NDIS explained
NDIS glossary
The words that come up in NDIS plans, meetings and letters, each explained in a sentence or two. General definitions only: your own plan may use these terms in a particular way.
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Glossary terms by letter
A
- Active overnight support
Support overnight where a worker stays awake and works through the night. It suits people who need regular help overnight, such as repositioning, frequent checks or support that cannot wait.
B
- Behaviour support plan
A written plan, prepared by an NDIS behaviour support practitioner with the person and the people around them, that sets out positive ways to support someone whose behaviour may put themselves or others at risk. Any regulated restrictive practice must be included in it.
C
- Capacity Building supports
One of the three support budgets in an NDIS plan. It funds supports that help you build skills and independence over time, such as therapy, support coordination, plan management and learning everyday life skills. Funding is usually tied to the category it sits in.
- Capital supports
One of the three support budgets in an NDIS plan. It funds bigger, one-off investments: assistive technology, home modifications and Specialist Disability Accommodation. Capital supports usually need quotes or evidence first and can only be used for the item they were approved for.
- Choice and control
A core idea of the NDIS: you decide what matters to you, which providers you use and how your supports are delivered, within what your plan funds. It also means you can change providers if something is not working.
- NDIS Code of Conduct
A set of rules that every NDIS provider and worker must follow, registered or not. It has eight elements, including acting with respect, respecting privacy, delivering supports safely and competently, raising concerns, preventing violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and harm, and charging fair prices.
- NDIS CommissionAlso called: NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
The independent government body that regulates NDIS providers and workers. It registers providers, handles complaints and reportable incidents, and oversees behaviour support and restrictive practices. You can contact the Commission at any stage on 1800 035 544.
- Core supports
One of the three support budgets in an NDIS plan. It funds everyday support: help with daily life, consumables such as continence products, help to take part in the community, and some transport. Supported Independent Living is usually funded here.
D
- Dignity of risk
The right to make your own choices and try new things, even when there is some risk involved. Good support helps you understand the risks and plan for them, rather than stopping you from living the life you want.
E
- Easy Read
A way of writing information with short sentences, everyday words and pictures beside the text, so it is easier to understand. You can ask the NDIA and providers for Easy Read versions of important documents.
F
- Functional capacity assessment
An assessment, usually by an occupational therapist, of how your disability affects everyday activities such as personal care, cooking, moving around, communicating and managing a home. The report is often key evidence for home and living supports.
H
- Home and living supports
The NDIS name for supports that help you live as independently as possible in a home that suits you. They include Supported Independent Living, Individualised Living Options, Specialist Disability Accommodation, Medium Term Accommodation and Short Term Accommodation.
I
- Individualised Living Options (ILO)Also called: ILO
A home and living option designed around one person. It often mixes paid support with support from people in your life, such as a host or a housemate. It usually starts with an exploration and design stage before the support model is set up.
- Informal supports
Help that is not paid for, from family, friends, neighbours or community groups. The NDIA considers informal supports when it decides what is reasonable and necessary to fund.
L
- Local area coordinator (LAC)Also called: LAC
A person from an organisation that partners with the NDIA in your community. A LAC can help you understand the NDIS, prepare for planning, use your plan and connect with community and mainstream services.
M
- Medium Term Accommodation (MTA)Also called: MTA
Funding for a place to live for a limited time while your long-term home is not ready, for example while home modifications are finished or an SDA home is being built. It covers accommodation only, not your support.
N
- NDIAAlso called: National Disability Insurance Agency
The government agency that runs the NDIS. The NDIA decides who can join the scheme, what is funded in each plan, and how plans are reassessed. Providers do not make these decisions.
- NDIA-managedAlso called: Agency-managed
A way of managing NDIS funding where the NDIA pays your providers directly. You can only use providers registered with the NDIS Commission, and prices must sit within the NDIS price limits.
- NDISAlso called: National Disability Insurance Scheme
The Australian Government scheme that funds reasonable and necessary supports for eligible people with permanent and significant disability, so they can live the life they choose.
- Nominee
A person the NDIA appoints to act or make decisions for a participant, only when that is needed. A correspondence nominee can deal with the NDIA on your behalf; a plan nominee can also make some plan decisions. Most participants do not need one.
O
- Occupational therapist reportAlso called: OT report
A report written by an occupational therapist about how you manage everyday tasks and what support, equipment or home design would help. It often includes a functional capacity assessment and recommendations for home and living supports.
- On-site Overnight Assistance (OOA)Also called: OOA
A shared overnight support for some people living in Specialist Disability Accommodation, usually where several SDA apartments are close together. A worker is on site overnight to respond when someone needs help. It is funded separately from the SDA itself.
P
- Participant
A person with disability who has been accepted into the NDIS and has an NDIS plan.
