Positive behaviour support is one of the most misunderstood supports in the NDIS. Many families and participants hear the term and assume it is only for people with severe autism or significant intellectual disability. In reality, PBS applies to anyone with a disability whose behaviours of concern are affecting their quality of life, safety, or relationships. This guide covers what PBS is, how a Behaviour Support Plan is developed, current rates, what changed with PACE, and how to get behaviour support in your plan.
What Is NDIS Positive Behaviour Support?
Positive behaviour support, commonly called PBS, is an evidence-based approach used under the NDIS for people with disability who have behaviours of concern. The term “behaviours of concern” refers to actions that put the participant, others, or property at risk. They are generally a form of communication when other means have failed or are unavailable.
PBS does not focus on stopping or punishing a behaviour. It looks at the whole person: their unmet needs, their environment, their communication capacity, and the factors that contribute to why the behaviour occurs. When those underlying factors are understood and addressed, behaviours often reduce or disappear as a natural consequence. Where they do not, PBS also includes direct skill-building strategies and, where absolutely necessary, carefully regulated restrictive practices.
Under the NDIS, PBS is one of the most commonly funded Capacity Building supports. It is the only disability-specific support of its kind in Australia. PBS does not exist in the same form under Medicare or any other funding system. If a participant has a restrictive practice in place, the NDIS Commission mandates that PBS must be implemented. This is not optional.
What Behaviours of Concern Does PBS Address?
Behaviours of concern vary widely between participants. They include self-injurious behaviour, physical aggression toward others, property damage, verbal aggression, elopement, pica (eating non-food items), sexualised behaviour in inappropriate contexts, and withdrawal from essential activities.
The behaviour itself is not the focus. The function it serves is. A participant who bites support workers when approached from behind may be communicating that they need advance warning before physical contact. A child who throws objects during transitions between activities may be communicating that unpredictable change causes them significant distress. Understanding that function is what separates effective PBS from reactive management.
PBS is worth considering when behaviours significantly affect daily life, relationships, or safety. It is also relevant when existing strategies have not produced lasting change. And when restrictive practices are already in use, PBS funding is effectively mandatory under NDIS Commission rules.
Who Can Provide NDIS Behaviour Support?
Only practitioners considered suitable by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission can develop Behaviour Support Plans under the NDIS. Suitability is assessed against the PBS Capability Framework, published by the Commission and last updated in December 2024. The framework describes four levels of capability:
- Core: Entry-level practitioners who can provide behaviour support under supervision. This is the starting point for new practitioners entering the field.
- Proficient: Practitioners who can independently develop and implement behaviour support plans for most participants.
- Advanced: Practitioners with specialist skills who can handle complex cases and mentor others.
- Specialist: The highest level, for practitioners with expert knowledge across highly complex situations including severe behaviours, multiple disabilities, and intricate restrictive practice reduction plans.
Practitioners must apply to the NDIS Commission and self-assess their capabilities against the framework. The Commission reviews applications and determines suitability. Where a plan includes regulated restrictive practices, the practitioner must be engaged by a provider registered under Group 0110 Specialist Positive Behaviour Support. You can search for registered providers on the NDIS Commission Provider Register at ndiscommission.gov.au.
The Functional Behaviour Assessment: Where PBS Begins
Every Behaviour Support Plan begins with a Functional Behaviour Assessment, abbreviated as FBA. The FBA is a structured process that identifies the reason behind a behaviour, not just its description.
A thorough FBA includes interviews with the participant, family members, carers, support workers, educators, and other professionals. It includes direct observation of the participant in the environments where the behaviour occurs. It reviews medical records, previous reports, and any prior behaviour strategies that have been tried. The practitioner analyses all of this to identify the trigger, the setting events, and the function the behaviour serves. Triggers are the immediate events; setting events are broader factors like fatigue or medication changes.
The FBA is not a one-size-fits-all process. For a participant with complex communication needs, the practitioner may rely heavily on observation and communication aids. For a participant with strong verbal communication, direct conversation about their experiences is central. The quality of the FBA directly determines the quality of the strategies that follow.
What Is in a Behaviour Support Plan?
A Behaviour Support Plan (BSP) is the document that comes out of the FBA and PBS process. It is a personalised, written plan that outlines strategies for the participant, their family, and their support team. A BSP includes:
- Proactive strategies: Changes to the environment, routine, or interactions designed to prevent the behaviour from occurring in the first place. These might include sensory modifications, communication tools, predictable scheduling, or adjustments to how support workers interact with the person.
- Skill-building strategies: Teaching the participant replacement behaviours and skills so they can meet their needs in safer, more effective ways. This might include communication skills, emotional regulation strategies, social interaction skills, or daily living skills that reduce frustration.
