NDIS & aged care glossary

NDISFull guide

National Disability Insurance Scheme

The NDIS is Australia’s national scheme for funding supports for people with permanent and significant disability. Each participant receives an individual plan with funded budgets, and chooses the providers who deliver their supports. It is administered by the National Disability Insurance Agency and funds around 700,000 Australians.

NDIAFull guide

National Disability Insurance Agency

The NDIA is the Commonwealth agency that administers the NDIS. It assesses eligibility, approves participant plans and budgets, sets the price limits providers may charge, and pays claims submitted by registered providers. It is distinct from the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, which regulates provider conduct.

ParticipantFull guide

A participant is a person whose access to the NDIS has been approved and who holds an individual, funded NDIS plan. The term is used in place of “client” or “patient” throughout the scheme, reflecting that the person directs their own supports rather than receiving a service allocated to them.

Plan managementFull guide

Plan management is where a registered plan manager holds and pays a participant’s NDIS funding on their behalf. The plan manager receives provider invoices, checks them against the participant’s budget and the price guide, claims from the NDIA, and pays the provider — while the participant keeps full choice of provider.

Self-managementFull guide

Self-management is where an NDIS participant, or their nominee, manages their own plan funding. They choose and pay providers directly, claim payment from the NDIA, and keep records and receipts. Self-managing participants can use registered or unregistered providers, and the NDIS price limits do not apply to self-managed funding.

Support coordinationFull guide

Coordination of Supports

Support coordination is a funded NDIS support in which a coordinator helps a participant understand and use their plan: finding and connecting providers, negotiating service agreements, building the participant’s capacity to manage their own supports, and resolving problems when supports break down.

SILFull guide

Supported Independent Living

SIL (supported independent living) is NDIS funding for help with daily tasks and personal care for a participant living in a shared or individual home, often including overnight support. It pays for the support, not the housing. The NDIA works out each participant’s SIL funding from evidence of their support needs and the NDIS pricing schedule.

SDAFull guide

Specialist Disability Accommodation

SDA is NDIS funding for the physical dwelling a participant with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs lives in. It pays the housing provider for accessible, purpose-built housing. SDA covers the building; SIL covers the support workers inside it, and the two are funded and claimed separately.

Core SupportsFull guide

Core Supports is the NDIS budget category funding everyday assistance: personal care, help with household tasks, community participation, transport, and consumables. It is the most flexible category — funding generally moves freely between most Core support items — and it is where the majority of a typical participant’s plan sits.

Capacity BuildingFull guide

Capacity Building is the NDIS budget category funding supports that build a participant’s skills and independence rather than assisting with daily tasks. It covers therapy, employment supports, improved living arrangements, and support coordination. Unlike Core, funding is allocated to specific sub-categories and cannot be moved between them.

Capital SupportsFull guide

Capital Supports is the NDIS budget category funding one-off, higher-cost items: assistive technology, home and vehicle modifications, and Specialist Disability Accommodation. Funding is tied to specific approved items, usually requires a quote and often an allied health assessment, and cannot be spent on anything else.

Reasonable and necessaryFull guide

“Reasonable and necessary” is the statutory test the NDIA applies when deciding whether to fund a support. The support must relate to the participant’s disability, represent value for money, be likely to be effective and beneficial, take account of informal supports, and not be the responsibility of another service system such as health or education.

Plan nomineeFull guide

A plan nominee is a person appointed to act for an NDIS participant in relation to their plan — making decisions about supports, or doing things the participant would otherwise do themselves. Nominees are appointed by the NDIA, usually at the participant’s request, and must act according to the participant’s wishes where possible.

Service agreementFull guide

A service agreement is the written agreement between an NDIS participant and a provider setting out what supports will be delivered, how much they cost, and the terms covering cancellations, changes and ending the arrangement. The NDIS Practice Standards expect one for each participant, agreed before supports begin.

Roster of careFull guide

RoC

A roster of care is a weekly schedule of the supports a participant receives in supported independent living, showing who provides support, when, and at what ratio. Providers use it to plan and explain staffing in a home. Under current NDIA guidelines it does not decide the amount or type of supports funded in a plan.

Support ratioFull guide

1:2, 1:3, 2:1 support

A support ratio describes how many workers support how many participants at once. 1:1 is one worker to one participant. 1:2 and 1:3 mean one worker shared between two or three participants, with the cost apportioned. 2:1 means two workers are required for a single participant, and both are claimed.

ILOFull guide

Individualised Living Options

ILO, or individualised living options, is an NDIS home and living support that lets a participant design how they live and are supported, such as living with a host or with a housemate who provides support. It is funded in two stages: exploration and design, then the ILO supports themselves. ILO does not pay rent or everyday living costs.

