A support coordinator's guide to referring for behaviour support

As a support coordinator, you’re often the first person to notice that a participant’s behaviour is starting to affect their safety, their relationships, or their day-to-day life. Knowing when to bring in a behaviour support practitioner — and what to include in that referral — can make the whole process faster and less stressful for everyone involved. Here’s a plain-language rundown.

When to consider a referral

A referral is worth considering whenever a participant’s behaviour is putting their safety, their participation, or their quality of life at risk — or placing real strain on the people around them. Some signals to watch for:

• Behaviours of concern that are escalating or becoming more frequent, or that are starting to limit what the participant can safely do at home, at a day program, in the community or at work.
• Restrictive practices already in use — physical restraint, chemical restraint, seclusion or environmental restriction — even informally. If a restrictive practice is in use, it will usually need to be authorised through a behaviour support plan, so bringing a practitioner in early matters.
• A placement or relationship at risk of breaking down — a family reaching crisis point, a share-house arrangement under strain, or a support roster that keeps falling over because of how a situation is being managed.
• A support team pulling in different directions. When family, support workers and other providers are all responding differently to the same behaviour, a behaviour support plan gives everyone a shared, practical reference point.

You don’t need to wait for a crisis — an early referral, before things escalate, usually means a smoother process and a shorter path to a working plan.

The funding to look for

Specialist behaviour support is usually funded under Capacity Building — Improved Relationships in a participant’s NDIS plan. Some plans instead — or also — carry relevant funding under Improved Daily Living, depending on how the plan was built. If you’re not sure which line applies, it’s worth checking the plan directly rather than assuming, and mentioning it in the referral saves a back-and-forth later.

If a participant doesn’t currently have relevant funding, that’s still useful to know — it may point to a plan review conversation rather than a referral right now.

What to look for in a practitioner

Not every practitioner offering “behaviour support” is offering the same thing. A few things worth checking before you refer:

• Suitability. Practitioners providing specialist behaviour support, particularly where restrictive practices are involved, need to be assessed as suitable by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission — at a capability level that matches the complexity of the work, or with oversight from a practitioner whose capability level does. It’s reasonable to ask about this directly.
• Current capacity. A well-regarded practitioner with a long waitlist might still be the right long-term fit, but if a situation is urgent, capacity now can matter more than reputation on paper.
• A collaborative approach. Look for a practitioner who works with the existing support team — family, support workers, allied health, you — rather than one who writes a plan in isolation and hands it down.

How a referral works with Benjamin

I’m a behaviour support practitioner deemed suitable by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. I’m not myself an NDIS-registered provider — I deliver behaviour support in partnership with, and under the registration of, Tranquil Trails Counselling and Therapy, a registered specialist behaviour support provider. In practice, that means the participant’s service agreement is set up with Tranquil Trails, with the engagement arranged through me.

That doesn’t add a step on your end — a referral still comes to me, and I handle the service agreement paperwork with Tranquil Trails from there.

I currently have capacity to take on new referrals, with no waitlist, across Canberra/ACT and the NSW South Coast, plus telehealth for participants outside that area or wherever it simply suits better. You can read more for support coordinators or check areas I serve.

What’s helpful to include in a referral

You don’t need a full history to get things moving — a lighter, more privacy-conscious referral is usually better at this stage, with more detail to follow once a service agreement is in place. What’s genuinely useful upfront:

• The participant’s first name and a contact — for them, their nominee, or a key support person
• How the plan is managed — agency-, plan- or self-managed
• Plan dates, so funding and timing can be checked
• The goals relevant to behaviour support, as written in the plan
• Any current safety concerns, described at the level of detail needed to triage — not a full clinical history

Only include what’s needed to start the conversation. Anything more sensitive can wait until consent and a service agreement are properly in place.

What happens next

Once a referral comes in, the next step is usually a conversation — with you, the participant, and/or their family — to understand what’s happening, confirm funding, and agree on a realistic starting point. From there, work typically moves through an interim plan while a fuller assessment is underway, building toward a comprehensive behaviour support plan developed with the participant and their team.

Timeframes depend on the complexity of the situation and on current capacity, so it’s best to ask directly rather than assume.

If you’re supporting a participant who might benefit from behaviour support, make a referral — I’ll come back to you with current capacity and the best next step.