- Reactive strategies: Safe, consistent responses for when the behaviour does occur, designed to minimise risk and not inadvertently reinforce the behaviour.
- Restrictive practice documentation: If any regulated restrictive practices are in use, the BSP must document them, explain their justification as the least restrictive option, outline the authorisation process, and include a reduction plan with milestones and timelines.
- Training requirements: Who needs training to implement the plan consistently, including support workers, family members, educators, and other professionals.
- Monitoring and review: How progress will be measured and how often the plan will be reviewed.
BSP Timeframes Under NDIS Commission Rules
The NDIS Commission sets enforceable timeframes for BSP development. Practitioners must complete an interim BSP within one month for any participant who has an immediate need. Comprehensive BSPs must be completed within six months. Plans involving restrictive practices must be reviewed at least every twelve months. The Commission requires active monitoring and reporting throughout the year. These are not guidelines. They are regulatory requirements.
Regulated Restrictive Practices Under the NDIS
Restrictive practices are some of the most carefully regulated aspects of the NDIS. This is because they involve limiting a person’s freedom or rights, and the history of disability support in Australia includes serious abuses of restrictive practices. The NDIS Commission takes this area extremely seriously.
There are five categories of regulated restrictive practices under the NDIS:
- Physical restraint: Using a person’s body to restrict another person’s movement. For example, holding a participant’s arms to prevent self-injury.
- Mechanical restraint: Using a device to restrict movement. For example, a lap strap in a wheelchair used beyond its postural purpose, or splints used to prevent self-injurious behaviour.
- Chemical restraint: Using medication primarily to control behaviour, rather than to treat an underlying medical condition.
- Seclusion: Involuntarily isolating a participant from others in a room or area they cannot leave freely.
- Environmental restraint: Restricting access to part of an environment. For example, locking a kitchen cabinet to prevent access to food.
Every regulated restrictive practice must be authorised by the relevant state or territory authorisation body. Every implementing provider must report the use of restrictive practices to the NDIS Commission. Every BSP containing restrictive practices must include a reduction plan: a documented strategy to progressively reduce and ultimately eliminate the practice. There is no such thing as a permanent, unreduceable restrictive practice under the NDIS framework.
NDIS Behaviour Support Funding and Rates in 2025-26
Behaviour support is funded through Capacity Building in NDIS plans. The correct category in PACE plans (the current NDIS system) is labelled Behaviour Support. In older legacy plans that have not yet been converted to PACE, it may still appear as Improved Relationships. Both refer to the same type of support.
The key behaviour support line items in 2025-26 are:
- 11_022_0110_7_3 Specialist Behavioural Intervention Support: Used for hands-on assessment and intervention by the behaviour support practitioner. This is the primary line item for direct PBS work.
- 11_023_0110_7_3 Behaviour Management Plan Including Training: Used for the development of a Behaviour Support Plan and for training support workers and family members to implement strategies.
The 2025-26 NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (PAPL) set the rate for specialist behaviour support at $232.99 per hour. This is the maximum cap for NDIS-managed and plan-managed participants. The rate increased by $10 per hour in 2025-26, reflecting the specialist qualifications required. Behaviour support and psychology now share the same national rate of $232.99, standardised across all states and territories.
Some behaviour support intervention and training may also be claimable under Core Supports where the practitioner is directly implementing strategies with support workers. The billing code for this is 15_056_0128_1_3 under Core: Assistance with Daily Life, at a national rate of $193.99 per hour.
Travel billing changed in 2025-26. Behaviour support practitioners, like all therapy providers, can now only bill travel time at 50% of their hourly rate. For a practitioner billing at $232.99 per hour, travel is billed at $116.50 per hour. This change primarily affects participants in regional areas or those who rely on in-home behaviour support visits.
What Changed in PACE Plans: What Participants Need to Know
The NDIA’s new PACE (Participant and Provider Communication Environment) system brought several changes that affect how behaviour support is accessed and claimed. Most participants on plans reviewed or renewed since late 2023 are now on a PACE plan.
The funding category name changed from “Improved Relationships” to “Behaviour Support” in PACE. If you are looking for your PBS funding and cannot find “Improved Relationships” in your plan, check under “Behaviour Support” : they are the same category.
From May 2025, most NDIS plans now release funding quarterly rather than annually. This is a significant practical change. If your BSP development is scheduled late in a quarter, you need enough funding in that quarter’s release to cover the work. Plan therapy schedules around quarterly releases, not annual ones. Practitioners and participants need to plan therapy schedules accordingly to avoid running short mid-quarter.
