A
Access request #
Also: Access decision, eligibility
The application to become an NDIS participant. The NDIA decides whether a person meets the access criteria in the NDIS Act, which cover age, residence, and either a permanent and significant disability or early intervention requirements.
Why it matters: People still waiting on an access decision have no plan and no funding, sometimes for months. If your intake script does not ask “do you have an approved plan yet?”, you will spend real time on enquiries that cannot buy anything.
Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) #
Also: ART; replaced the AAT
The independent tribunal that reviews NDIA decisions after an internal review has been completed. It replaced the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in October 2024.
Why it matters: If a participant tells you their funding is “at the tribunal”, their budget is contested and may change. Worth knowing before you build a roster or a service agreement on top of it.
Allied health #
Also: Therapy supports
Therapy and clinical supports delivered by qualified professionals: occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology, psychology, dietetics, exercise physiology and similar. Mostly funded from the capacity building budget.
Why it matters: Allied health is the most price-exposed corner of the scheme right now, and the 2026-27 claiming changes landed hardest here. Marketing that leads on price rather than outcomes ages very badly in this segment.
Annual Pricing Review (APR) #
Also: APR
The NDIA’s yearly review of the prices it recommends for NDIS supports. Its outcomes drive the price limits published for the following financial year.
Why it matters: The APR is the one scheduled event each year that changes your margin without you doing anything. Read it the week it lands, not when your bookkeeper flags a shortfall in September.
Approved quality auditor #
Also: Auditor
An independent auditing body approved by the NDIS Commission to audit providers against the NDIS Practice Standards. Providers choose and pay their own auditor from the approved list.
Why it matters: Your auditor is not the regulator, and quotes vary widely for identical scope. Get more than one, and scope it against the registration groups you actually intend to deliver.
Assistance with daily life #
Also: Daily living supports
A core supports category covering help with everyday tasks: personal care, meal preparation, cleaning and household tasks, including supports delivered in shared living arrangements.
Assistive technology (AT) #
Also: AT
Equipment or devices that help a participant do something they otherwise could not, from non-slip bathmats to power wheelchairs and communication devices. Low-cost AT is generally bought from core supports; higher-cost AT sits in the capital budget.
Australian Consumer Law (ACL) #
Also: ACL, ACCC
The national law prohibiting misleading or deceptive conduct and false or misleading representations. It applies to NDIS providers exactly as it applies to any other business, and the NDIA has said it reports misleading provider conduct to the ACCC.
Why it matters: Testimonials you cannot substantiate, outcomes you cannot evidence, and implied registration you do not hold are consumer-law problems, not just taste problems. This is the single biggest legal exposure in provider marketing.
C
Capacity building supports #
Also: CB budget
The plan budget for supports that build a participant’s skills and independence: therapy, employment supports, support coordination and similar. It can hold funding across up to nine support categories, and that funding is stated, so it cannot be moved between categories.
Why it matters: When a participant says “my therapy funding is running out”, that is a stated budget, not flexible money. It is why an allied health provider cannot quietly absorb an overrun the way a core supports provider sometimes can.
Capital supports #
The plan budget for higher-cost assets: assistive technology, home modifications and Specialist Disability Accommodation. Capital supports are stated, and generally require a quote or an assessment before they can be used.
Certification audit #
The deeper of the two registration audits, applying to higher-risk supports such as SIL, personal care and behaviour support. It assesses the Core Module plus any relevant supplementary modules, and includes a site visit and interviews with participants and workers.
Why it matters: Certification runs in months, not weeks. If your growth plan assumes you will be delivering SIL next quarter and you have not started your audit, marketing is not your bottleneck.
Citations (NAP) #
Also: NAP consistency
Mentions of your business name, address and phone number across directories, association listings and data aggregators.
Why it matters: Conflicting details across listings suppress local rankings. Providers who move office, update Google and forget the other forty listings quietly lose map visibility and never work out why.
Complaint #
Anyone can complain to the NDIS Commission about NDIS supports or services, including about how a provider markets itself. Registered providers must also operate their own complaints management system.
