Do you need to register?
Not every NDIS provider has to be registered. According to the NDIS Commission, unregistered providers can only support participants who self manage or use a plan manager, and cannot deliver any support where registration is mandatory. They still have to follow the NDIS Code of Conduct.
In 2026 you must be registered if you provide:
- supports to participants whose funding is managed by the NDIA
- plan management
- specialist disability accommodation (SDA)
- specialist behaviour support, as a specialist behaviour support provider
- supports where you implement regulated restrictive practices (an implementing provider)
- supported independent living (SIL), mandatory since 1 July 2026 under registration group 0138 (see our SIL registration guide)
- NDIS digital platform services (registration group 0137)
- residential aged care to NDIS participants living in your facility.
On behaviour support and restrictive practices, the Commission is direct: it is a breach of the NDIS Rules for an unregistered provider to use regulated restrictive practices. Implementing providers have no separate registration group but must be registered and audited against supplementary module 2A. Registration group 0110 (specialist positive behaviour support) needs registration for any participant.
Everyone else can choose. Registration lets you work with every participant, puts you on the Commission's Find a registered provider list, and shows participants you have been independently checked. It also brings administrative and audit costs and ongoing obligations, so weigh it up for your own business.
Step 1: choose your registration groups
You register for registration groups (also called classes of support), and you need the groups that match the support items you want to claim. The group number sits inside the support item number: in 01_013_0107_1_1, the group is 0107. Look up your items in the NDIA support catalogue, then check each group in the Commission's registration groups table to see whether registration is required and which audit applies. The Commission will not tell you which groups to choose, as that is a business decision. Apply only for what you can evidence: every group adds to what your auditor must see.
Step 2: get your people and paperwork ready
Before you apply you need an ABN and evidence that you can deliver the supports you are applying for. You also need:
- a myID account (myID and the Relationship Authorisation Manager have replaced PRODA for provider portals; see our PRODA to myID and RAM guide)
- your organisation's structure, governance arrangements and locations
- names, dates of birth and contact details for all key personnel, which includes the CEO, executives, managers with significant influence and every board member
- a valid NDIS worker screening clearance for all key personnel and anyone in a risk assessed role.
We strongly recommend a gap analysis against the NDIS Practice Standards that apply to you before you start. Policies must describe what you actually do. The Commission expects you to be substantially involved in your application, and identical or purchased content can lead to refusal or an extra audit condition. Giving false or misleading information can attract a civil penalty and is a criminal offence.
Step 3: apply in the NDIS Commission Portal
Since 12 October 2026, every new application starts in the new NDIS Commission Portal. Drafts left in the old portal were removed on that date, although applications already submitted before then are finished in the existing portal. The application has two parts. You submit Part 1, receive the outcome of an initial assessment, then complete Part 2, which includes your registration groups, a self-assessment against the applicable Practice Standards with supporting evidence, and suitability questions such as bankruptcy or indictable convictions. You must finish within 60 days of starting or the application is deleted.
Step 4: choose an approved quality auditor
When you submit, you receive an initial scope of audit that sets out the type of audit, your registration groups, the Practice Standards that apply and what to share with your auditor. You choose and pay an approved quality auditor from the Commission's list. In the new portal you select the auditor after submitting Part 2, and the portal sends them the request. Get more than one quote and ask questions about their experience with your type of service. Auditors are accredited by JASANZ, and you do not have to stay with the same one at renewal.
Step 5: verification or certification audit
The audit type depends on risk. A verification audit is a desktop review of documents for lower risk, lower complexity supports, often delivered by professionals such as AHPRA registered practitioners. A certification audit applies to higher risk supports and has two stages: a stage 1 desktop audit, then a stage 2 onsite audit within 3 months, with staff interviews, observation and participant interviews. Participants are included unless they opt out, so tell them early. If your groups mix both types, you complete a certification audit. Our guide to certification vs verification audits goes deeper, and the NDIS audit preparation checklist covers the evidence to have ready.
Each standard is rated from 3 (conforms with elements of best practice) to 0 (major non-conformity). A major non-conformity must be fixed within 3 months before your registration can progress. Auditors submit the report up to 14 days after a verification audit and up to 28 days after a certification audit.
Step 6: suitability assessment and decision
The Commission considers the auditor's recommendation and assesses your suitability, including every key person. It looks at things like past convictions, enforcement action, insolvency and findings of fraud or dishonesty. It may ask for more information, and if it plans to refuse you will be invited to respond first. If you are approved, you receive a certificate showing your registration groups, the registration period and any conditions, and your details appear on the NDIS Provider Register. If you disagree with a decision you can ask for a review within three months, and then go to the Administrative Review Tribunal.
