Restrictive Practices and Your Rights

The short version

• A restrictive practice is any action that limits a person’s human rights or freedom of movement.
• They are tightly regulated and should only ever be used as a last resort to prevent harm.
• Some practices carry such high risk of harm that they must never be used at all.
• Strong safeguards, oversight and reporting rules exist to protect the person.
• The person and their family have clear rights, and good support works to reduce restrictive practices over time.

Restrictive practices can be one of the hardest topics for families to talk about. The words sound heavy, and they should, because they involve limiting a person’s rights or freedom. If you’ve come across the term through the NDIS or a support plan, this guide walks you through what it means, the safeguards around it, and the rights that protect your loved one.

What a restrictive practice is

The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission defines a restrictive practice as any action that limits a person’s human rights or freedom of movement. They are sometimes used to keep a person with disability or the people around them safe.

The Commission regulates five types of restrictive practice:

• Seclusion: when a person is left alone in a room or place and is not allowed to leave. The door may be locked, or the person may be told they cannot leave, or believe they cannot leave even if the door is open.
• Chemical restraint: when a person is given medicine to stop or reduce their behaviour.
• Mechanical restraint: when equipment or a device is used to stop or reduce a person’s behaviour, or limit how they move or use part of their body.
• Physical restraint: when a person, or part of their body, is held so they cannot move freely.
• Environmental restraint: when a person is stopped from having or doing certain things, or from going to certain places in their home or community.

The key point for families is that these are serious measures, not everyday tools, and they are treated that way in law and practice.

They are a last resort, not a first response

Good behaviour support always aims to make restrictive practices unnecessary. The whole thrust of positive behaviour support is to understand why a behaviour is happening and to change the environment and build skills, so a person is safe and supported without their freedom being limited.

The Commission is direct about this. Restrictive practices should only be used as a last resort to prevent harm to the person or others. They do not create lasting positive change, they do not meet the person’s needs or improve their quality of life, and they do not address the reasons behind the behaviour. Sometimes they make the behaviour worse.

Anyone subject to a restrictive practice must have a behaviour support plan in place, and the practice must sit inside a positive behaviour support framework with a clear focus on reducing and eliminating its use.

Some practices must never be used

This part matters. Some practices place people with disability at high risk of serious, long term physical or mental injury, and in some cases death. Certain types of physical restraint and harsh punishment can amount to abuse or neglect. In some states and territories they are against the law.

The Commission’s position is that practices presenting a high risk of harm must not be used, and it will take compliance action if they are. They should never appear in a behaviour support plan. If you see something like this being proposed or used, raise it straight away.

The safeguards that must be in place

Because restrictive practices are so serious, they sit inside a framework of oversight:

• Documented: set out clearly in a behaviour support plan by an NDIS behaviour support practitioner, then lodged with the NDIS Commission. If a regulated restrictive practice will be used on an ongoing basis, an interim plan must be developed within one month of the practice first being used, and a comprehensive plan within six months.
• Authorised: the provider must get authorisation from the authorising body in the state or territory where the person lives, and lodge evidence of it with the Commission. The NDIS Commission does not authorise restrictive practices itself, and the rules differ between states and territories.
• Delivered by a registered provider: providers who use regulated restrictive practices must be registered with the Commission and audited against the behaviour support practice standard. It is a breach of the NDIS Rules for an unregistered provider to use them.
• Reported every month: the provider must report on the use of the practices to the Commission each month, including months where a practice was not used.
• Reported as an incident if unauthorised: using a restrictive practice without authorisation is a reportable incident and must be reported to the Commission.
• Reduced over time: with an active plan to move away from them. Providers have a responsibility to reduce and stop the use of regulated restrictive practices.

The person’s rights

People with disability have the same fundamental rights as everyone else. The NDIS Commission names the right to be safe, the right to dignity and respect, and the right to live free from abuse, exploitation and violence.

Under the NDIS Code of Conduct, your provider must respect your right to make decisions for yourself, respect your privacy, act with integrity and transparency, and make sure you feel safe raising a concern or complaint with them. They must also offer interpreter services if you need them.

So you and your loved one are entitled to understand what is being proposed, to ask questions, to be involved in decisions, and to bring in an independent advocate.

If something doesn’t feel right

You can and should raise it. Start with your provider if you feel able to. If that doesn’t resolve it, or you’d rather go straight to the regulator:

• NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission: call 1800 035 544 (free call from landlines) or TTY 133 677, or make a complaint through the Commission’s complaints page. Interpreters can be arranged. You don’t have to give your name, though it is harder for them to resolve a complaint if they don’t know who you are.
• An independent advocate: free, government funded advocacy is available through the National Disability Advocacy Program. You can search for one near you with the Disability Advocacy Finder, which is the tool the NDIS Commission itself points families to. Advocates are independent of the NDIA, the NDIS Commission and every NDIS provider, and registered providers must cooperate with them.
• In an emergency, if someone’s life is at risk or a person could be critically harmed, call triple zero on 000.

Anyone can raise a concern, not just the participant. Family members, friends, carers, workers and other providers can all speak up.

Where to go from here

If restrictive practices have come up for your family, the most important thing is that they sit within a proper, behaviour support plan and that you understand your rights every step of the way. Our overview of what a behaviour support plan is is a helpful next read.

Have questions about your loved one’s plan? Explore our Behaviour Support Plans service, or get in touch and we’ll talk it through with care.

Frequently asked questions

Are restrictive practices ever allowed?

Regulated restrictive practices are allowed only in limited, tightly regulated circumstances, as a last resort to prevent harm to the person or others, with proper authorisation and oversight and always alongside a plan to reduce them. Separately, practices that present a high risk of harm must never be used at all.

Who decides whether a restrictive practice is used?

It must be documented in a behaviour support plan by an NDIS behaviour support practitioner and authorised by the authorising body in your state or territory. The NDIS Commission does not authorise restrictive practices itself. Nothing about this is decided informally.

Does the process work the same way everywhere in Australia?

Not quite. Reporting to the NDIS Commission is national, but authorisation is handled by each state and territory and the frameworks differ. Ask your provider which authorising body applies where your loved one lives.

What can I do if I’m worried about a practice being used?

You have the right to ask questions, be involved in decisions and seek independent advocacy. You can raise it with the provider, contact the NDIS Commission on 1800 035 544, or find a free independent advocate through the Disability Advocacy Finder. Anyone can raise a concern, not only the participant.

Can restrictive practices be reduced or removed?

Yes, and that’s the goal. Providers have a responsibility to reduce and stop the use of regulated restrictive practices, and good support actively works towards that by meeting the person’s needs in better ways.

Where this information comes from

The regulatory detail on this page is drawn from the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission’s guidance on behaviour support and restrictive practices and its rules for implementing providers, checked in August 2026. Rules change, and authorisation requirements differ by state and territory, so check the Commission’s site for the current position and talk to your practitioner about what applies to your family.