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Behaviour Support Plan Review
A behaviour support plan review is a Behaviour Support Practitioner’s formal, evidence-informed check of a comprehensive behaviour support plan: whether it’s still accurate, whether the strategies are working, whether any restrictive practice is being reduced, and what has changed for the person since it was written. The NDIS Commission expects one at least every twelve months, and sooner if circumstances change.
The review can end in an updated plan, with the reasons for each change recorded, and where a restrictive practice remains, lodged again with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Separately, about eight weeks before your NDIS plan ends, our Behaviour Support Practitioners write the end of plan report for your NDIS plan review. This page covers both, because the two are easy to mix up.
Participants, family members and carers
For Support Coordinators, plan managers and providers
Our Behaviour Support Practitioners review comprehensive plans for NDIS participants across New South Wales and Tasmania. Monitoring runs through the life of the plan, so the twelve month review is a check on work already under way rather than the first look.
How do I fund a behaviour support plan review?
The NDIS usually funds a plan review.
NDIS: the review is funded from Capacity Building. PACE plans call that line Behaviour Support; older plans call it Improved Relationships.
Self-managed, plan-managed or NDIA-managed: we work with all three.
Privately funded: available without a current plan, and you’ll get a clear picture of the costs before you book.
If you are not sure which funding applies to you, call us on 1800 678 647 or email hello@opt.net.au. We will sort it out before your first appointment.
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What a behaviour support plan review involves
01
How often should a behaviour support plan be reviewed?
At least every twelve months while the plan is in force. That’s the NDIS Commission’s expectation for every comprehensive behaviour support plan, and where the plan includes regulated restrictive practices the NDIS rules require a review at least every twelve months as well.
A review has to happen earlier when the person’s circumstances change. The Commission defines that as a significant change in the risk of harm to the person or others, or a change in their behaviour, needs, health, environment or supports that means the plan needs amending.
For example a pattern of unauthorised restrictive practice use, a change in living arrangements and a change of providers. So a move into new accommodation, or a new support team, is usually a reason to review the plan before the anniversary comes around.
02
What is the difference between monitoring and a review?
Monitoring is the ongoing part. It’s the regular collection and analysis of information, including incident reports. It checks whether the plan is being used as written, whether the person is making progress towards their goals, and whether a new risk or barrier has appeared.
It’s shared between the practitioner and the people implementing the plan, and it can involve data collection, observations, meetings and regular contact with the person.
A review is the formal, evidence-informed examination of the plan itself. It draws on everything monitoring has gathered, and it considers the content of the plan, how it’s being implemented and the outcomes achieved.
In practice, good monitoring means the review holds few surprises, because the practitioner has been watching the data all along.
03
What does a good behaviour support plan review look like?
It’s done in consultation with the person and their support network, and it asks what’s working, what isn’t, and what needs to change.
Your practitioner will review recent incident reports and other information about the person’s behaviour, health and wellbeing, look for patterns over time, and consider whether a new assessment is needed.
Where the plan includes a regulated restrictive practice, the review evaluates progress towards reducing and eliminating it, and checks that the fade-out plan is actually being implemented rather than sitting in the document.
For chemical restraint, that means working closely with the prescriber and using the monitoring data to inform decisions. The outcome of the review and the reasons for changing, or not changing, the plan are written down.
04
What can change after a review?
A review can lead to new or revised strategies, a new skill development program, or a fade-out plan for a restrictive practice, all co-designed with the person and their supports.
It can also lead to an updated functional behaviour assessment where the original one no longer explains what’s happening. What doesn’t count is a superficial update.
The Commission says directly that correcting typos, updating a medication dose or making minor edits to a program isn’t a review on its own.
Once the changes are made, the updated plan goes through our internal quality assurance and supervisor sign-off. Then the support team is trained on what changed, because an amended strategy nobody has been shown isn’t in place yet.
05
What happens to restrictive practices after a review?
If the plan still includes a regulated restrictive practice after the review, the updated plan has to be lodged with the NDIS Commission as soon as practicable, whoever implements the practice.
It also has to be developed or reviewed in line with the state or territory authorisation process. In New South Wales that’s the Restrictive Practices Authorisation pathway.
In Tasmania it’s the Office of the Senior Practitioner. Our Behaviour Support Practitioners take the updated plan through both, and attend restrictive practice panels where they’re required.
Where the reduction of a practice hasn’t progressed, the review is where the reasons get looked at and the approach changes, rather than the same fade-out plan being copied forward for another year.
06
What is the end of plan report for my NDIS plan review?
This is the other review, and the two get mixed up constantly.
A behaviour support plan review looks at the plan the practitioner wrote. An NDIS plan review is the NDIA’s review of the person’s whole NDIS plan and funding.
For that one, our Behaviour Support Practitioners start roughly eight weeks before the person’s NDIS plan end date.
They review the behaviour support funding that’s left, adjust service delivery so the remaining hours are used well, and prepare the NDIS plan review report.
That report sets out what’s been done, what’s changed, and the behaviour support the next plan needs, and it supports transition, reduction or exit planning where that’s the right direction for the person.
How our Behaviour Support Practitioners run a plan review
Monitoring runs through the life of the comprehensive plan, with staff training, family and carer coaching, observations and fidelity checks. Your practitioner will keep the data collection running and look at it regularly, so the twelve month review builds on what’s already known.
The review itself brings the person and their support network together and goes through the incident data and the goals. Any restrictive practice gets a careful look: whether it’s being used within its conditions, whether the fade-out plan is moving, and what it would take to remove it. The updated plan goes through internal quality assurance and supervisor sign-off, then to the Commission through PRODA if a restrictive practice remains, and the support team is trained on what changed.
About eight weeks out from the NDIS plan end date, the end of plan report is written so the behaviour support need is set out clearly for the next plan.
The review records what’s working, what isn’t, what changes and why, so the next practitioner or the next review can see the reasoning.
Behaviour support through the NDIS
Behaviour Support is funded under Capacity Building. In newer NDIS (PACE) plans it sits in a dedicated Behaviour Support budget; older plans fund it under Improved Relationships. If your NDIS plan review is coming up and the behaviour support hours are running short, tell us early, so the end of plan report can set out what’s left and what the next plan needs. Support Coordinators can refer through our Referrers Hub, and we’ll confirm the funding line before the first appointment.
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14 clinics across NSW & Tasmania
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Where we offer Behaviour Support
Common questions about behaviour support plan reviews
How often should a behaviour support plan be reviewed?
What counts as a change in circumstances?
What does a good behaviour support plan review look like?
What should a behaviour support plan include?
How many hours does a behaviour support plan review take?
How much does a behaviour support plan cost?
What happens if my plan still has a restrictive practice after the review?
Is a behaviour support plan review the same as an NDIS plan review?
Reviewed by Rachel Hardcastle
OPTIMUM HEALTH SOLUTIONS
Rachel has worked in Behaviour Support for over 16 years, where her experience has included complex and work. Rachel’s approach is entirely person-centred, meaning her practice starts and ends with the person, building support around them. Rachel works clinically and leads the development of the Behaviour Support team at Optimum Health Solutions, supporting practitioners to grow and do their best work with the people they see.
References
NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, Policy Guidance: Monitoring and Reviewing Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plans, May 2026. ndiscommission.gov.au
NDIS, Our Guideline: Behaviour support, 6 May 2026. ndis.gov.au
NDIS (Restrictive Practices and Behaviour Support) Rules 2018.
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