Ability Directory / Guides for providers
Writing an NDIS service agreement a participant can read
A service agreement is the document a provider and a participant sign about the supports to be provided and the conditions around them. It is also where your cancellation terms live, which is one of the things participants ask about most. This guide covers what to put in one and how to make sure the participant has read and understood it before they sign. It is general information; your registration group and your own legal advice decide what you must include.
What the Practice Standards ask
The NDIS Practice Standards, published by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, ask registered providers to communicate with each participant in the language, mode of communication and terms that participant is most likely to understand. Service agreements are one of the places that wording appears, alongside rights and responsibilities and access to supports.
The service agreement outcome sits in the Core Module, under Provision of Supports. It asks that each participant has a clear understanding of the supports they have chosen and how they will be provided. Two of its quality indicators matter most here:
- You support each participant to understand their service agreement and its conditions, in the language, mode of communication and terms they are most likely to understand.
- When the agreement is in writing, the participant gets a copy signed by both the participant and you. If that is not practicable, or the participant chooses not to have an agreement, you keep a record of why they did not get a copy.
Read the standards for the exact wording that applies to your registration group: the Practice Standards Rules (Schedule 1, Core Module, clause 20), the Quality Indicators Guidelines (section 21) and the Commission's NDIS Practice Standards page.
What to put in it
A short list of what participants ask about most:
- Which supports, how often, and where.
- What each support costs and who pays (the participant, a plan manager or the NDIA).
- What happens if the participant cancels or does not turn up.
- What happens if you cancel.
- How either side ends the agreement or changes a support.
- How to make a complaint, including to someone outside your organisation.
For item 3, check the NDIA's current pricing and claiming guidance before you write your terms, and make sure your cancellation terms match it. The NDIS Pricing Schedule lists cancellation items for some supports. We did not find the conditions for claiming a cancellation in the schedule's price tables, so check the NDIA's current guidance: NDIA pricing arrangements.
Make it readable before it is signed
A signature shows someone signed. It does not show they understood. A short check:
- Cut the participant's version to what they need to know and do. Keep the full legal text available beside it.
- Write each point as one short sentence with one idea. Explain any hard word where it appears.
- Add a picture beside each point. This is Easy Read.
- Ask the participant, a family member or an advocate to read it and tell you where they got stuck.
- Change what they flagged. Give the participant both versions and time to read before they sign. After signing, give them a copy signed by both of you.
Step 4 matters most. Writing in Easy Read style does not show by itself that a participant will understand the result.
Want us to do one for you
Alexandra Swan (ABN 22 415 755 778) turns one of your documents into Easy Read, with one consistent set of pictures and a stated price. A service agreement is a good first document. You can look at a sample first. Reader testing is not part of the service, so step 4 above stays with you, and so does the decision on what your agreement must say.
See the Easy Read page and the sample
The service agreement sample (PDF) shows the format.
More Easy Read guides
- Guide 1 covers what the Practice Standards ask and which documents to start with
- Guide 3 covers writing a complaints process a participant can read
Sources
- NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, NDIS Practice Standards.
- Federal Register of Legislation, National Disability Insurance Scheme (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018, Schedule 1, clause 20.
- Federal Register of Legislation, National Disability Insurance Scheme (Quality Indicators for NDIS Practice Standards) Guidelines 2018, section 21.
- NDIA, Pricing arrangements.
General information only, not legal advice. Check the current standards and pricing guidance before you act on them.