News

The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (NDIS Commission) has today published its latest activity report, covering the period 1 April 2022 to 30 June 2022 for all states and territories in Australia.

The quarterly activity report provides an overview of NDIS Commission activities, including complaints, registrations, reportable incidents, behaviour support, compliance, and engagement.

NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioner, Tracy Mackey, said vital insights collected through the activity reports, together with complaints received and incident reports, provide an oversight of participants’ experiences of NDIS supports and services, which drive our safeguarding and compliance activities. 

“We receive incident reports that have never been monitored by disability service regulators, which allows us to better understand participants’ experiences of their supports and services,” Ms Mackey said.

The activity report results are as expected across most functions during 1 April 2022 to 30 June 2022:

• an additional 736 behaviour support plans were lodged this quarter, which is a 25% increase compared to last quarter.
• 2,529 behaviour support practitioners were considered suitable to deliver behaviour support services, compared to 1,336 last quarter.
• 19% increase in reportable incidents notifications relating to the death of a person with a disability compared to 17.5% last quarter (this may include multiple notifications of the same matter).
• 22.5% increase in NDIS Worker Screening clearances granted nationwide compared to last quarter.
• 230 NDIS Worker Screening exclusions were issued this quarter compared to 152 last quarter.
• 4% increase in registered providers.
• 0.5% decrease in worker vaccination rates driven by NSW, QLD, TAS and WA, which may be due to the removal of mandatory vaccination requirements in some states and territories. 
• 3% increase in complaints where the primary complainant is a person with disability.

The NDIS Commission continues to receive a high volume of notifications about the use of unauthorised restrictive practices (URPs) by implementing behaviour support providers.

During the reporting period, the NDIS Commission was advised of 4,162 participants subjected to 358,835 URPs, which is a 9% increase compared to last quarter.

Based on annual figures, the growth of URP uses appears to be plateauing as the overall year to year increase has steadied to 38.7% in comparison to a 241% increase reported between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 periods.

“Participants subjected to URPs have been front of mind ever since I started in my role. Although the rate of reported uses appears to be steadying, our response needs to be agile and centred on outcomes for participants as we continue to undertake a range of regulatory activities directly with implementing providers and behaviour support practitioners to address the unacceptable rate in the sector,” Ms Mackey said.

“It is crucial to educate and build the capability of the workforce that are implementing restrictive practices and we continue to engage with states and territories to build on their current restrictive practice authorisation processes. 

“We have also developed a framework to establish clear expectations for behaviour support practitioners and strengthen the safeguards for people receiving behaviour support.”

Working together with providers, workers and behaviour support practitioners will ensure all NDIS participants receive the safe and quality services they deserve. 

Visit the NDIS Commission Activity Reports page for more information.