NDIS Quality & Safeguards Commission
The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (also known as the NDIS Commission) is an independent Australian Government regulator.
The NDIS Commission’s role is to improve the quality and safety of NDIS supports and services, regulate registered NDIS providers, respond to complaints and reportable incidents, and help uphold the rights of NDIS participants.
Understanding the NDIS Commission is important because it helps you know where to go when you have concerns about the quality, safety, or conduct of an NDIS provider or worker.
It’s important to note that the NDIS Commission is not the same organisation as the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), and it doesn’t make the same kinds of decisions as the NDIA.
What the NDIS Commission Does
The NDIS Commission works with NDIS participants, providers, workers, and the broader community to support safe, high-quality services. Its responsibilities include:
Improving the quality and safety of supports
Regulating and registering providers
Taking complaints
Responding to reportable incidents
Taking action where providers or workers do the wrong thing
The NDIS Commission also manages important safeguards across the NDIS market. This includes provider registration, the NDIS Practice Standards, the NDIS Code of Conduct, complaints handling, reportable incident oversight, behaviour support regulation, worker screening arrangements, and compliance action where needed.
The NDIS Commission and the NDIA are separate organisations. The NDIA is the agency that manages access to the NDIS, participant plans, NDIS plan funding, and payments, while the NDIS Commission regulates provider quality and safety.
This distinction matters because you may need to contact different organisations depending on the issue. Concerns about plan funding, access to the NDIS, plan decisions, or payments generally need to go to the NDIA. Concerns about provider behaviour, unsafe supports, abuse, neglect, poor service quality, or reportable incidents generally sit with the NDIS Commission.
Participant Rights
As an NDIS participant, you have the right to be safe and to receive quality supports and services from providers and workers. The NDIS Commission outlines your right to dignity, respect, access to supports and services, and to live free from abuse, exploitation, and violence.
Quality support is not just about whether a service is (or has been) delivered. It’s also about whether the support meets your needs, respects your choices, protects your safety, and supports your control over your own life. The NDIS Commission’s rights information connects quality and safety with participant dignity, autonomy, and human rights.
Not every NDIS provider needs to be registered, but registered providers must meet the NDIS Practice Standards that apply to the supports and services they deliver. The NDIS Practice Standards specify the quality standards that registered NDIS providers need to meet.
Both registered and unregistered providers must follow the NDIS Code of Conduct. This means a participant’s rights and expectations around safe, ethical conduct apply even when you use an unregistered provider. It should be noted that registered providers have additional registration and audit requirements and obligations.
Provider and Worker Obligations
The NDIS Code of Conduct sets expectations for how NDIS providers, key personnel, and workers must behave. It’s designed to help providers and workers respect participant rights and deliver supports in a way that’s safe, ethical, and consistent with the values of the NDIS.
The Code of Conduct helps you understand what good support should look like. It also helps you identify when something may be wrong and whether they may need to raise the issue with their provider or contact the NDIS Commission.
Respect, Choice & Privacy
Providers and workers must respect your right to be who you are, make your own decisions, and be in control of their own life. The NDIS Commission’s Code of Conduct guidelines also emphasises respect for privacy and the rights, values, and beliefs of people with disability.
This means providers and workers shouldn’t treat participants as passive recipients of care. They should provide supports in a way that respects your preferences, communication needs, cultural background, personal identity, and decision-making rights.
Safety & Quality
Providers and workers must deliver supports and services safely and competently. The NDIS Code of Conduct requires providers and workers to promptly take steps to raise and act on concerns about matters that may affect the quality and safety of supports and services.
Providers and workers must also do their best to protect participants from violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation, and sexual misconduct. Where series incidents occur, registered providers may also have reportable incident obligations under the NDIS Commission’s rules.
Honesty, Fairness & Pricing
Providers and workers are expected to act with integrity, honesty, and transparency. The NDIS Code of Conduct includes expectations around ethical behaviour, fair treatment, and being clear about what you can expect from supports and services.
The NDIS Commission has also published information about price differences and unfair pricing for NDIS participants. Providers shouldn’t charge NDIS participants more than people who aren’t NDIS participants for the same support or service unless there’s a valid reason for the price difference.
If you think you’re being charged an unfair price, you can compare similar products or services online, check your invoice or service agreement, ask the provider to explain the price different, and/or contact the NDIS Commission if the issue can’t be resolved with the provider.
Contacting the ACCC
Some concerns may involve unfair business practices or misleading conduct rather than only quality and safety of NDIS supports. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) provides information and complaint pathways about consumer rights, misleading conduct, unfair contract terms, and other business conduct issues.
A participant may contact the ACCC if you believe a provider has misled them or used unfair business practices. This can sit alongside, but doesn’t necessarily replace, making a complaint to the NDIS Commission where the issue also relates to the quality or safety of NDIS supports.
Fraud Concerns
Fraud concerns are usually handled by the NDIA, not the NDIS Commission. The NDIS website explains that suspected fraud or non-compliance can be reported through the NDIS Fraud Reporting and Scams Hotline or through the online tip-off form.
Fraud may include situations where a provider is dishonest to gain a benefit (or cause a loss) to the NDIS. If someone suspects fraud but is unsure, the NDIS encourages reporting the concern so it can be assessed.
Making a Complaint
The NDIS Commission can take complaints about whether NDIS supports or services meet safety and quality standards. This may include situations where:
Something has gone wrong
Something is not working well
Something has not been done properly
The participant is unhappy
The participant believe they have been treated badly
The participant think they have been charged an unfair price
Complaints can be made by the participant or by someone supporting them (a family member, friend, advocate, guardian, or other trusted person). The NDIS Commission states that complaints can be made anonymously, and people don’t need to identify themselves when reporting a concern.
When making a complaint, it can help to explain who and what the complaint is about, what happened, whether the provider or worker has already been contacts, and what the person making the complaint thinks should happen next.
The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission plays a different role than the NDIA. The NDIA manages access, plans, and funding, while the NDIS Commission focuses on the quality and safety of NDIS supports and services. Understanding this difference can help you know where to go when something goes wrong, whether the issue is about a provider’s conduct, a worker’s behaviour, a reportable incident, or unfair pricing.
For more information about the NDIS Commission visit: ndiscommission.gov.au
Or Call the NDIS Commission 1800 035 544
Get the Support You Need with Purple Leopard Plan Management
At Purple Leopard, we’re here to help participants to navigate the complexities of the NDIS. Contact us today to learn how we can support you in getting the most out of your NDIS plan!
For more information about the NDIS visit: ndis.gov.au
Or Call the NDIS
For Participants: 1800 800 110
For Providers: 1300 311 675