Why it matters: A complaint about pressure selling or a misleading claim lands with the same regulator that holds your registration, and the Code of Conduct applies whether or not you are registered.
Conflict of interest #
Also: COI
A situation where a provider’s commercial interest could influence the advice or choices offered to a participant. The classic NDIS example is one organisation delivering both support coordination and the supports it coordinates.
Why it matters: If you take support coordinator referrals, expect to be asked how you manage this. Providers with a clear written answer get shortlisted. Providers who bristle at the question do not.
Consumables #
A core supports category covering everyday, low-cost items used up in the course of a support, such as continence products and low-cost assistive technology.
Conversion rate #
The share of website visitors who take the action you want, usually submitting an enquiry form, calling, or completing a referral form.
Why it matters: Doubling conversion rate has the same effect on enquiry volume as doubling traffic, usually at a fraction of the cost and far faster. Fix the site before buying more clicks.
Core Module #
The set of NDIS Practice Standards that applies to every registered provider delivering higher-risk supports. It comprises 24 standards covering rights and responsibilities, provider governance and operational management, the provision of supports, and the support environment.
Core supports #
Also: Core budget
The plan budget for everyday disability-related supports, holding funding across up to three support categories: assistance with daily life, assistance with social and community participation, consumables, and assistive technology maintenance, repairs and rental. Core funding is generally flexible across its categories.
Why it matters: Core is where most provider revenue sits, and its flexibility cuts both ways: a participant can move spend toward you without a plan change, and away from you just as easily.
Cost per enquiry (CPE) #
Also: CPE, cost per lead
Total spend on a channel divided by the number of qualified enquiries it produced.
Why it matters: Rankings and impressions do not fill a bed. Cost per enquiry, sitting next to your enquiry-to-participant conversion rate, is the only marketing number that connects cleanly to revenue.
CPC (cost per click) #
Also: Cost per click
What a single click on a paid search ad costs you.
Why it matters: NDIS keywords are expensive relative to most local services, because one won participant can be worth six figures a year. Broad, unfiltered campaigns burn a month of budget in days.
F
Flexible funding #
Also: Flexible budget
Funding a participant can spend across a range of NDIS supports, rather than on one named support. Core supports are the main example in current plans, and a flexible budget is also central to the new framework plans being introduced.
Foundational supports #
Disability supports intended to sit outside individual NDIS plans, agreed in principle between the Commonwealth and the states and territories. Design and delivery arrangements were still being worked through at the time of writing.
Why it matters: This is the term most likely to be misrepresented to you by a consultant selling readiness services. Until the rules are published, treat any specific claim about what foundational supports will fund, or exactly when, as a forecast rather than a fact.
Functional behaviour assessment (FBA) #
Also: FBA
The process of determining and understanding the function or purpose behind a person’s behaviour. It is defined in the NDIS behaviour support rules and precedes a behaviour support plan.
Funding component #
A named part of a participant’s total funding amount, such as a specific support or support category, which carries its own amount and its own funding period.
Funding period #
The window of time during which part of a participant’s funding is available to spend. Funding periods do not change how much funding is in a plan, only when it can be used. They were introduced by the October 2024 legislation with 12-month periods, and from 19 May 2025 shorter periods, usually three months, have been applied progressively to new and reassessed plans. Unused funds roll over to the next funding period within the same plan, but do not roll over into a new plan.
Why it matters: This is the change that quietly reshaped provider cash flow. A participant who could once front-load a year of supports now has a quarterly ceiling. If your service agreement or your capacity planning assumes annual availability, it is out of date.
N
NDIA #
Also: National Disability Insurance Agency
The National Disability Insurance Agency: the Commonwealth agency that runs the scheme. It decides access, builds plans, makes pricing recommendations, pays NDIA-managed claims and publishes the quarterly data this site cites.