How long does it take? The Commission does not publish a standard timeframe. It says processing depends on the size and scale of your organisation and the range and complexity of your supports.
What registration costs
There is no fee to register with the NDIS Commission. The costs come from elsewhere:
- Your auditor. You pay the approved quality auditor directly. The Commission does not set audit prices; the cost depends on your size, scale and the number of participants you support.
- Worker screening. Fees are set by each state or territory screening unit. For example, SAFE NT lists $149 for a worker application from 1 July 2026. Some units waive or reduce fees for volunteers.
- Your own time and systems: policies, training, records and the people to run them.
We do not quote typical audit prices because they vary widely and no official figure exists. Get quotes.
State and territory differences at a glance
Registration, the Practice Standards and the audit are the same everywhere. NDIS worker screening clearances are national too: a worker applies in one state or territory and the clearance is valid across Australia for up to 5 years. What differs is below.
| State or territory | NDIS worker screening unit | Key extra check |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Office of the Children's Guardian (NDIS Worker Check) | Working with Children Check for child-related work; restrictive practices authorised by a panel recorded in the DCJ RPA System |
| Victoria | Victoria's NDIS Worker Screening Unit, applications through Service Victoria | WWC Check with mandatory child safety training; Child Safe Standards and Reportable Conduct Scheme cover disability services |
| Queensland | Disability Worker Screening | Blue card for child-related work; Reportable Conduct Scheme since 1 July 2026 |
| South Australia | Department of Human Services (NDIS Worker Check) | Working with Children Check; state Restrictive Practices Authorisation scheme |
| Western Australia | Screening Unit, Department of Communities | Working with Children Check; restrictive practices authorised under a state policy |
| Tasmania | NDIS check applied for as part of a Registration to Work with Vulnerable People (RWVP) | NDIS disability services are a regulated activity; Senior Practitioner authorises restrictive practices |
| Australian Capital Territory | Access Canberra, as part of Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) registration | NDIS activity is a regulated activity; behaviour support plans registered with the Senior Practitioner |
| Northern Territory | SAFE NT | Working with Children Clearance (Ochre Card); NT Senior Practitioner authorisation |
Wherever you are, an implementing provider gets restrictive practice authorisation from the state or territory where the participant lives, lodges evidence of it in the Commission's portal, and reports use monthly, within 5 business days of month end. Unauthorised use is a reportable incident. The Commission links a national summary, Restrictive Practices Authorisation Frameworks (2025 edition), which we used alongside each state's own pages.
NDIS provider registration in New South Wales
In NSW, NDIS worker screening is called the NDIS Worker Check and is run by the Office of the Children's Guardian, which also runs the Working with Children Check. Anyone in child-related work needs a WWCC as well, and employers must verify it online. Restrictive practices are authorised under the NSW Restrictive Practices Authorisation Policy: for a comprehensive behaviour support plan the implementing provider convenes a panel of a senior manager, a behaviour support specialist and an independent person, the decision must be unanimous, and consent is required. Providers register in the DCJ RPA System, where they can also request a DCJ independent specialist for the panel.
NDIS registration help in New South Wales
NDIS provider registration in Victoria
Victoria applies no clearance, no start: a registered provider cannot engage someone in a risk assessed role until they hold an NDIS clearance. Applications go through Service Victoria, and the unit quotes three to 12 weeks after employer verification as an indicative time. The NDIS Check does not replace the WWC Check, now run by the Social Services Regulator, and from 19 October 2026 every WWC applicant must complete mandatory child safety training. Organisations providing disability services are covered by Victoria's Child Safe Standards and Reportable Conduct Scheme (see our Victorian Reportable Conduct Scheme guide). Under the Disability Act 2006 the Victorian Senior Practitioner approves seclusion and physical and mechanical restraint, while chemical and environmental restraint are authorised by an Authorised Program Officer.
NDIS registration help in Victoria
NDIS provider registration in Queensland
Queensland's Disability Worker Screening unit issues NDIS clearances, and will not issue a new one to a worker who already holds a valid clearance from another state. Workers who also need a blue card for child-related work can lodge a combined application. Restrictive practices are regulated under Part 6 of the Disability Services Act 2006 (Qld): the department takes short term approval applications online for chemical, mechanical or physical restraint and restricting access, and containment and seclusion in a comprehensive plan need approval from QCAT. Since 1 July 2026 the Reportable Conduct Scheme also applies to registered NDIS providers who care for, supervise or exercise authority over children (see our Queensland Reportable Conduct Scheme guide).