Agency-managed participants must formally endorse their behaviour support provider in PACE before any claim can be made. This endorsement step is mandatory for PBS under PACE, just as it is for SIL and SDA. If you are agency-managed and your behaviour support provider is not endorsed, they cannot be paid. This is worth checking before starting a new behaviour support arrangement.
There are no longer service bookings in the NDIS system under PACE. Written service agreements between participants and their PBS providers are now more important than ever. A service agreement should document the scope of assessment, the BSP development process, review timelines, and how funding will be managed. Information-sharing arrangements with the support team should also be included.
PBS and Psychology: How They Work Together
One of the most common questions in NDIS planning is whether a participant needs PBS or psychology, and whether they can have both. The answer is that these are different supports addressing different needs, and many participants benefit significantly from both running at the same time.
Psychology under the NDIS addresses the mental health, emotional, cognitive, and behavioural impacts of a participant’s disability. It works with the participant directly on their internal experience: their anxiety, their emotional regulation, their understanding of their own responses. Psychology requires AHPRA registration.
PBS works with the participant’s entire support network. A Behaviour Support Practitioner works with the person, their family, carers, support workers, school staff, and anyone else in their daily environment. PBS focuses on the function of behaviour, the environment, and the implementation of consistent strategies across all settings. PBS practitioners are registered with the NDIS Commission, not AHPRA.
The most effective outcomes usually come when both services are coordinated. A psychologist building emotional regulation skills directly with a participant is most effective when the PBS practitioner is simultaneously reinforcing those exact same skills in the participant’s daily support environment. When these two services share information and align their strategies, the participant benefits from a consistent, whole-of-person approach.
Tenax Supports’s Support Coordination team helps participants find and coordinate AHPRA-registered psychologists and NDIS Commission-registered behaviour support practitioners from external providers, so these services work together rather than in isolation.
Trauma-Informed Behaviour Support: What Most Guides Leave Out
Almost every guide to PBS focuses on autism, intellectual disability, or acquired brain injury as the primary contexts for behaviour support. Very few address how PBS applies when behaviours of concern are rooted in trauma rather than, or alongside, disability.
For many NDIS participants, the behaviours that create barriers to daily life are not simply expressions of disability. They can be responses to experiences of harm, loss of safety, and disrupted attachment.
Trauma-informed PBS differs from standard PBS in several important ways. Physical and emotional safety is the foundational condition for any strategy to work. Many “non-compliant” or “aggressive” behaviours in people with trauma histories are protective responses developed to manage threat. Trauma-informed PBS avoids strategies that inadvertently re-traumatise. Physical interventions with people who have histories of abuse, or isolation for people who have experienced abandonment, are examples of this. And it recognises that trust, consistency, and predictability in the therapeutic relationship are themselves behaviour-changing interventions.
This is not a common frame in mainstream PBS literature. It is, however, a frame worth looking for when choosing a behaviour support practitioner, and one Tenax Supports’s Support Coordination team keeps in mind when helping participants find the right fit.
How to Get Behaviour Support Into Your NDIS Plan
- Identify your goals. Your NDIS plan needs a goal related to reducing behaviours of concern and improving quality of life. This might be framed as wanting to manage emotions so you can build relationships, wanting to communicate more effectively, or wanting to participate in daily activities safely. The goal should reflect the person’s own aspirations, not just clinical language.
- Gather supporting evidence. An allied health professional such as a psychologist, occupational therapist, or GP can write a report documenting the behaviours of concern, their frequency and impact, why PBS is needed, and what a PBS practitioner will do. If restrictive practices are already in use, this creates a mandatory pathway for PBS funding under NDIS Commission rules.
- Raise behaviour support at your planning meeting or review. Be specific about what is happening and why PBS would make a difference. Bring the supporting evidence with you. If you have a Support Coordinator, they can help you prepare for this conversation and present the evidence clearly.
- Check your current plan first. If you are on a PACE plan, look for “Behaviour Support” in your Capacity Building budget. If you are on a legacy plan, look for “Improved Relationships.” If either is in your plan, you may already have PBS funding available to use.
- Choose a registered provider. The practitioner must be considered suitable by the NDIS Commission. If you are agency-managed, remember to formally endorse the provider in your PACE plan before they begin. You can search for registered providers at ndiscommission.gov.au.
- Sign a service agreement before work begins. The service agreement should cover the scope of the FBA, the BSP development process, training provisions, review timelines, and how funding will be managed. Given that PACE no longer uses service bookings, the service agreement is your primary protection as a participant.