NDIA-managed #
Also: Agency-managed
Funding managed by the NDIA, which pays providers directly through the provider portal. NDIA-managed participants can only use registered providers. NDIA-managed payments made up 27% of the $12.4 billion paid to providers in the March 2026 quarter.
Why it matters: This is the honest commercial case for registration, and it is a smaller share of the money than most registration consultants imply. Weigh it against the audit cost before you commit.
NDIS #
Also: National Disability Insurance Scheme
The National Disability Insurance Scheme: Australia’s national scheme funding supports for people with permanent and significant disability. At 31 March 2026 it supported 774,456 participants, with 277,376 active providers, and paid $12.4 billion to providers in that quarter alone.
Why it matters: The scheme is large, but the provider market is larger than most operators assume: roughly 277,000 active providers chasing the same participants. Being good is not a differentiator. Being findable, and being specific about who you serve, is.
NDIS Act #
Also: National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013
The National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013: the legislation that creates the scheme, the NDIA and the NDIS Commission, and defines who can become a participant and what counts as an NDIS support. It was substantially amended in 2024.
NDIS behaviour support practitioner #
A practitioner the NDIS Commission considers suitable to develop behaviour support plans, including plans that contain regulated restrictive practices.
NDIS Code of Conduct #
Also: The Code
The behaviour rules that apply to every NDIS provider and worker, registered or not. They require acting with respect and integrity, delivering supports safely and competently, acting with honesty and transparency, promptly raising concerns, and not engaging in violence, exploitation, neglect, abuse or sexual misconduct.
Why it matters: The Code is the reason NDIS marketing has rules ordinary businesses do not have. Manufactured urgency, inflated claims, pressure tactics and undisclosed incentives are conduct issues, and they are enforced by the same regulator that can suspend your registration or ban you.
NDIS Commission #
Also: NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission: the independent regulator. It registers providers, sets and monitors the NDIS Practice Standards and the Code of Conduct, handles complaints and reportable incidents, oversees behaviour support, and takes compliance and enforcement action.
NDIS logo guidelines #
Also: Registered provider logo, “I heart NDIS”
The NDIA’s rules on using its trade marks. Only registered providers may use the “I/we heart NDIS” or “I/we support NDIS” marks with the “Registered Provider” tagline, and no business may use the NDIS logo without written consent from the NDIA.
Why it matters: A large share of provider websites breach this by accident. Plain text, “registered NDIS provider”, carries the same trust signal with none of the risk. Implying registration you do not hold is also a consumer-law problem.
NDIS plan #
The document approved by the NDIA setting out a participant’s goals, their funded supports, the total funding amount and how the funding is managed.
NDIS Practice Standards #
Also: Quality indicators
The quality standards registered providers are audited against, with quality indicators showing auditors how compliance can be demonstrated. They are structured as a verification module for lower-risk supports, a core module for higher-risk supports, and supplementary modules for specialised supports.
NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (PAPL) #
Also: PAPL, formerly the NDIS Price Guide
The former single document that set both the price limits and the claiming rules for NDIS supports, and the successor to the older NDIS Price Guide. It was replaced by the NDIS Pricing Schedule from 1 July 2026.
NDIS Pricing Schedule #
Also: Replaced the PAPL from 1 July 2026
The NDIA document containing the price limit tables for NDIS supports. From 1 July 2026 it replaced the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits, with claiming rules, conditions and definitions moved into separate documents.
Why it matters: If a template, a consultant or a software vendor still points you to “the PAPL” for claiming rules, their material predates 1 July 2026. Check the date on everything you were given.
NDIS Provider Register #
Also: Find a registered provider
The NDIS Commission’s public search of providers whose registration is approved, suspended or revoked.
Why it matters: Anyone can check your registration status in seconds, including a coordinator deciding whether to shortlist you. Make sure the trading name on the register matches the name on your website.
NDIS support (section 10) #
Also: The section 10 lists
The definition inserted into section 10 of the NDIS Act on 3 October 2024, setting out what NDIS funding can and cannot be spent on. Since that date, participants can only spend plan funding on things that are NDIS supports.
