrictive practice, and show the authorisation and the behaviour support plan behind it. Restrictive practice reporting is not one form. It is an ongoing record of what was used, with which participant, when, why, who approved it, and how its use is being reduced.

In short

• Restrictive practice reporting covers every use of a regulated restrictive practice: what was used, with whom, when, the authorisation, and the plan behind it.
• The Rules apply only to specified kinds, called regulated restrictive practices. Section 6 decides what is in scope.
• Authorisation comes from your state or territory, not the NDIS Commission, and the steps differ by jurisdiction.
• A behaviour support plan containing a regulated restrictive practice must be lodged with the Commissioner, and reviewed.
• These are conditions of registration. Reporting (section 14) and record keeping (section 15) are two separate obligations.

What counts as a restrictive practice under the NDIS

A restrictive practice is any practice or intervention that has the effect of restricting the rights or freedom of movement of a person with disability. The Rules narrow that broad definition: section 6 says they apply only to specified kinds, which the sector calls regulated restrictive practices.

The distinction matters more than the general definition does, because it decides what your service has to authorise, record and report. A practice outside the specified kinds still deserves scrutiny under your own safeguarding policy, but it does not trigger these particular obligations. A practice inside them triggers all of them at once.

Two practical consequences follow. An internal policy written some years ago may no longer match the current compilation of the Rules, so the list is worth reading from the source rather than from a handbook. And front line staff are usually the people who notice a practice first, and rarely the people who have read section 6. Whatever the list says, someone on shift has to recognise a regulated restrictive practice when it happens and say so.

Section 8 also covers restrictive practices that are prohibited in a state or territory. Some practices are not a question of authorisation at all.

Who authorises a restrictive practice before it is used

Authorisation of a restrictive practice is a state and territory responsibility, not an NDIS Commission one. The Rules are built around that split.

They deal with the combinations separately. Section 9 covers use in a state or territory that has an authorisation process. Section 10 covers use in accordance with a behaviour support plan. Section 11 covers use authorised by the state or territory but not covered by a plan. Section 13 covers use not covered by a plan where state or territory authorisation is not required.

For a provider operating in more than one jurisdiction, this is where the work sits. The same practice, with the same participant, can require a different authorisation step depending on the address the support is delivered at. A single national procedure is usually either too heavy for one state or too light for another. A procedure written per jurisdiction takes longer to maintain and is easier to follow correctly.

Behaviour support plans, and when one is required

A behaviour support plan sets out how a participant is supported and, where a regulated restrictive practice is used, why it is used and how its use will be reduced. Where a regulated restrictive practice is in play, the plan is the thing that use has to be consistent with.

The Rules set conditions across the whole life of the plan. Section 17 requires the use of an NDIS behaviour support practitioner. Section 18 sets who may develop a plan containing a regulated restrictive practice. Section 19 sets the period within which it must be developed. Sections 20 and 21 cover how it is developed and what it contains. Section 22 requires comprehensive plans containing a regulated restrictive practice to be reviewed. Section 23 sets the form, and section 24 requires the plan to be lodged with the Commissioner.

Positive behaviour support is the frame the plan sits in. Its purpose is not to license a restriction indefinitely. It is to record the strategies that reduce the need for one, and to put a date on when that is looked at again. Section 22 turns that intention into an obligation, and it is a common place for records to drift, because a review that happened in a meeting but was never written up reads, later, exactly like a review that did not happen.

What you have to report, and what you have to keep

Reporting and record keeping are two distinct conditions of registration: section 14 sets the reporting requirements and section 15 sets record keeping. They are related, and meeting one does not cover the other.

Reporting means telling the NDIS Commission about the use of regulated restrictive practices, through the channel and on the cycle the Commission sets. Record keeping means holding the underlying detail in your own systems, in a state where someone outside your organisation could follow it. If you report accurately but cannot produce the records behind the report, you have met one condition and not the other.

The practical test is whether a single use can be traced end to end: the participant, the date and time, the practice used, the duration, the staff member involved, the behaviour support plan it sits under, the authorisation relied on, and the review that followed. If that trail lives across a shift note, a paper form in a house, an email and someone's memory, the report you send is only as good as the weakest of those four.

This is where a lot of administrative effort quietly goes, and it is worth measuring rather than guessing. We have written separately about where NDIS admin time goes, and how to measure it.

When a restrictive practice is used without authorisation

An unauthorised restrictive practice still has to be reported, and the record of it matters more, not less. Section 12 of the Rules deals with the use of a regulated restrictive practice other than in accordance with a behaviour support plan or a state or territory authorisation.

The instinct to treat an unauthorised use as an internal matter to sort out first is the wrong one. The obligation is to report, and then to work out what went wrong. The NDIS Commission also runs a separate reportable incidents scheme alongside these Rules, and whether a particular use has to be notified as a reportable incident, and how quickly, is set out on the Commission's own site.

One further wrinkle is worth knowing. Part 4 of the Rules holds special arrangements, including, at section 30, arrangements for transitioned residential aged care providers. Organisations delivering both NDIS and aged care supports should read that part rather than assume the general conditions apply unchanged.

Building the record into the shift, not after it

The restrictive practice record that survives an audit is the one made at the time, by the person who was there. Everything else is reconstruction.

Three things tend to separate services with clean reporting from services that scramble each quarter. The first is a single place where a use is logged, rather than a form per house. The second is a named person accountable for the reporting cycle, so it is somebody's job rather than everybody's. The third is a standing look at whether use is rising or falling per participant, which is the question a plan review is meant to answer anyway.

None of that requires a new system. It requires the same facts captured the same way every time, somewhere they can be counted later. If you want to see how we think about NDIS reporting more broadly, our NDIS page sets it out, and our FAQ answers common questions about how provider data is handled.

Common questions

What counts as a restrictive practice under the NDIS?

A restrictive practice is any practice or intervention that restricts the rights or freedom of movement of a person with disability. Only specified kinds, the regulated restrictive practices, are covered by the Rules, and section 6 decides which ones. Read that section rather than an internal summary, because the summary may be out of date.

Who has to authorise a restrictive practice before it is used?

Authorisation is a state or territory responsibility, not an NDIS Commission one. Whether an authorisation process applies depends on the jurisdiction the support is delivered in, and the Rules set different conditions for states and territories with an authorisation process and those without.

How often must restrictive practice use be reported to the NDIS Commission?

Reporting on the use of regulated restrictive practices is an ongoing condition of registration under section 14 of the Rules, not a single notification. The Commission sets the channel and the cycle, so confirm the current arrangements on the Commission's site before you set your internal calendar.

What happens if a restrictive practice is used without authorisation?

An unauthorised restrictive practice has to be reported. Section 12 of the Rules covers use that is not in accordance with a behaviour support plan or a state or territory authorisation, and the Commission's separate reportable incidents scheme may also apply. Reporting comes first, and the internal review of what went wrong comes after it.

What is a behaviour support plan and when is one required?

A behaviour support plan sets out how a participant is supported and, where a regulated restrictive practice is used, why it is used and how its use will be reduced. Where a plan contains a regulated restrictive practice, the Rules cover who may develop it, how quickly, what it must contain, when it is reviewed, and its lodgement with the Commissioner.

Sources

• National Disability Insurance Scheme (Restrictive Practices and Behaviour Support) Rules 2018, Federal Register of Legislation, in force, latest compilation F2020C01087 of 1 December 2020, as at September 2026
• NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, as at September 2026