Why Choose Tenax Supports for Behaviour Support
Behaviours of concern do not resolve quickly. The families and support teams who carry this work day after day deserve a practitioner who stays with them through the complexity, with consistency from everyone involved in the plan.
Tenax Supports is a Victoria-based registered NDIS provider. Through Support Coordination, we help participants find and coordinate the right behaviour support practitioner alongside the rest of their plan, with an approach that is person-centred and trauma-informed from the first conversation to the final plan review.
Behaviour support practitioners engaged through your plan often work within a broader allied health team that includes occupational therapists, psychologists, speech pathologists, and physiotherapists. This means your Behaviour Support Plan can draw on insights from multiple disciplines when needed, producing strategies that are clinically grounded rather than behavioural in isolation. Tenax Supports’s Support Coordination helps make sure these providers work together around each person’s unique situation.
Our Support Coordination service helps connect participants with the behaviour support practitioners and allied health providers they need. This matters for behaviour support, because the most effective PBS implementation relies on consistent support worker practice, coordinated communication between services, and responsive plan management when situations change. Our Support Coordinators can also help families who are navigating the NDIS Commission’s rules around restrictive practices for the first time.
For related reading, see our guides to the NDIS in Australia, NDIS Support Coordination, NDIS Occupational Therapy, and mental health crisis support in Australia.
Tenax Supports is a registered NDIS provider, and our services are guided by the NDIS Practice Standards and Code of Conduct.
For current information on Tenax Supports’s NDIS registration and the services for which registration applies, search the NDIS Commission Provider Register at ndiscommission.gov.au.
Contact Tenax Supports at tenaxsupports.com.au/contact or call 03 7018 8666. Referrals can be submitted at tenaxsupports.com.au/referrals.
Frequently Asked Questions About NDIS Behaviour Support
Positive behaviour support (PBS) is an evidence-based approach used under the NDIS for people with disability who have behaviours of concern. It looks at the whole person: their unmet needs, their environment, their communication, and the factors that contribute to behaviours of concern. A registered Behaviour Support Practitioner develops a personalised Behaviour Support Plan that includes proactive strategies, skill-building goals, and, where necessary, regulated restrictive practices with a reduction plan.
Only practitioners considered suitable by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission can develop Behaviour Support Plans. Suitability is assessed against the PBS Capability Framework at four levels: core, proficient, advanced, and specialist. Where restrictive practices are included in a plan, the practitioner must be engaged by a provider registered under Group 0110 Specialist Positive Behaviour Support. Search for registered providers at ndiscommission.gov.au.
How is NDIS behaviour support funded?
In PACE plans, behaviour support appears as “Behaviour Support” in the Capacity Building budget. In legacy plans, it may appear as “Improved Relationships.” The key line items are 11_022_0110_7_3 for specialist intervention and 11_023_0110_7_3 for plan development and training. The 2025-26 rate for specialist behaviour support is $232.99 per hour. Behaviour support funding cannot be redirected to other Capacity Building categories.
What is a Functional Behaviour Assessment (FBA)?
A Functional Behaviour Assessment (FBA) is a structured process used to understand the reasons behind a participant’s behaviours of concern. It looks at triggers, setting events, and the function the behaviour serves. This includes communicating pain, escaping demands, or gaining attention. Environmental and personal factors that contribute are also assessed. The FBA is the foundation for any Behaviour Support Plan. Without a thorough FBA, strategies risk addressing the symptom rather than the cause.
What are regulated restrictive practices under the NDIS?
The five types of regulated restrictive practices are: physical restraint, mechanical restraint, chemical restraint, seclusion (involuntary isolation), and environmental restraint. Each is described in detail below. All must be authorised, documented in a Behaviour Support Plan, reported to the NDIS Commission, and subject to an active reduction plan. There is no such thing as a permanent restrictive practice under the NDIS framework.
What changed about behaviour support funding in PACE plans?
In PACE plans, “Improved Relationships” was renamed to “Behaviour Support.” From May 2025, plans now release funding quarterly rather than annually. Agency-managed participants must formally endorse their behaviour support provider in their PACE plan before claims can be made. There are no longer service bookings in NDIS plans, making written service agreements essential for both providers and participants.
How do I get behaviour support funding in my NDIS plan?
Identify goals related to reducing behaviours of concern in your plan. Provide evidence from a treating professional documenting the behaviours, their impact, and why PBS is needed. Raise behaviour support at your planning meeting or review. If restrictive practices are already in use, PBS funding is effectively mandatory under NDIS Commission rules. Check your current plan first: look for “Behaviour Support” in PACE plans or “Improved Relationships” in legacy plans. A Support Coordinator can help gather evidence and prepare your request.