STAFull guide

Short-term accommodation

STA, or short-term accommodation, is NDIS funding that gives a participant time apart from their usual informal supports, such as family, while those carers take a short break. It covers support and standard accommodation for stays of up to 14 days at a time, usually up to 28 days a year. Food and meals are not funded.

LACFull guide

Local Area Coordinator

An LAC, or local area coordinator, works for an NDIS partner organisation funded by the NDIA to help people aged 9 to 64 understand and use the NDIS. LACs help people apply, connect with community and government services, and use their plans. They do not approve plans, decide supports or allocate funding, which is the role of an NDIA planner.

Early childhood approachFull guide

Early childhood early intervention (ECEI)

The early childhood approach is how the NDIS supports children younger than 9 with delays in their development or disability, and their families. Delivered mainly by early childhood partners, it offers early connections and short-term Early Supports without needing a diagnosis, and helps families apply to the NDIS when a child is likely to meet the eligibility requirements.

Funding periodsFull guide

NDIS funding periods

A funding period is the time in which part of a participant's NDIS plan funding becomes available to spend. From 19 May 2025, new and reassessed plans usually have three-month funding periods. Unspent funding rolls over within the same plan, but a claim cannot be paid if it exceeds the funding available in the current period.

Psychosocial recovery coachFull guide

Recovery coach

A psychosocial recovery coach is an NDIS-funded worker who supports participants with psychosocial disability in their recovery. Coaches help participants build capacity and resilience, plan and organise supports, and connect with mental health and other services. The support was introduced on 1 July 2020 and is generally funded instead of support coordination, not alongside it.

My providersFull guide

Participant-endorsed providers

My providers are the providers a participant regularly works with and records against their NDIS plan in the NDIA’s PACE system. Recording a provider tells the NDIA that the provider can be paid for claims on that plan. For plans in PACE, my providers replace the service bookings used in the older myplace system.

Modified Monash ModelFull guide

MMM

The Modified Monash Model (MMM) is the Australian Government’s classification of how remote a location is, on a scale from MM 1 (metropolitan) to MM 7 (very remote). The NDIS uses it to set price limits: MM 1 to 5 use national prices, MM 6 uses remote prices and MM 7 uses very remote prices.

SCHADS AwardFull guide

Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010

The SCHADS Award is the modern award covering most Australian disability and community services employees. It sets minimum pay rates by classification level, and the rules for penalties, overtime, broken shifts, sleepovers, on-call, travel reimbursement and minimum engagement periods. Compliance is a legal obligation, not a payroll preference.

Broken shiftFull guide

A broken shift is a shift split into two or three separate periods of work in one day, with unpaid breaks between them. Under the SCHADS Award a broken shift attracts an allowance, and the number of breaks determines which allowance applies. It is common in disability support, where morning and evening routines sit hours apart.

SleepoverFull guide

A sleepover is an arrangement where a support worker stays overnight at a participant’s home to be available if needed, and is permitted to sleep. Under the SCHADS Award it attracts a flat sleepover allowance rather than hourly pay, plus payment at the appropriate rate for any period the worker is actually woken to work.

Active and passive overnightFull guide

Active overnight support means a worker is awake and working through the night and is paid hourly at the applicable rate. Passive overnight, or a sleepover, means the worker is present and available but permitted to sleep, and is paid an allowance. Which applies depends on the participant’s assessed overnight support needs.

Casual loadingFull guide

Casual loading is the additional percentage paid to casual employees in place of paid leave and notice entitlements. Under the SCHADS Award it is 25 per cent of the minimum hourly rate. It applies to the base rate, and the interaction between casual loading and penalty rates is set by the award rather than chosen by the employer.

Minimum engagementFull guide

Minimum engagement is the shortest period an employee must be paid for when called to work, regardless of how long the shift actually runs. Under the SCHADS Award, disability support workers generally have a two-hour minimum for part-time and casual engagements, with some exceptions for particular arrangements.

Contractor vs employeeFull guide

A contractor runs their own business and invoices for services; an employee works in the employer’s business under its direction. The distinction is decided on the substance of the relationship, not the label in the agreement. Misclassifying an employee as a contractor exposes a provider to back-pay, superannuation and penalty liabilities.

NDIS Price GuideFull guide

NDIS Support Catalogue, Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits

The NDIS Price Guide, published with the Support Catalogue, sets the maximum prices registered providers may charge for each support item. It is updated at least annually, usually effective 1 July, and defines item numbers, unit types, price limits by state grouping, and the rules for cancellations, travel and non-face-to-face time.

Support item numberFull guide

A support item number is the code identifying a specific NDIS support for claiming, in the form 01_011_0107_1_1. It has five parts: the support category, a sequence number, the registration group, the outcome domain and the support purpose. Every claimed line must carry a valid item number that matches the support actually delivered and sits within the participant’s funded budget.