- Passive overnight supportAlso called: Sleepover
Support overnight where a worker sleeps at the home and gets up if someone needs them. It suits people who need help now and then overnight, or who need someone close by.
- Plan manager
An organisation that pays your providers from your NDIS funding, keeps track of your budget and sends you statements. With a plan manager you can use registered and unregistered providers, and prices must sit within the NDIS price limits. The NDIA funds plan management separately, so it does not come out of your other supports.
- Plan reassessment
When the NDIA looks at your plan again and makes a new one. It can happen when your plan is due, when your needs or situation change, or when you ask for one. Smaller fixes can sometimes be made through a plan variation instead.
- Plan variation
A smaller change to your current plan, such as fixing a mistake, adding a support after a crisis or changing how your plan is managed, without a full reassessment. The NDIA decides whether a variation or a reassessment is the right path.
- NDIS Practice Standards
The quality standards registered providers are audited against. They cover things like your rights, how providers are run, how support is delivered and the environment it is delivered in. Some supports, such as Supported Independent Living, have their own extra standards.
- Price limit
The most a provider can charge for a support when the funding is NDIA-managed or plan-managed. The Australian Government sets price limits on NDIA advice. Self-managed participants can sometimes agree to different prices.
- NDIS Pricing Schedule
The NDIA publication that lists NDIS supports and the most that can be charged for them. The current edition is the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026–27. The rules about how supports can be claimed sit alongside it in the NDIS pricing arrangements.
R
- Reasonable and necessary
The test the NDIA uses to decide what to fund. In general, a support must relate to your disability, help you pursue your goals, be value for money, be likely to work, and take into account what family, community and other services can reasonably provide.
- Registered provider
A provider approved by the NDIS Commission to deliver particular supports, called registration groups. Registered providers are audited against the NDIS Practice Standards. Some supports, including Supported Independent Living and SDA, can only be delivered by registered providers.
- Restrictive practice
Anything that restricts the rights or freedom of movement of a person with disability, such as seclusion or physical, chemical, mechanical or environmental restraint. In the NDIS these are tightly regulated, must be authorised and part of a behaviour support plan, and must be reported to the NDIS Commission.
- Roster of Care
A week-long picture of the support someone needs at home: which hours, what kind of help, and whether it is one to one or shared with housemates. It is the basis of a Supported Independent Living quote.
S
- SDA design categories
The four design standards an SDA home can be built to: Improved Liveability, Fully Accessible, Robust and High Physical Support. The NDIA decides which design category, if any, suits your needs.
- Self-managed
A way of managing NDIS funding where you, or someone you choose, pay providers and claim the money from the NDIA. You can use registered and unregistered providers and have more flexibility on price, but you keep the records and receipts.
- Service agreement
A written agreement between you and a provider about the supports they will give, when and how, what they cost, how to make changes or end the agreement, and how to raise a complaint. Read it carefully before you sign.
- Short Term Accommodation (STA)Also called: STA, sometimes called respite
Funding for a short stay away from home, with support, accommodation, meals and activities included. It can give you a break, a chance to try new things, and a break for the people who usually support you.
- Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA)Also called: SDA
Funded housing designed or built for people with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. SDA pays for the home, not the support. The NDIA decides who is eligible, and only a small group of participants are.
- Specialist support coordinator
A support coordinator with specialist skills, often an allied health background, funded when someone has very complex needs or a situation that needs a higher level of help, such as a housing crisis or involvement with several systems at once.
- Support coordinator
A person funded in your plan to help you understand and use it: finding providers, setting up service agreements, solving problems and getting ready for your next reassessment. Their job is to build your ability to manage your own supports.
- Support ratio
How many people one worker supports at the same time. 1:1 means one worker for one person; 1:2 means one worker shared by two people. A Roster of Care usually mixes ratios across the day.
- Supported decision-making
Helping a person make their own decisions, with the information, time and support they need, rather than someone else deciding for them. It is the starting point for good support, and a nominee or guardian should be a last resort.
- Supported Independent Living (SIL)Also called: SIL
Help with, or supervision of, daily tasks at home, usually across much of the day and often overnight, worked out through a Roster of Care. SIL is support, not housing: it never pays for rent, food or bills.
T
- TIS NationalAlso called: Translating and Interpreting Service
A national interpreting service. NDIS participants can usually use it at no cost to talk with the NDIA and many providers. Call 131 450 and ask for an interpreter in your language.
W
- NDIS Worker Screening Check
A check of whether a person who works closely with people with disability poses a risk to them. It is run by state and territory screening units, and workers in certain roles with registered providers must hold a clearance.
These definitions are general information, not advice about your plan. NDIS rules and terms change from time to time. For your own situation, check with the NDIA, your local area coordinator or your support coordinator. Is a word missing? Tell us and we will add it.
Still not sure what something means?
Ask us. We are happy to explain any NDIS term, or how it applies to the supports we offer, in plain words.