NDIS Behaviour Support Plans
Available across Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, and Toowoomba.
People Centred Therapies develops individualised Interim and Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plans that translate behavioural assessment into practical strategies for everyday life.
Our plans are designed to help participants and their support networks understand what influences behaviour, prevent unnecessary escalation, build meaningful skills, respond consistently when risks arise, and work towards improved quality of life.
A Behaviour Support Plan should do more than describe behaviour. It should clearly explain what people can do differently to create meaningful change.
What Is a Behaviour Support Plan?
A Behaviour Support Plan is an individualised guide for supporting a participant in ways that are practical, proactive, consistent, and informed by an understanding of their behaviour and broader circumstances.
A plan may describe the participant’s strengths, goals, communication, routines, support needs, behaviours of concern, risks, proactive strategies, skill-development priorities, and how support people should respond at different stages of behaviour.
For Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plans, the findings of the participant’s Functional Behaviour Assessment are used to connect the identified function of behaviour with specific strategies, teaching approaches, and measurable goals.
Interim and Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plans
Interim Behaviour Support Plan
An Interim Behaviour Support Plan provides practical guidance while more detailed assessment and the Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plan are being developed.
It focuses on the information required to support the participant safely and consistently, including:
Relevant information about the participant
Current behaviours of concern and risks
Known setting events and triggers
Proactive and preventative strategies
Responses to early warning signs and escalation
Relevant restrictive practices, where applicable
Responsibilities for implementation, monitoring, and review
Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plan
A Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plan builds on a more detailed understanding of the participant and their behaviour.
It may incorporate:
Functional Behaviour Assessment findings
Functional hypotheses
Holistic formulation
Measurable behaviour and quality-of-life goals
Functionally equivalent replacement behaviours
Skill-development programs
Reinforcement strategies
Detailed proactive and preventative strategies
Reactive strategies
Implementation and training requirements
Outcome monitoring and review
Restrictive practice reduction, where relevant
The Interim Plan establishes immediate direction. The Comprehensive Plan builds the longer-term framework for intervention and meaningful change.
What Is a Behaviour Support Plan Designed to Achieve?
The purpose of behaviour support extends beyond reducing behaviours of concern.
At PCT, Behaviour Support Plans are developed to help:
Protect the participant’s dignity, rights, choice, and quality of life
Increase participation in meaningful activities
Develop communication and other functional skills
Address the identified function of behaviour
Reduce environmental and support-related barriers
Make support more predictable and consistent
Reduce the frequency, duration, intensity, or risk associated with behaviours of concern
Provide clear responses when risks arise
Build the capability of family members, support workers, and other relevant people
Reduce reliance on restrictive practices where they are present
The Person Comes Before the Behaviour
A useful Behaviour Support Plan needs to explain more than what happens when behaviour occurs.
PCT considers information that helps support people understand the participant as a person, including their:
Strengths and existing skills
Goals and aspirations
Likes, dislikes, interests, and preferences
Living arrangements
Important relationships
Education or employment
Culture and personal history
Activities of daily living
Physical and mental health
Communication
Daily and weekly routines
Sensory preferences and aversions
Cognitive and learning needs
Quality of life
Formal and informal support network
Meaningful activities and potential reinforcers
The relevance of each area depends on the participant and their circumstances.
Understanding Behaviours of Concern and Risk
Behaviour Support Plans should describe behaviours in ways that allow different people to recognise and respond to them consistently.
For each relevant behaviour, the plan may identify:
An observable description of the behaviour
Frequency
Duration
Intensity
Setting events
Immediate triggers
Early indicators
Risks to the participant
Risks to other people
Risks to the environment
Maintaining factors
How the behaviour typically begins
Historical response strategies
The impact of previous behaviour support
Understanding Why the Behaviour Occurs
For a Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plan, behavioural strategies should be connected to an evidence-informed understanding of why the behaviour occurs.
