An NDIS home care guide helps service providers navigate the complex world of providing support to participants in their homes. Home care is central to the NDIS, allowing participants to live independently in their own spaces. However, delivering great NDIS home care requires careful planning, regulatory compliance, and high-quality staff. 

This guide explains everything you need to know to set up, manage, and deliver compliant NDIS home care services.

What are NDIS home care services?

NDIS home care services help NDIS participants manage daily life, stay healthy, and enjoy independence in their homes. The NDIS participants can own or rent the house, and they need to pay for day-to-day living costs such as rent, groceries, utilities, telephone or internet costs.

What types of NDIS home care supports are funded by the NDIS?

There are several types of NDIS home care ranging from basic daily assistance with personal care to more specialised support services for participants with complex needs. They are:

• Supported Independent Living (SIL) provides participants with assistance for routine tasks such as cooking, cleaning, personal care, and medication management.
• Short Term Accommodation (STA), including respite, offers short-term care (up to 14 days at a time) to give family members or informal carers a break. STA can be delivered either in a care facility or the participant’s own home.
• Individualised Living Options (ILO) involve customised home environment and support matched to participants’ preferences and needs. The ultimate goal of ILO is to help NDIS participants explore different ways of living or to live in a way that suits them best.
• Assistance with Self Care Activities provides practical support for daily personal activities, including bathing, dressing, grooming, and toileting.
• Assistive Technology includes devices or equipment that enable participants to perform everyday tasks more independently. Examples include wheelchairs, hearing aids, communication devices, adjustable beds, and bathroom modifications such as shower rails and non-slip flooring.

What are the key regulatory and compliance requirements for NDIS home care providers?

You must meet strict standards to protect participants' safety, rights, and well-being to provide NDIS home care services. Here's a clear breakdown of what you need to know.

• The NDIS registration requirements
• The NDIS practice standards
• The NDIS code of conduct
• The NDIS worker screening checks
• The NDIS incident management
• The NDIS risk management
• The NDIS complaint management

1. The NDIS registration

Both registered and non-registered providers can provide NDIS home care services. However, if you want to deliver NDIS home care services to NDIA-managed participants, you must register with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.  

If you're a registered home care service provider, you will go through a regular quality audit to check if your policies, systems, and daily practices meet these standards.

If you choose to stay unregistered, you can only provide home care services to NDIS plan-managed or self-managed participants you won’t need to undergo audits. However, you’re still legally required to comply with the NDIS Standards. 

2. The NDIS practice standards

All providers must meet the Core Module of the NDIS Practice Standards, which applies to every type of NDIS support. Depending on what services you offer, you might also need to meet Supplementary Modules. For example, if you provide high-intensity personal care—like supporting someone with ventilator management or complex bowel care—you must meet extra requirements under the High-intensity Daily Personal Activities module.

3. The NDIS code of conduct

Whether you are a registered or unregistered provider, you and your workers must follow the NDIS Code of Conduct. This Code sets the minimum standards for ethical and safe behaviour when delivering services to participants.

The NDIS Code of Conduct requires home care providers and workers to:

• Act with respect for participants' rights, including their right to dignity and privacy.
• Deliver support and services safely and competently.
• Act with integrity, honesty, and transparency.
• Promptly address concerns about the quality and safety of support.
• Prevent and respond to violence, exploitation, neglect, and abuse.
• Take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual misconduct.
• Uphold the participants' right to make their own decisions.

You should train all of your staff on what the Code of Conduct requires and how to apply it in their daily work. Following the NDIS Code of Conduct is not optional. The National Disability Insurance Scheme can ban home care providers and support workers from working if they violate the Code. 

4. The NDIS worker screening checks

Because many home care services involve risk-assessed roles, such as providing personal care at home, they require an NDIS Worker Screening Check.

The Worker Screening Check examines a worker’s criminal history and other relevant information to assess whether they pose a risk to people with disability. Workers who pass the check receive an NDIS Worker Screening Clearance, which is valid for up to five years across all Australian states and territories.

As an NDIS home care provider, you need to:

• Make sure every support worker in a risk-assessed role holds a valid clearance before they start delivering services unsupervised.
• Keep up-to-date records of all worker clearances and ensure they are not expired.

5. The NDIS incident management

If you're a registered home care provider, having an NDIS incident management system is a requirement. It’s a legal requirement under the NDIS Practice Standards. For non-registered home care providers, it's not required, but they still should have one to record, manage, and report NDIS incidents that happen while delivering support. Any injury and incidents that are resolved can get the businesses banned from providing home care services.

6. The NDIS risk management

As a home care provider, you're responsible for identifying, assessing, and reducing risks that could impact participants, staff, or your business. Your risk management system should include:

• A clear risk management policy and procedure
• Tools to identify and assess risks (e.g. risk registers)
• Strategies to minimise or control each type of risk
• Regular reviews of risks and how they're being managed
  

For home care, it's especially important to manage risks related to lone workers, infection control, manual handling, and emergency situations like bushfires or pandemics. The NDIS expects you to not only manage these risks but also show evidence — through records, training, and actions — that you’re actively working to keep people safe.

7. The NDIS complaint management

Every NDIS home care provider must have a NDIS complaints management and resolution system. This ensures participants can safely raise concerns and know their voice will be heard. Under the NDIS Practice Standards, you must provide a clear process for receiving, investigating, and resolving complaints — and make sure participants understand how to use it.

