Functional behaviour assessment
Observation at home, school or work, interviews with the people who know you best, a review of reports and incident records, and a clear statement of what the behaviour is for.
Clinical Services · Positive behaviour support
Positive behaviour support in Melbourne, led by practitioners who stay.
Behaviour is communication. A behaviour support practitioner works out what a person is telling us, writes a plan that changes the environment rather than the person, and stays to train the people who use it every day.
NDIS support item: Specialist Positive Behaviour Support (registration group 0110): Specialist Behavioural Intervention Support and Behaviour Management Plan Implementation
What positive behaviour support actually involves
Positive behaviour support starts from a simple idea: behaviours that worry or hurt people usually make sense once you understand what they achieve for the person. Pain, fear, boredom, a request nobody noticed, a routine that changed without warning. The practitioner's first job is a functional behaviour assessment: observing, talking to the person and those around them, reading the history and working out what the behaviour is for.
The assessment becomes a behaviour support plan. A good plan spends most of its pages on prevention: arranging the home, the routine, communication and relationships so the behaviour is needed less often. It then describes how to respond safely when it happens, and how everyone will know whether things are improving. If a restrictive practice is used, the plan must say so, explain why nothing less restrictive will work yet, and set out how it will be reduced.
Registered behaviour support is one of Newdawn's existing clinical services, alongside our supported independent living homes and high intensity support. A plan is only as good as the people who use it. Our practitioners train the support workers, families and teachers who are in the room at 7 am, and come back when the plan needs changing.
What is included
Six things your behaviour support practitioner does
All of this is claimed from the behaviour support funding in your plan. We tell you before we start how many hours it is likely to use.
Individualised behaviour support plans
An interim plan quickly where risk is high, then a comprehensive plan in plain language, lodged with the NDIS Commission when it includes a restrictive practice.
Training the people who use the plan
Support workers, family and educators trained together, with follow-up coaching so the plan works the same way on a Sunday night as on a Tuesday morning.
Reducing restrictive practices
A written fade-out plan for every restrictive practice, with authorisation handled under Victorian rules and monthly reporting kept accurate.
Working with the clinical team
Psychiatrists, GPs, speech pathologists and occupational therapists kept in the loop, because medication, communication and sensory needs are often part of the picture.
Review and evidence
Data on how often behaviours happen and how serious they are, reviewed with you at least every twelve months and whenever something changes.
Funding, in plain English
Which budget pays, and what it costs
Behaviour support sits in the Capacity Building part of your plan. In older plans it sits in Improved Relationships; in plans built in the NDIA's newer PACE system it has its own Behaviour Support category. It cannot be claimed from Core or Improved Daily Living, and an assessment should only begin once the funding is in the plan. Our guide to NDIS funding explains how to read your budgets.
The NDIS Pricing Arrangements set a price limit per hour. For 2026-27 the limit for both Specialist Behavioural Intervention Support and Behaviour Management Plan Implementation, which covers training workers in the plan, is $252.99 an hour. Assessment, observation, writing, lodging, training and review are all claimed at that rate, so a comprehensive plan uses a real share of the budget. We give you a written estimate before we start.
If a plan is needed because a provider uses restrictive practices, that provider has its own obligations under the NDIS Commission's rules and must not pass the cost of its own reporting onto you. We tell you which parts of the work belong to the practitioner and which to the implementing provider.
Price limits change each July. The figures above are the current NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits; check the NDIS website or ask us for the latest.
Read more: what each NDIS budget pays for and how plan management affects your choices.
How it works
From referral to a plan people actually use
- 01
Referral and consent
Call, refer online or ask your support coordinator to send the plan. We confirm the funding, explain the process and agree who will be involved. A practitioner calls you within the week.
- 02
Assessment, over weeks
A functional behaviour assessment takes several visits across times and settings; we will not write a plan from a single meeting. Where risk is high we write an interim plan first, usually within a month.
- 03
Plan, training and lodging
The comprehensive plan is written with you and the people who support you, usually within six months, and everyone who uses it is trained. Plans with restrictive practices are lodged with the NDIS Commission and authorised under Victorian rules.