The participant’s Functional Behaviour Assessment may identify the likely function of each behaviour and develop a functional hypothesis describing the relationship between relevant circumstances, the behaviour, and the outcome it produces.
PCT then considers the broader behavioural formulation, including:
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Longstanding circumstances that may increase the likelihood of the behaviour occurring.
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Immediate circumstances associated with the onset of behaviour.
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Factors that may contribute to the behaviour continuing over time.
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Strengths, relationships, routines, environments, and supports associated with improved outcomes or reduced risk.
Skill Development Is a Core Part of Behaviour Support
Behaviour support should not rely solely on changing how other people respond after a behaviour has occurred.
Where relevant, PCT develops skills that give the participant more effective ways to communicate, participate, make choices, manage everyday situations, and access important outcomes.
A skill-development program may identify:
The functionally equivalent replacement behaviour to be developed
The behaviour or risk the skill is intended to address
The clinical rationale for teaching the skill
How the skill will be taught
Prompting and support requirements
Reinforcement
Opportunities for practice
How independence will be developed
How progress will be measured
Preventing Behaviour Before It Occurs
A strong Behaviour Support Plan places significant emphasis on what can be changed before behaviour escalates.
PCT develops proactive and preventative strategies according to the participant’s individual needs, identified behavioural function, environment, communication, strengths, and preferences.
Each strategy may explain:
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The reason the strategy is expected to help and the behaviour or risk it addresses.
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Clear instructions describing how support people should implement the strategy.
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Practical examples showing how the strategy may look during everyday situations.
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Where relevant, the plan identifies responses that may increase risk, create confusion, or work against the purpose of the strategy.
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Strategies may be modified when known setting events or circumstances indicate the likelihood of behaviour has increased.
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The plan identifies what meaningful change the strategy is intended to produce and how its effectiveness can be evaluated.
This structure is built directly into PCT’s Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plan.
Clear Responses When Behaviour Escalates
Even with strong proactive support, situations may arise where behaviour begins to escalate.
Reactive strategies provide clear guidance about what the participant may look like at different stages and how support people should respond.
PCT may structure these responses across:
Baseline
Early warning signs
Escalation
Peak of escalation
De-escalation
Recovery
For each stage, the plan can describe what this looks like, what to do, and, where relevant, what not to do.
The aim is to respond early, consistently, and proportionately rather than waiting until behaviour has reached its highest level of risk.
Turning Clinical Recommendations Into Everyday Actions
A technically accurate Behaviour Support Plan has limited value if the people implementing it cannot understand what they are expected to do.
PCT develops strategies with implementation in mind.
Comprehensive plans may include:
Real-world examples
Situation-specific response guidance
Quick-reference proactive strategy guides
Quick-reference reactive strategy guides
Prompting hierarchies
Strategy implementation checklists
Data-collection resources
Clear roles and responsibilities
Reducing Reliance on Restrictive Practices
Where restrictive practices are present, behaviour support should not stop at documenting their use.
The plan may identify relevant restrictive practices, the circumstances associated with their use, safeguards, responsibilities, monitoring requirements, and the proactive and skill-development strategies intended to reduce reliance on them.
Where relevant, PCT’s plans may address:
Chemical restraint
Environmental restraint
Mechanical restraint
Physical restraint
Seclusion
For each relevant practice, the plan may document its rationale, circumstances of use, safeguards, implementation requirements, monitoring, and a plan to reduce and eliminate its use.
The long-term objective is not simply to manage restrictive practices. It is to understand what needs to change so reliance on them can be reduced wherever possible.
A Behaviour Support Plan Needs to Be Implemented
Writing the plan is only one part of behaviour support.
PCT also considers what is required for the plan to be implemented consistently across the participant’s everyday environments.
Implementation planning may identify:
Who is responsible for each action
Training requirements
How strategies will be introduced
How implementation will be monitored
What data should be collected
Reporting responsibilities
Communication between relevant people
Outcome measures
Review timeframes
How We Develop a Behaviour Support Plan
Step 1: Understand the current situation
We review the referral, current behaviours of concern, risks, existing supports, previous strategies, available documentation, and immediate priorities.