NDIS registration help in Queensland
NDIS provider registration in South Australia
In SA, the Department of Human Services runs both NDIS Worker Checks and Working with Children Checks through the SA Screening portal, where organisations register and verify checks. South Australia has a legislated Restrictive Practices Authorisation scheme for registered NDIS providers under Part 6A of the Disability Inclusion Act 2018. Practices are split into levels: Authorised Program Officers within implementing providers can authorise level 1 practices, and the Senior Authorising Officer in the Restrictive Practices Unit handles the rest. Authorisations are recorded in the Restrictive Practices System.
NDIS registration help in South Australia
NDIS provider registration in Western Australia
WA's NDIS Worker Screening Check is run by the Screening Unit in the Department of Communities, and cleared workers are monitored on an ongoing basis. Child-related work needs a separate Working with Children Check, and amendments to the WWC legislation, the national banned in one, banned in all reforms, took effect in September 2026. Restrictive practices are authorised under the Authorisation of Restrictive Practices in Funded Disability Services Policy 2020, through a Quality Assurance Panel made up of a senior manager of the implementing provider and an independent behaviour support practitioner who did not write the plan.
NDIS registration help in Western Australia
NDIS provider registration in Tasmania
In Tasmania you get an NDIS Worker Screening Check by applying for a Registration to Work with Vulnerable People (RWVP) and requesting the NDIS check as part of it, or by amending an existing RWVP. Disability services delivered through the NDIS are a regulated activity, and workers doing child-related work may also need a child-related RWVP. Under the Disability Rights, Inclusion and Safeguarding Act 2024, NDIS funded providers are disability services providers and the Senior Practitioner authorises all restrictive practices they use.
NDIS registration help in Tasmania
NDIS provider registration in the ACT
In the ACT, NDIS worker clearances are part of Working with Vulnerable People registration with Access Canberra, using the same forms. NDIS activity is a regulated activity, and a granted clearance shows as NDIS ACTIVITIES Yes on the WWVP card. A provider can only use a restrictive practice if it is in the person's positive behaviour support plan, approved by a Positive Behaviour Support Panel and registered with the ACT Senior Practitioner, with applications uploaded through the Restrictive Intervention Database System.
NDIS registration help in the ACT
NDIS provider registration in the Northern Territory
SAFE NT, part of NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services, runs NDIS worker screening as well as Working with Children Clearances (the Ochre Card) and police checks. NDIS clearances are sent by email rather than as a card. Under the NT's National Disability Insurance Scheme (Authorisations) Act 2019, registered providers must request authorisation from the NT Senior Practitioner through the Restrictive Practice Authorisation System before implementing a restrictive practice in a behaviour support plan.
NDIS registration help in the Northern Territory
After registration: ongoing obligations, mid-term audit and renewal
Registration is the start, not the finish. Your conditions include complying with the Practice Standards and Code of Conduct, managing complaints and incidents, keeping worker screening current, and meeting behaviour support requirements where they apply. You must notify the Commission of significant changes, such as new key personnel, a new address, changes to ownership or business structure, or anything that affects your ability to deliver supports. Every worker must complete the NDIS Worker Orientation Module.
If you completed a certification audit you also have a mid-term audit, completed 18 months into your registration period, covering governance and operational management plus any standard that needed corrective action. Registration generally lasts 3 years. You can start renewal up to 6 months before expiry, and if you start before it expires your registration stays valid until the Commission decides. Let it lapse and you start again with a full new application and audit. Details are on the Commission's {ext('renewal page', RENEW)}.
Want us to do it for you?
We help providers through NDIS registration in every state and territory, from choosing registration groups and building policies that reflect how you really work, to preparing for the audit and answering the Commission's questions. You stay in control of your application, and we make sure it is ready. See our NDIS consultant services or contact us to talk it through.
If you would rather build the capability in house, these courses get your leaders and workers ready:
90 minPreparing for Your NDIS Audit
Preparing for Your NDIS Audit takes managers, quality and compliance leads and key personnel through an external NDIS quality audit from start to finish. You will learn how certification and verification audits work, the two audit stages, the role of approved quality auditors and how sampling decides which files, workers, participants and sites are checked. We show you how to build evidence that proves practice, not just policy, across participant files, worker files, registers and governance records, and how to run a mock audit and prepare staff and participants for interviews. We then cover audit day from the opening to the closing meeting, minor and major non-conformities, corrective action plans, the deadlines for closing them and the mid-term audit. Two case studies bring it all together. Duration: 90 minutes.