Your complaints system should:

• Allow complaints to be made in different ways — verbally, in writing, anonymously, or through a representative
• Include clear steps for logging, investigating, and resolving issues
• Keep a record of all complaints and outcomes
• Protect participants from retaliation or negative treatment for speaking up
  

You must also inform participants (and their carers, where appropriate) about how to make a complaint — including how to escalate it to the NDIS Commission. A strong complaints system helps you fix problems early, improve your services, and build trust with your clients. All staff should be trained in how to respond to complaints respectfully and escalate them appropriately.

NDIS home care pricing arrangement and limits

When you deliver NDIS home care services, how you get paid depends on how the participant manages their NDIS funding:

• NDIA-managed participants: You must be a registered NDIS provider. After delivering the service, you submit a claim via the Myplace portal, and the NDIA pays you directly.
• Plan-managed participants: You send an invoice to the participant’s plan manager.
• Self-managed participants: You invoice the participant directly. They pay you using their NDIS funds.
  

The NDIS sets clear rules about how much providers can charge for home care services. Understanding the NDIS Pricing Arrangements helps you deliver services smoothly and avoid denied claims.

1. Supported Independent Living (SIL)

NDIS home care providers will either use the Weekly SIL support item or the Hourly SIL support items, but not both methods.

2. Short Term Accommodation (STA), including respite

If the NDIS participants need 1:1 assistance with self-care activities aside from STA support, you can claim using the line items below.

3. Individualised Living Options

If you want to claim Provider Travel – Non-Labour Costs, you can use support item 01_799_0106_1_1.

4. Assistance with Self Care Activities

If your support worker has to provide self-care support overnight, they can sleep overnight when they aren't required to provide support.

If your support worker lives with or travels with the participant to assist them with personal daily tasks, you and the participant can set your own rules and are not limited by the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits.

5. Assistive Technology

Pricing for assistive technology varies significantly depending on equipment type. You can visit the NDIS website for accurate assistive technology information.

How to claim travel, transportation, and short notice cancellations for NDIS home care services

Aside from the standard line items, you can also claim any travel, transportation and short notice cancellation cost:

• NDIS travel: You can charge for travel time between participants within limits — up to 30 minutes in metro areas and up to 60 minutes in regional areas. Read more on how to claim NDIS travel costs here.
• Transporting participants: If transporting participants (e.g., to a community activity), you can claim per-kilometre vehicle costs. Read more on how to claim NDIS transportation costs here.
• Short notice cancellations: If a participant cancels with insufficient notice (less than 7 days for most supports), you can claim up to 100% of the agreed service fee​.

Which essential policies and procedures do NDIS home care providers need?

NDIS policies and procedures guide your team, protect participants, and show the NDIS Commission that you are running a safe, compliant service. At a minimum, NDIS home care providers should have the following key policies and procedures:

• Incident management: How you record, respond to, and report incidents, including reportable incidents to the NDIS Commission.
• Complaints management: How participants, families, and staff can send complaints, and how you resolve them.
• Risk management: How you identify, manage, and reduce risks to participants, workers, and your organisation.
• Participant rights and privacy: How you protect participant dignity, privacy, and decision-making rights.

Then, depending on whether the home care services you deliver are considered high-risk or low-risk, you will need additional policies and procedures in place. Find out what types of policies and procedures you need here.

Home care providers should also keep their policies and procedures up to date whenever the NDIS implements new changes. If you need help creating policies and ensuring compliance with the latest regulations, you can use Pnyx’s Fully Managed Policies and Procedures service to always stay compliant.

How to set up NDIS home care services

To deliver safe, compliant, and high-quality support, you must have strong operational systems in place from the start. Here’s what you need to have ready:

• Establish a care management system: You can't manage multiple participants or scale your business effectively using spreadsheets alone. A care management system helps you manage your team, invoices, compliance documents, case notes, participant goals, budgets, services, and more, all in one place.
• Set up an incident management system: Every NDIS provider must have an incident management system to record, manage, and resolve any incidents. This includes everything from minor incidents — like a participant slipping without injury — to serious reportable incidents such as abuse or serious injury.
• Have a complaints management system: Your complaints system should provide easy ways for participants to make complaints (verbally, in writing, anonymously, or through external bodies). Besides, it should let your team investigate, and resolve complaints fairly.

If you don’t have these systems in place yet and want to explore your options, book a demo with us today to see how Pnyx can help you manage participants, incidents, and complaints more effectively.

FAQ

1. Do I need to be a registered NDIS provider to offer home care services?

You only need to register if you plan to support NDIA-managed participants. If you support plan-managed or self-managed participants, registration is optional. However, even unregistered providers must follow NDIS rules, including the Code of Conduct and worker screening requirements. Registration also means undergoing regular audits to meet the NDIS Practice Standards.

2. What support items can I claim under NDIS home care?

You can claim a range of supports under Core and Capacity Building categories, including personal care, Supported Independent Living (SIL), Short Term Accommodation (STA), and Assistance with Daily Life. You may also claim for provider travel, cancellations, and assistive technology. Each claim must align with the participant's plan and follow the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits. Incorrect claims may lead to payment rejections or compliance issues.

3. What systems must I have in place to run NDIS home care services?

You must have systems for incident management, complaints handling, risk management, and secure record keeping. Service agreements and clear policies and procedures are also essential. These systems help protect participants, guide your team, and keep your business compliant. A good care management platform can make this easier and reduce admin time.