How to Choose the Right NDIS Provider

Once your NDIS plan is approved, the decisions that shape your day-to-day life are about who delivers your supports. The NDIS gives you choice and control over your providers, which is a genuine strength of the scheme, but it also means the responsibility for choosing well sits with you. This guide covers what to look for.

Registered or unregistered?

Registered providers have been audited against the NDIS Practice Standards by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Their workers hold NDIS worker screening checks and the organisation must have complaints and incident processes in place. Unregistered providers can still be good, but they have not gone through that audit.

The practical difference is funding. If your plan is NDIA-managed, you can only use registered providers. If it is plan-managed or self-managed, you can use either. Avida Care is a Registered NDIS Provider, which means we can support participants however their plan is managed.

What to check before you sign

• Experience with needs like yours. Ask how many participants with a similar disability or age they currently support, and what that support looks like.
• Who will actually turn up. Ask whether you will have consistent workers or a rotating roster, and whether you can meet a worker before the first shift.
• Language and culture. If you or your family speak Mandarin, Cantonese or another language, ask whether workers who speak it are available, not just office staff.
• Pricing. Rates should be at or below the NDIS price limits, with travel and cancellation terms stated up front.
• Communication. Who do you call when something goes wrong, and how quickly do they respond?
• A written service agreement. It should set out the supports, the prices, how to cancel and how to complain. Do not accept verbal arrangements.

Questions worth asking

1. How do you match workers to participants?
2. What happens if my regular worker is sick?
3. How do you report to me and my support coordinator?
4. Can I change workers if it is not a good fit?
5. What training do your workers have, and is it ongoing?
6. How do you handle complaints?

Notice not just the answers but how comfortable the provider is being asked.

Warning signs

• Pressure to sign a long service agreement at the first meeting.
• Vague answers about who will deliver the support.
• Charging for services you did not receive, or rounding up hours.
• Trying to take over your whole plan when you only asked for one service.
• Workers who do not know your plan or goals when they arrive.
• Reluctance to put anything in writing.

Any of these is a reason to pause. Several together are a reason to look elsewhere.

You can change your mind

Choosing a provider is not a permanent decision. If the support is not working, you can end a service agreement by giving the notice period in the agreement, usually two to four weeks, and move to a new provider. Your support coordinator or plan manager can help with the handover.

Talk to us

Avida Care is a Registered NDIS Provider supporting families across Australia, with support workers, nurses and allied health staff who speak English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Call 0477 399 714 or 0421 986 841, or contact us for a no-obligation conversation about your plan.