Bulk payment requestFull guide

Bulk upload, claim file

A bulk payment request is the CSV file a registered NDIS provider uploads to the myplace portal to claim for many supports at once. Each row carries the participant’s NDIS number, the support item number, service dates, quantity and price. The NDIA validates the file and returns a result per line.

Remittance adviceFull guide

A remittance advice is the statement issued when a payer settles invoices, listing which invoices were paid, the amounts, and any adjustments. In the NDIS, providers receive remittance from the NDIA for agency-managed claims and from plan managers for plan-managed invoices, and use it to reconcile payments against what was claimed.

ABA fileFull guide

Direct Entry file, Cemtex file

An ABA file is the fixed-width text format Australian banks accept for batch payments. A plan manager or provider generates one to pay many provider invoices or staff wages in a single upload. Each record carries BSB, account number, amount and lodgement reference, with a total record the bank checks against.

Provider travelFull guide

Travel — labour costs, non-labour transport

Provider travel is the claimable cost of a support worker travelling to deliver a support. The NDIS treats it as two separate things: labour cost, being the worker’s time in transit, and non-labour transport, being the running cost of the vehicle claimed per kilometre. They use different support items and different rules.

PRODAFull guide

Provider Digital Access

PRODA (Provider Digital Access) is the Australian Government’s online identity service for health and aged care providers. It is still used for Services Australia systems such as HPOS and the Aged Care Provider Portal, but since 10 November 2025 NDIS providers sign in to the NDIS portals with myID and the Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM) instead.

PACEFull guide

PACE is the NDIA’s newer computer system for administering participant plans and provider payments, progressively replacing the older portal. Under PACE, participants nominate providers ("my providers") for particular support types, and providers see plan and budget information for participants who have endorsed them.

NDIS provider portalFull guide

myplace provider portal and my NDIS provider portal

The NDIS provider portal is the NDIA’s online system where providers claim payment and see the details of the participants they support. There are two: the myplace provider portal, for participants on older plans, and the my NDIS provider portal, for participants whose plans are in PACE, the NDIA’s newer system. As participants move to PACE, more of the work happens in the my NDIS provider portal.

Short notice cancellationFull guide

A short notice cancellation is when a participant cancels a scheduled NDIS support with less notice than the pricing rules require, or does not turn up. If the conditions are met, the provider can claim up to 100 per cent of the agreed fee from the participant’s plan, using the support item that would have been claimed.

Service bookingFull guide

A service booking is a record in the NDIA’s myplace portal that sets aside part of a participant’s funding for a registered provider. It shows the type of support, how long it is needed and the funding reserved for it. For plans in the older system, a service booking must be in place before the provider can be paid.

Non-face-to-face supportsFull guide

Non-F2F

Non-face-to-face supports are activities a provider completes for a specific participant without the participant present, such as preparing a report for them. They can be claimed from the participant’s plan only where the pricing arrangements allow it for that support, the charges comply with the price limits, and the service agreement covers them.

Progress notesFull guide

Case notes, shift notes

Progress notes are the written record of what happened during a support: what was delivered, how the participant responded, and anything of concern. They are the primary evidence that a claimed support was actually provided, and they are what an auditor, a plan reviewer or a coroner reads when a decision is questioned.

EVVFull guide

Electronic Visit Verification

Electronic Visit Verification is the electronic capture of when and where a support actually started and finished, typically by a worker clocking in and out on a phone with GPS. It provides evidence that a claimed support was delivered at the stated time and place, replacing self-reported timesheets.

Reportable incidentFull guide

A reportable incident is an event a registered NDIS provider must report to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. The categories are death, serious injury, abuse or neglect, unlawful sexual or physical contact, sexual misconduct, and the unauthorised use of a restrictive practice. Initial reports are due within 24 hours or five business days depending on category.

Restrictive practiceFull guide

A restrictive practice is any action that restricts the rights or freedom of movement of a person with disability. The regulated types are seclusion, chemical, mechanical, physical and environmental restraint. Their use must be authorised under state or territory law, set out in a behaviour support plan, and reported to the NDIS Commission monthly.

NDIS CommissionFull guide

NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission

The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission is the independent body regulating NDIS providers and workers. It registers providers, enforces the NDIS Practice Standards and Code of Conduct, operates worker screening, receives reportable incidents and complaints, and can ban individuals or revoke a provider’s registration.

NDIS Practice StandardsFull guide

The NDIS Practice Standards set the quality requirements registered providers must meet, covering rights and responsibilities, governance and operational management, the delivery of supports, and the provider’s environment. Registered providers are audited against the standards relevant to the registration groups they hold.

