Behaviour support plan reviews: what the NDIS rules require

How often a behaviour support plan containing a regulated restrictive practice is reviewed is set by the Behaviour Support Rules, not by the provider. Section 22 imposes the review of a comprehensive plan as a condition of registration. Its text could not be retrieved here, so no interval is stated. The section is linked under Sources.

In short

• The review cycle for a plan containing a regulated restrictive practice sits in section 22 of the Behaviour Support Rules.
• Section 19 sets the period for developing the plan, section 21 its contents, section 23 its form, section 24 its lodgement.
• Only an NDIS behaviour support practitioner the Commission considers suitable develops such a plan, under sections 17 and 18.
• A behaviour support plan is a separate duty from reporting restrictive practice use, which sits in sections 14 and 15.
• These are all conditions of registration, so a review that slips is a registration matter.

How often a behaviour support plan is reviewed

A behaviour support plan containing a regulated restrictive practice is reviewed on the cycle section 22 of the Behaviour Support Rules imposes as a condition of registration. The review date is owed to the Rules, not to a provider policy, a funding period or a template.

The full words of section 22 could not be retrieved from the Federal Register of Legislation on the day this was written, so rather than give you an interval nobody here has read, read the section itself. Three things hold without it.

First, a behaviour support plan review is a dated event with an owner. It is practitioner work, under section 17's requirement to use an NDIS behaviour support practitioner, done with the participant and the people around them, and it ends in a changed plan or a recorded decision that the plan stands. A conversation nobody wrote down is not a review. The duty sits with the specialist behaviour support provider, and the full name of the instrument is the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Restrictive Practices and Behaviour Support) Rules 2018.

Second, the date in the Rules is not the only prompt to look at a plan. A plan is written for one person at one point in their life. When the behaviour changes, when the person moves house, when their health changes, when a restrictive practice is being used more often than the plan expected, or when the participant or their guardian asks, the plan no longer fits and the practitioner should look at it again. Waiting for the date on the calendar because the date has not arrived yet is the wrong instinct.

Third, the state or territory authorisation sits alongside the Rules. Section 9 deals with the use of a regulated restrictive practice in a state or territory that has an authorisation process, so the authorisation and the plan each have their own timing and their own expiry. A current plan with a lapsed authorisation is still a problem.

What a behaviour support plan must include

A behaviour support plan containing a regulated restrictive practice must include what section 21 of the Behaviour Support Rules lists, in the form set by section 23. Both sections are short, so keep them beside your template.

In plain terms, a plan of this kind describes the person and what matters to them, explains the behaviour of concern and what it achieves for them, and sets out strategies that change the situation rather than the person: the environment, the routine, the communication and the skills around them. Any regulated restrictive practice in the plan is named, with how it is used, how it is monitored, and how it will be reduced and removed over time. Someone implementing the plan has to be able to read it and know exactly what to do.

Two tests are worth applying before a plan is accepted into service. Can a support worker on their first shift follow it without being told what it means. And does it say how the restrictive practice ends, rather than only how it is used.

Who writes the plan, and who puts it into practice

A behaviour support plan containing a regulated restrictive practice is developed by an NDIS behaviour support practitioner, under sections 17 and 18 of the Behaviour Support Rules, and it is put into practice by the provider delivering the support.

Those are two different roles, and often two different organisations. The specialist behaviour support provider employs or engages the practitioner. The Commission assesses whether a practitioner is suitable and publishes the Positive Behaviour Support Capability Framework it uses when it does, so check the Commission's own site for the current version, as at November 2026. The implementing provider is the one whose staff carry the plan out shift by shift, and the NDIS Practice Standards carry a separate module for implementing behaviour support plans.

For a provider that only implements, the monthly questions are practical ones. Does every participant with a regulated restrictive practice have a current plan on file. Is the practitioner named and reachable. Have the staff on that roster been trained in that plan, and is the training recorded. Is the review booked.

A plan is not the same as reporting restrictive practice use

A behaviour support plan and restrictive practice reporting are two separate duties. The plan sets out how a regulated restrictive practice may be used and how it will be reduced, under Part 3 of the Rules; reporting and record keeping, in sections 14 and 15, cover what was actually used.

Confusing the two is a common and costly mistake. A provider can have a well written plan, lodged and current, and still be short on its reporting, because the return of restrictive practice use is a different obligation with a different rhythm. The reverse also happens: careful reporting of every use of a practice the plan does not actually cover. We have written about the reporting side separately, in restrictive practices: what NDIS providers must record and report.

The clean way to hold it in your head is a line with three parts. Authorisation says whether the practice may be used at all in your state or territory. The behaviour support plan says how it is used and how it reduces. Reporting says how often it was used in fact. All three have to be true at the same time, and each carries its own date.

Keeping track of review dates across a caseload

Knowing which behaviour support plan reviews are due is administrative work, not clinical work, and it is where most providers lose ground.

One participant is easy to remember. Thirty participants, each with a plan date, an authorisation date, a practitioner and a set of trained staff, is not something anybody holds in their head, and a spreadsheet one person maintains is a single point of failure. What a service manager needs is a short list, refreshed on a known cycle: plans due for review in the next 60 days, plans already past their review date, authorisations expiring, and participants with a regulated restrictive practice and no current plan at all.

That list is a management report, not a clinical one. It belongs in the same monthly pack as your incident and rostering numbers, so the board can see that nothing is drifting. For a longer view of holding plan and review dates together across a caseload, see how to keep track of every NDIS participant's plan and reviews, and our NDIS overview for how the reporting pieces fit together.

Common questions

What must a behaviour support plan include?

Section 21 of the Behaviour Support Rules sets the contents of a behaviour support plan containing a regulated restrictive practice, and section 23 sets its form. In practice that means the person and their goals, the behaviour of concern and what it achieves for them, the strategies that change the environment and build skills, and for any regulated restrictive practice, how it is used, monitored and reduced.

Who can write a behaviour support plan for an NDIS participant?

A behaviour support plan containing a regulated restrictive practice is developed by an NDIS behaviour support practitioner, under sections 17 and 18 of the Behaviour Support Rules, and the Commission assesses practitioner suitability. A support coordinator, a service manager or a support worker cannot write this kind of plan, although all of them should contribute what they know to it.

What is the difference between a behaviour support plan and reporting restrictive practice use?

The behaviour support plan sets out how a regulated restrictive practice may be used and how it will be reduced, under Part 3 of the Rules. Reporting restrictive practice use is the separate duty to tell the Commission what was actually used, under sections 14 and 15. One is a plan, the other is a count of events, and keeping one in good order does not cover the other.

What happens if a behaviour support plan is not reviewed on time?

These duties are conditions of registration under the Rules, so an out of date plan is a compliance matter the Commission can act on, and an audit finds it quickly because the dates are on the file. The more immediate risk is to the participant, who is still subject to a restrictive practice under a plan that may no longer describe their situation. If a review has slipped, book it, record why, and tell the practitioner.

Does an interim behaviour support plan have a shorter review period?

An interim behaviour support plan is a bridge, used when a regulated restrictive practice is needed before a comprehensive plan can be developed. The Rules deal with the period for developing a plan in section 19 and with review of comprehensive plans in section 22, so an interim plan and a comprehensive plan do not sit on the same footing. Read those two sections together rather than assuming one cycle covers both.

Sources

• National Disability Insurance Scheme (Restrictive Practices and Behaviour Support) Rules 2018, in force, as at November 2026
• NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, behaviour support, practitioner suitability and the NDIS Practice Standards, as at November 2026