The NDIS, explained without the acronyms.
Plain-English guides to how the Scheme works — access, plans, budgets, provider agreements, your rights and the reforms now rolling out. Written for participants, families, carers and coordinators.
About this information
These guides are general information only — not legal, financial or clinical advice, and not a substitute for your plan or a decision by the NDIA. Where a rule or a date matters, we say where it comes from and when we last checked it.
For decisions about your own plan, call the NDIA on 1800 800 110 or read the source material at ndis.gov.au.
Getting started
What the Scheme is, and how to get through the front door.
What the NDIS is, and who it is for
How the Scheme works, who runs it, and the difference between the NDIA and the NDIS Commission.
Read guide →6 min readApplying for the NDIS, and what to do if you are knocked back
Making an access request, the evidence that actually helps, and your review rights if the answer is no.
Read guide →Your plan and funding
Budgets, plan management and what funding can be used for.
Reading your plan budget
Core, Capacity Building and Capital, what stated versus flexible funding means, and funding periods.
Read guide →4 min readPlan management options compared
Agency managed, plan managed and self managed — what each one lets you do, and the trade-offs.
Read guide →6 min readWhat NDIS funding can and cannot be used for
The legislated definition of an NDIS support, and the reasonable and necessary test in plain English.
Read guide →Working with providers
Choosing well, service agreements and making referrals.
Choosing a provider, and reading a service agreement
Registered versus unregistered, the questions worth asking, and what a fair agreement contains.
Read guide →4 min readFor support coordinators: referring to us
What we need to accept a referral, what we send back, and how we handle complex or urgent starts.
Read guide →Rights and safeguards
What you are entitled to, and what to do when it goes wrong.
Your rights when you receive support
The NDIS Code of Conduct, the Practice Standards and worker screening — what they oblige us to do.
Read guide →4 min readFeedback, complaints and safeguarding
How to raise a problem, what a provider must do with it, and when to go straight to the Commission.
Read guide →Complex supports
High-intensity care and positive behaviour support.
High-intensity supports explained
What the high-intensity skills descriptors cover, and what nurse delegation should look like.
Read guide →6 min readPositive behaviour support and restrictive practices
How behaviour support plans work, what counts as a regulated restrictive practice, and the safeguards around them.
Read guide →Reforms and what is changing
The 2026 legislation and the dates that matter.
Plain-English glossary
The terms that come up in every planning meeting.
- Access request
- The application you make to the NDIA to become a participant.
- Core budget
- Everyday support funding — personal care, community participation, consumables and transport. Usually the most flexible part of a plan.
- Capacity building
- Funding to build skills and independence, such as therapy, life skills and support coordination. Less flexible than Core.
- Capital
- Funding for higher-cost items: assistive technology, home modifications and specialist accommodation. Almost always stated.
- Stated support
- Funding that must be spent on the exact support named in your plan and cannot be redirected.
- Funding period
- An interval across which part of your plan budget is released, so the plan lasts its full length.
- Reasonable and necessary
- The test in section 34 of the NDIS Act that every funded support must meet.
- SIL
- Supported Independent Living — support with daily tasks in a shared or individual home, from drop-in hours to 24/7.
- SDA
- Specialist Disability Accommodation — funding for the housing itself, not the support delivered in it.
- Regulated restrictive practice
- Seclusion, or chemical, mechanical, physical or environmental restraint. Tightly controlled and reportable.
- Reportable incident
- A serious incident a registered provider must report to the NDIS Commission, including abuse, neglect and unauthorised restrictive practice.
- Nominee
- A person formally appointed to act or make decisions for a participant in dealings with the NDIA.
- Plan reassessment
- The review that sets your next plan — what used to be called a plan review.
- ART
- The Administrative Review Tribunal, which hears appeals of NDIA decisions. It replaced the AAT in October 2024.
- Foundational supports
- New supports being built outside the NDIS by federal, state and territory governments, including the Thriving Kids program.
- Support needs assessment
- The structured assessment that will inform budgets under new framework planning.