NDIS Worker Screening CheckFull guide

NDISWC

The NDIS Worker Screening Check is a national assessment of whether a person poses a risk to people with disability. It is required for workers in risk-assessed roles with registered providers, is issued by a state or territory screening unit, is valid for up to five years, and can be cancelled or revoked if new information comes to light.

Registration groupsFull guide

Classes of support

Registration groups are the categories of support an NDIS provider is registered to deliver. Each group has a four-digit number, such as 0107 for assistance with daily personal activities. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission uses a provider’s registration groups to decide which type of audit it must complete.

Behaviour support planFull guide

BSP, positive behaviour support plan

A behaviour support plan is a document written by an NDIS behaviour support practitioner that sets out strategies to meet a person's needs and reduce behaviours of concern. It must include any regulated restrictive practices the person is subject to, and the providers implementing it must follow it and report on its use.

NDIS Code of ConductFull guide

Code of Conduct

The NDIS Code of Conduct sets the behaviour expected of everyone who delivers NDIS supports, registered or not. It covers respecting rights and privacy, delivering safe and competent supports, acting with integrity, raising concerns, preventing abuse and sexual misconduct, and fair pricing. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission enforces it.

Key personnelFull guide

KMP, key management personnel

Key personnel are the people who make executive decisions for an NDIS provider, or who have authority or significant influence over planning, directing or controlling its activities. They typically include the CEO, directors, board members, executive staff and managers, and their suitability and conduct are regulated by the NDIS Commission.

Risk-assessed roleFull guide

A risk-assessed role is a job with a registered NDIS provider that requires the worker to hold an NDIS Worker Screening Check clearance. It covers key personnel roles, roles delivering specified supports or services directly to people with disability, and roles likely to involve more than incidental contact with people with disability.

Verification auditFull guide

A verification audit is the NDIS registration audit for providers that deliver only lower-risk, lower-complexity supports. An approved quality auditor reviews the provider's documents against the verification module of the NDIS Practice Standards, without an onsite visit, and reports the result to the NDIS Commission.

Certification auditFull guide

A certification audit is the NDIS registration audit for providers delivering higher-risk or more complex supports. An approved quality auditor assesses the provider against the core module and relevant supplementary modules of the NDIS Practice Standards in two stages, including an onsite visit with staff and participant interviews.

Support at HomeFull guide

SAH

Support at Home is the Australian Government program for aged care delivered in a person’s own home, replacing Home Care Packages and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme. Older people are assessed into classification levels with a quarterly budget, and contribute to costs according to their means and the category of service.

Home Care PackageFull guide

HCP

A Home Care Package was the Australian Government’s coordinated home aged-care funding, allocated at one of four levels according to assessed need. Funds accrued in an individual budget managed by an approved provider. Support at Home replaced Home Care Packages on 1 November 2025.

My Aged CareFull guide

myagedcare.gov.au

My Aged Care is the Australian Government’s entry point for aged-care services. It handles registration, screening and referral to assessment, and holds the client record that follows an older person through assessment, service allocation and provider referral. Providers receive and accept referrals through the My Aged Care provider portal.

SIRSFull guide

Serious Incident Response Scheme

The Serious Incident Response Scheme requires approved aged-care providers to manage and report serious incidents involving people receiving care. Reportable categories include unreasonable use of force, unlawful or inappropriate sexual conduct, neglect, psychological or emotional abuse, unexpected death, stealing or coercion, and unexplained absence.

DEXFull guide

Data Exchange

The Data Exchange is the Australian Government’s reporting platform for funded community and aged-care programs. Providers report client details, the sessions of service delivered, and optionally outcomes data, on a defined reporting period cycle. Continued funding is conditional on reporting.

Support at Home classificationFull guide

SAH classification, Support at Home level

A Support at Home classification is the funding level an older person is assigned at their aged care assessment. There are eight classifications for ongoing services, each with a set quarterly budget, plus short-term pathways for restorative care, end-of-life care and assistive technology and home modifications.

Care managementFull guide

Support at Home care management, care partner

Care management is the Support at Home service in which a care partner helps a participant plan, coordinate and review their care. It is funded by setting aside 10% of each participant's quarterly budget into a pooled care management account held by the provider, and must be delivered to every participant, including those who self-manage.

Notice of DecisionFull guide

NOD, assessment outcome letter

A Notice of Decision is the letter an older person receives after an aged care assessment, setting out whether they are approved for government-funded aged care and which services. For Support at Home it states the approved services and any short-term pathways, the reasons for the decision, review rights, and includes the person's support plan.

Aged Care Quality StandardsFull guide

strengthened Quality Standards

The Aged Care Quality Standards set the outcomes registered aged care providers must meet. The strengthened standards started on 1 November 2025 with the Aged Care Act 2024, replacing the previous eight standards with seven, covering the individual, the organisation, care and services, the environment, clinical care, food and nutrition, and the residential community.