Why it matters: Every “can I claim this?” conversation now starts here. If a service you are marketing to participants is not an NDIS support, no amount of enquiry volume turns it into revenue.
NDIS Worker Orientation Module #
Also: “Quality, Safety and You”
The NDIS Commission’s free online orientation module, “Quality, Safety and You”, which explains the Code of Conduct from a participant’s perspective. It is widely used as an induction requirement for new workers.
NDIS Worker Screening Check #
Also: Clearance, WSC
The nationally consistent clearance for people working in risk-assessed roles with participants, issued by state and territory screening units and recorded in the NDIS Worker Screening Database. Registered providers must ensure people in risk-assessed roles hold a clearance. Unregistered providers are not legally required to, but the Commission recommends it.
New framework plan #
Also: The new way of planning
The plan format introduced by the 2024 legislation, built around a total funding amount, funding components, funding periods, and a split between flexible funding and stated supports. The NDIA has been introducing the new way of planning progressively, so participants move across over time rather than all at once.
Why it matters: For a while you will have participants on old-style plans and participants on new framework plans at the same time, with different rules about what can be moved and when. Train intake staff to ask which one they are on.
Nominee #
Also: Plan nominee, correspondence nominee
A person appointed to act for, or on behalf of, a participant. A plan nominee can make decisions about the plan; a correspondence nominee can receive information from, and give information to, the NDIA.
Why it matters: The nominee is very often who you are actually marketing to and negotiating with. Content written only in the second person to participants misses the parent, sibling or partner who makes the call.
Non-face-to-face support (NFF) #
Also: NFF
Time spent on work for a specific participant that is not delivered in their presence, such as writing a report. It is claimable only against support items where the support catalogue permits it.
P
PACE #
The NDIA’s current computer system for plans, payments and provider interactions. It brought the my NDIS provider portal, participant endorsement of providers, and the end of service bookings for participants on PACE plans.
Participant #
A person with an approved NDIS plan and funding. There were 774,456 participants at 31 March 2026.
Why it matters: Participant, not client, not customer, not patient. Getting the word right on your website is the cheapest credibility signal available, and getting it wrong tells every support coordinator who reads it that you are new.
Participant endorsement (“my providers”) #
Also: My providers, endorsed provider
On PACE, a participant records the providers they have chosen to work with. Endorsed providers are known as that participant’s “my providers”. Endorsement replaced service bookings for participants on PACE plans, and with the participant’s consent an endorsed provider can see relevant parts of the plan.
Why it matters: If a participant has not endorsed you, your claiming and your visibility both suffer. Make “please add us as one of your providers” part of your onboarding script, not an afterthought three invoices later.
Payment request #
Also: Claim
The claim a provider submits for NDIA-managed supports through the provider portal, quoting the support item number, dates and amount. Requests can be entered individually or by bulk upload.
Plan management #
Also: Ways to manage your funding
How a participant’s funding is administered. There are three options, self-managed, plan-managed and NDIA-managed, and a participant can use different options for different parts of their plan.
Why it matters: This single field decides whether an unregistered provider can serve someone at all. Put it on your enquiry form, above the message box.
Plan manager #
A registered provider funded from a participant’s plan to handle its financial administration: receiving invoices, paying providers and tracking the budget.
Why it matters: Plan managers hold the invoicing relationship for the largest slice of the market and get asked for provider suggestions constantly. They are the referral channel most providers never deliberately market to.
Plan reassessment #
Also: Formerly “plan review”
The process in which the NDIA replaces a participant’s plan with a new one, applying the reasonable and necessary criteria again. It replaced the older term “plan review”, which now generally refers to reviewing a decision.
Why it matters: A reassessment is the moment a participant’s provider mix is most likely to change, and the moment a support coordinator is most likely to be looking at alternatives. Know your participants’ reassessment dates.
Plan variation #
A change to an existing plan without replacing it, such as adding funding or correcting an error. It is distinct from a reassessment, which produces an entirely new plan.