45 minIntroduction to the NDIS Practice Standards
The NDIS Practice Standards set out the quality and safety outcomes that registered NDIS providers must deliver for participants. This course explains what the Practice Standards are, how they are organised into a core module, supplementary modules and a verification module, and what the four parts of the core module cover. You will learn how providers are audited against the standards, what an auditor may look at, how the standards connect to the NDIS Code of Conduct and how your everyday work shows that we are meeting them. Case studies about choice in a shared home, changing needs and a complaint show the standards in action. The standards are being reformed, so we also show you where to find the current version. Duration: 45 minutes.
50 minNDIS Registration and the Quality and Safeguarding Framework
As a team leader or manager you help keep our registration in good standing every day. This course explains the NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Framework and its developmental, preventative and corrective safeguards, the different jobs of the National Disability Insurance Agency and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, how registration groups decide whether we face a verification or certification audit, and the conditions that come with registration. It covers recent changes, including mandatory registration for supported independent living and NDIS digital platform providers from 1 July 2026 and stronger regulatory powers. Two case studies show how to respond to an unauthorised restrictive practice and how to prepare honestly for an audit. Duration: 50 minutes.
45 minWorker Screening for Managers and HR
Worker screening is one of the most important preventative safeguards in disability and aged care, and a condition of our NDIS registration. This course helps managers and human resources staff get it right. It explains what a risk assessed role is and when an NDIS Worker Screening Check clearance is needed, the role of state and territory worker screening units and the national NDIS Worker Screening Database, and the records a registered provider must keep. It covers what to do when a worker is excluded, suspended or under an interim bar, the rules for working on application and other exceptions, and the current screening requirements for aged care workers. Two case studies show these steps in practice. Duration: 45 minutes.
50 minRunning an Internal Compliance Audit
Internal audits help us find and fix problems before they affect participants or show up at an external audit. This course shows team leaders and managers how to run a practical internal compliance audit: why we audit internally and why independence matters, how to plan the scope against the NDIS Practice Standards and our policies, how to sample files fairly and interview staff well, how to gather evidence and write strong findings, and how to build corrective action plans that close the loop. Two case studies follow a medication audit that uncovers a serious issue and a follow up audit under pressure before an external audit. Duration: 50 minutes.
90 minUsing the NDIS Provider Portals
A practical course for the admin, finance and intake staff who use the NDIS provider portals every day. It explains the three portals and what each one is for, how access now works through myID and Relationship Authorisation Manager after PRODA was retired for the agency's portals, and how we decide who gets access and remove it when people leave. You will learn how plans in the old system and in PACE differ, when service bookings apply and how to be recorded as a my provider. It then covers single and bulk payment requests, reading payment summaries and recipient created tax invoices, common rejection reasons, record keeping, privacy and login security. Two case studies bring it together: a month end payment run and an access review. Duration: 90 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a fee to register as an NDIS provider?
No. The NDIS Commission charges nothing to register. You pay an approved quality auditor, whose price depends on your size and the number of participants you support, plus worker screening fees set by each state or territory.
Do I need to be registered to provide NDIS services?
Only for some supports and participants. You must register to support NDIA managed participants, or to provide plan management, SDA, SIL, specialist behaviour support, NDIS digital platform services, or regulated restrictive practices. Unregistered providers can support self managed and plan managed participants with other supports.
Is NDIS registration different in each state?
No. Registration is national through the NDIS Commission, with the same Practice Standards and audits. What differs is the state worker screening unit, restrictive practice authorisation and child safety checks such as working with children checks.
How long does NDIS registration take?
The Commission does not publish a standard timeframe. It depends on your size, the range of supports and how complex they are. You must complete the application within 60 days of starting it, and a certification audit's stage 2 should happen within 3 months of stage 1.
Where do I apply for NDIS registration now?
Since 12 October 2026, new applications and re-registrations start in the new NDIS Commission Portal, which you log in to with myID. Applications submitted before that date are finished in the existing portal.
How long does NDIS registration last?
Providers are generally registered for 3 years. Certification providers also have a mid-term audit 18 months in, and you can start renewal up to 6 months before your registration expires.
Source: NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Checked 11/11/2026. Provider Compliance is not affiliated with the Victorian Government.