- 04
Follow-up and review
We return to check the plan is being followed, adjust it when life changes, and review it formally at least every twelve months with data rather than impressions.
Close to home
Practitioners who turn up across the south-east
Our head office is in Cranbourne, so most observation visits happen in homes, schools and day programs around Cranbourne, Clyde North, Pakenham, Officer, Narre Warren and Berwick. We work with the mental health teams at Casey Hospital in Berwick, Dandenong Hospital and Frankston Hospital when a plan is needed before discharge, and with specialist schools across Casey and Cardinia.
We also provide behaviour support in our own complex mental health supported independent living homes, where the practitioner and the roster sit in the same organisation and changes reach the floor the same week. In Queensland and Western Australia our Caboolture and West Perth offices run the same model, with authorisation handled under each state's rules.
Head office
Cranbourne, Victoria 3977
Offices in Caboolture QLD and West Perth WA
03 5998 0717, 24/7
Support in 17 languages and Auslan
All our locations Questions we get asked
Straight answers.
If yours is not here, call and ask. It is what we are for.
What is a behaviour support plan?
A behaviour support plan is a document, written by an NDIS behaviour support practitioner, that explains why a behaviour of concern happens and what everyone around the person will do about it. Most of a good plan is about prevention: communication, routine, environment and relationships. It also sets out safe responses, how progress will be measured and, where a restrictive practice is used, why and how it will be reduced.
How long does a behaviour support plan take?
Longer than most people expect, and we would rather say so. A functional behaviour assessment needs observation across several visits, times and settings, plus interviews and a review of records, which usually takes weeks. Where a restrictive practice is already in use the NDIS Commission expects an interim plan within one month and a comprehensive plan within six months. We work to those timeframes and keep you informed.
Who can write a behaviour support plan?
Only someone the NDIS Commission has assessed as a suitable NDIS behaviour support practitioner, working for a registered specialist behaviour support provider. Practitioners self-assess against the Commission's Positive Behaviour Support Capability Framework at one of four levels: core, proficient, advanced or specialist. The Commission decides whether a practitioner is suitable; it does not award the level. We tell you who you are getting and why.
Does it cover restrictive practices?
Yes. The NDIS Commission regulates five restrictive practices: seclusion, chemical, mechanical, physical and environmental restraint. Any regulated restrictive practice must be in a behaviour support plan, authorised under state law (in Victoria by an Authorised Program Officer, with the Victorian Senior Practitioner), reported to the Commission monthly, and used only as a last resort with a plan to reduce it.
What is a functional behaviour assessment?
It is the structured process a practitioner uses to work out what a behaviour achieves for a person. It combines observation where the behaviour happens, interviews with the person and those who know them, and a review of medical, incident and school records. The result is a clear hypothesis about the function of the behaviour, which the plan is built on. Without it, a plan is guesswork.
Can my support workers and family be trained in the plan?
Yes, and the plan does not work without it. Training is part of the Behaviour Management Plan Implementation support, so it comes from the same behaviour support funding. We train support workers, family and educators together where possible, using real situations from your life rather than generic examples, and return for coaching a few weeks in.
Can I change my behaviour support practitioner?
Yes, at any time. Tell your current provider in writing and check the notice period. We request the existing plan, assessment and data so we do not start from zero, and tell you honestly whether it needs rewriting or updating. If a restrictive practice is authorised, we coordinate the handover with the implementing provider so authorisation and reporting continue uninterrupted.
Do you work with people with complex mental health or forensic histories?
Yes. Complex mental health and forensic support is a Newdawn specialty, and many referrals reach us from hospitals, mental health services and justice settings. We write plans that take psychiatric treatment, medication and order conditions into account, and work with the treating team rather than around them. Our forensic disability accommodation page explains how plan and home fit together.
Ready to start
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Refer yourself, a family member or a participant you work with. Our intake team replies within minutes in business hours, and 03 5998 0717 is answered 24 hours a day. We say upfront how long an assessment will take.
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