Plan-managed #
Funding administered by a plan manager. Plan-managed participants can use both registered and unregistered providers. 526,376 participants were plan-managed at 31 March 2026, and plan-managed payments made up 64% of the $12.4 billion paid to providers in the March 2026 quarter.
Why it matters: This is the commercial centre of gravity of the scheme: roughly two thirds of participants, nearly two thirds of the money, and no registration requirement to serve them.
Platform provider #
Also: Online marketplace
A provider that connects participants and support workers through an online marketplace. The NDIS Commission describes these as often facilitating high-volume, low-visibility interactions. Platform providers must be registered from 1 July 2026.
Price limit #
Also: Price cap
The maximum a registered provider may charge for a given support item. Participants and providers can agree a lower price. Limits vary by support item and by factors such as time of day, day of the week and remoteness.
Why it matters: Price limits are ceilings, not recommended prices, and they are not a rate card. Worth remembering before you publish yours.
Provider travel #
Claiming for the time a worker spends travelling to deliver a support, where the relevant support item allows it and the conditions are met.
Psychosocial recovery coach #
Also: Recovery coach
A funded support for participants with psychosocial disability, focused on building recovery skills and helping the person engage with services. It is distinct from support coordination, which focuses on organising the plan.
R
Reasonable and necessary #
Also: The funding test
The statutory test the NDIA applies when deciding whether to fund a support. It considers, among other things, whether the support relates to the participant’s disability, represents value for money, is likely to be effective and beneficial, and is not more appropriately funded by another service system.
Recurring supports #
A support budget used for regular, recurring payments in a plan, listed alongside core, capacity building and capital supports.
Referral pathway #
Also: Referral source
The route by which a new participant reaches you: a support coordinator, a plan manager, an LAC, a hospital discharge team, a directory, a search result, or word of mouth.
Why it matters: Most providers cannot name their top three. Ask every enquiry how they found you and write it down. It is the cheapest analytics you will ever run, and it usually contradicts the assumption the marketing budget was built on.
Registered provider #
A provider approved by the NDIS Commission and audited against the NDIS Practice Standards for the registration groups it holds. Registration is required to serve NDIA-managed participants, to deliver plan management, and, from 1 July 2026, to deliver SIL or operate as a platform provider.
Registration groups #
The categories of support a provider applies to be registered for. They determine which Practice Standards modules apply, and therefore which audit you face.
Why it matters: Registering for groups you do not actually deliver is the most common self-inflicted cost in the sector. It can push you from a verification audit into certification, and it adds evidence you then have to maintain forever.
Regulated restrictive practice #
Also: RRP, restrictive practice
A practice that restricts a person’s rights or freedom of movement, falling within one of the categories regulated under the NDIS rules. Its use is subject to conditions: it must be contained in a behaviour support plan lodged with the Commission, implementing providers must report use to the Commission monthly, and unregistered providers must not use them at all.
Reportable incident #
An act, or alleged act, that a registered provider must notify to the NDIS Commission, covering serious harm to a participant and the unauthorised use of a restrictive practice. Most reportable incidents must be notified within 24 hours; the unauthorised use of a restrictive practice must be notified within 5 business days.
Roster of care #
Also: ROC
The document setting out what supports a participant receives in their home each week and how they will be delivered: which workers, at what times, and shared with whom. It is the basis on which SIL funding is quoted and agreed.
Why it matters: The roster of care is where SIL revenue is actually decided. Marketing fills the vacancy; the roster determines what that vacancy is worth.
S
Schema markup #
Also: Structured data, JSON-LD
Structured data added to a page’s code that tells search engines what the page contains: an organisation, a service, a location, an FAQ, or a defined term, as on this page.
Self-managed #
The participant, or their nominee, manages their own funding: paying providers directly and claiming from the NDIA. Self-managed participants have the widest choice of providers. Self-managed payments made up 9% of the $12.4 billion paid to providers in the March 2026 quarter.
Why it matters: Self-managers behave like ordinary consumers. They compare, they read reviews, they ask about price up front. Marketing that works on them looks like normal service-business marketing.