Step 2: Consult with the participant and relevant people
The participant remains central to the process, with consultation from family members, support workers, providers, and other relevant people where appropriate.
Step 3: Develop interim guidance where required
Where an Interim Behaviour Support Plan is required, we establish initial proactive strategies, response guidance, risk information, and implementation requirements while further assessment continues.
Step 4: Complete the Functional Behaviour Assessment
Behavioural assessment develops the evidence required to understand behavioural function and the broader circumstances influencing the behaviour.
Step 5: Develop the Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plan
Assessment findings are translated into measurable goals, skill development, proactive strategies, reactive responses, and implementation requirements.
Step 6: Support implementation
Relevant support people may receive training, modelling, coaching, practical resources, and feedback to help them implement strategies consistently.
Step 7: Measure and review
Behaviour data, skill development, strategy implementation, participant outcomes, and feedback are reviewed to determine whether the plan is producing meaningful change.
Our Approach to Behaviour Support Planning
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Strategies should be clear enough to guide real decisions during everyday situations, not simply satisfy the requirements of a report.
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Recommendations should have a clinical reason. We connect strategies to assessment findings rather than relying on generic behaviour-management techniques.
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We focus on changing the circumstances that influence behaviour before relying on responses after behaviour has occurred.
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Where possible, intervention develops communication, daily living, participation, choice, and other skills that provide more effective ways for the participant to achieve important outcomes.
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A strategy is unlikely to succeed if the people responsible for using it do not understand how or why it works.
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Behaviour support should change when the evidence changes. If strategies are not producing meaningful outcomes, they should be reviewed, refined, or replaced rather than continued automatically.
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Success is not defined only by a reduction in behaviours of concern. We also consider participation, functional skills, relationships, choice, safety, independence, and access to meaningful activities.
Behaviour Support Plan FAQs
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An Interim Behaviour Support Plan provides initial guidance about risks, proactive strategies, and responses while further assessment occurs.
A Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plan incorporates the more detailed behavioural assessment required to establish longer-term goals, skill-development programs, function-based strategies, and implementation arrangements.
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No.
The Functional Behaviour Assessment develops the understanding of why behaviour occurs. The Behaviour Support Plan uses that understanding to guide what should be taught, changed, implemented, monitored, and reviewed.
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No.
Restrictive practice information is included where it is relevant to the participant.
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No.
A significant part of effective behaviour support occurs before behaviours of concern happen. Plans may include environmental changes, communication support, skill development, routine adjustments, reinforcement, participant choice, and other proactive strategies.
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Yes.
PCT’s Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plans can include specific replacement skills, teaching strategies, prompting, reinforcement, measurable goals, and methods for monitoring progress.
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The available evidence should be reviewed. This may involve reconsidering the functional hypothesis, implementation consistency, environmental factors, teaching approach, reinforcement, participant circumstances, or the strategy itself.
The plan should then be adjusted where appropriate.
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The participant should be involved to the greatest extent appropriate to them, and relevant people who are responsible for implementing strategies should understand the sections required for their role.
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PCT provides specialist behaviour support across Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, and our Toowoomba service area.
Behaviour Support Planning Across Our Service Regions
People Centred Therapies provides Interim and Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plans as part of our specialist behaviour support services across:
Brisbane
Ipswich
Logan
The Gold Coast
Toowoomba
Services may involve work within the participant’s home, supported accommodation, education setting, workplace, community environment, or other settings relevant to their behaviour and support needs.
Develop a Behaviour Support Plan That Can Be Put Into Practice
If a participant requires specialist behaviour support, PCT can assess their current needs, develop appropriate interim guidance where required, complete the Functional Behaviour Assessment process, and develop a Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plan focused on practical implementation and meaningful outcomes.