SEO (search engine optimisation) #
Work that makes a site more likely to rank in search results: technical health, content that answers questions people actually ask, and credible references from other sites.
Service agreement #
The written agreement between a provider and a participant setting out the supports to be delivered, prices, notice periods, cancellation terms and how either party ends the arrangement.
Why it matters: With shorter funding periods now in play, agreements written on annual assumptions cause disputes. Review your cancellation and notice clauses against the current claiming rules, not the ones you signed off in 2023.
Service booking #
Also: Legacy term
The older mechanism for reserving part of an NDIA-managed budget with a specific provider. For participants on PACE plans, service bookings were replaced by participant endorsement.
Why it matters: A legacy term. If a system, a template or a trainer is still built around service bookings, it has not been updated for PACE.
Short notice cancellation #
Also: SNC, no show
A cancellation where the participant does not show up for a scheduled support within a reasonable time, or is not present at the agreed place. A provider may only charge for it if they could not find alternative billable work for the worker and still had to pay them for the time.
Short Term Accommodation (STA) #
Also: STA, respite
Funding for short supported stays away from home, covering support, accommodation, food and activities. It is commonly used to give carers a break.
Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) #
Also: SDA
Housing built to specific design standards for people with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. SDA is the dwelling itself, and it is funded separately from the support delivered inside it.
Why it matters: SDA and SIL are routinely confused, sometimes by providers who deliver one of them. Getting the distinction right on your website is a competence signal to every support coordinator who reads it.
Specialist support coordination #
Also: Level 3 support coordination
Level 3 support coordination, for participants in complex situations. The NDIA expects it to be delivered by a suitably qualified and experienced practitioner.
Stated support #
Also: Stated funding
Funding that must be spent on the specific support or support category it is named against, and cannot be moved elsewhere. Capacity building categories and capital supports are stated.
Supplementary module #
An additional set of NDIS Practice Standards that applies to specialised supports, such as implementing behaviour support plans or delivering high intensity daily personal activities, on top of the core module.
Support catalogue #
The NDIA’s list of every support item a provider can claim against, showing the maximum price for each and which claim types apply, including whether non-face-to-face support, provider travel, short notice cancellation, NDIA requested reports and irregular SIL supports can be claimed.
Why it matters: The support catalogue, not the brochure, is where you find out whether the service you are about to market is actually claimable the way you intend to deliver it.
Support category #
The grouping a support sits in within a budget, such as “assistance with daily life” in core supports. Core supports can hold up to 3 categories, capacity building up to 9, and capital 2.
Support connection #
Also: Level 1 support coordination
Level 1 support coordination: short-term help to understand a plan and connect with providers.
Support coordinator #
Also: Coordination of supports (level 2)
A funded professional who helps a participant understand and use their plan and connect with providers. There are three levels: support connection (level 1), coordination of supports (level 2), and specialist support coordination (level 3).
Why it matters: For higher-value supports, SIL above all, coordinators effectively decide the shortlist. They are searching, comparing and asking peers constantly, and they remain the most under-marketed-to audience in the sector.
Support item #
Also: Line item, item number
A specific line in the support catalogue with its own item number, unit of measure (an hour, each, a day, a week) and price limit. Every claim and most invoices quote one.
Support needs assessment #
Also: Needs assessment
An assessment of a participant’s support needs used to inform the funding in a plan under the new planning arrangements. The NDIA has published an operational guideline for performing one; the detail continues to develop as the new way of planning rolls out.
Supported Independent Living (SIL) #
Also: SIL
Personal support for people with higher support needs who need some level of help at home all the time, meaning support worker help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is often, though not always, delivered in shared housing. At 31 March 2026 there were 36,808 SIL participants, receiving an average of $447,100 in SIL payments a year.
Why it matters: An empty SIL bed is the most expensive vacancy in the sector. At those averages, one filled place is worth more than most providers spend on marketing in a year, which is why SIL marketing justifies effort that other supports simply do not.
