Responding to Participant Complaints: A Guide for NDIS Providers

A practical guide for NDIS provider operators on handling participant complaints fairly, meeting Commission obligations, and turning feedback into better service.

When a participant or their family raises a complaint, how you respond in the first 24 hours matters more than almost anything else. A well-handled complaint can strengthen trust, surface genuine service gaps, and demonstrate to the NDIS Commission that your organisation takes quality seriously. A poorly handled one can escalate quickly, damage your reputation, and in serious cases, trigger a compliance investigation.

This guide is written for NDIS provider operators, whether you are registered or unregistered, running a sole-trader operation or managing a team of support workers. It walks through your obligations under the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Framework, practical steps for building a complaints process that actually works, and what to do when a complaint escalates beyond your organisation.

Why complaints handling is a core provider obligation

The NDIS Commission requires all registered NDIS providers to have a complaints management and resolution system in place. This is not optional. It is one of the conditions of registration under the NDIS (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018.

The relevant NDIS Practice Standard, under the Core Module, sets out that participants must:

Know they have the right to make a complaint without fear of retribution.
Be told how to make a complaint, in a format they can understand.
Have their complaint acknowledged, investigated, and resolved in a reasonable timeframe.
Be informed of the outcome and any actions taken.

Unregistered providers are not directly subject to the Practice Standards, but they are still bound by the NDIS Code of Conduct. The Code requires all providers and workers, registered or not, to act with integrity, respect participant rights, and take action to prevent harm. A credible complaints process is one of the clearest ways to demonstrate that commitment.

If you are still building out your compliance foundations, the NDIS provider resources and registration guidance on OpenWay is a useful starting point alongside the Commission's own materials.

Building a complaints process that participants will actually use

A complaints policy sitting in a folder nobody reads is not a complaints process. The goal is to build something participants and their families feel safe using. That means making it accessible, visible, and genuinely welcoming of feedback, including feedback that is uncomfortable.

Make the process easy to find and understand

Your complaints information should appear in:

Your service agreement, in plain English.
Your welcome pack or onboarding materials.
Any participant handbook or app you use.
Visible signage at any physical location where supports are delivered.

Use plain language. Avoid legal jargon. If you support participants who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), have a non-verbal communication style, or speak a language other than English, your complaints process needs to be accessible to them too. Consider Easy Read versions, translated documents, or visual supports.

Designate a complaints contact person

Participants should know exactly who to contact. That person should be someone other than the worker the complaint is about, wherever possible. In a small organisation, this might mean the business owner steps in directly. In a larger organisation, a team leader or quality officer might take this role.

The contact details for your complaints person should be in writing and easy to find.

Set clear timeframes

The NDIS Commission does not prescribe exact timeframes for every step, but your policy should set out realistic, reasonable ones. A common approach is:

Acknowledge the complaint within 2 business days.
Provide an initial response or update within 5 business days.
Complete the investigation and communicate the outcome within 30 calendar days for most complaints.
For complex or serious complaints, communicate a revised timeframe and keep the complainant updated.

Write these timeframes into your policy and stick to them. If you cannot meet a deadline, communicate proactively, not after the person has already followed up.

How to respond when a complaint comes in

The way you receive a complaint sets the tone for everything that follows. Even if the complaint feels unfair or inaccurate, the first response should never be defensive.

Step one: Acknowledge and listen

Thank the person for raising the issue. Use their name. Confirm that you have received the complaint and that you take it seriously. Do not minimise what they have said or immediately explain why the worker or service was actually fine.

A good acknowledgement sounds like: "Thank you for letting us know. We take all feedback seriously and want to make sure we understand what happened. We will be in touch within [X] days to discuss this further."

Step two: Record the complaint formally

Every complaint should be recorded in writing, regardless of how it was received. Note:

The date and time the complaint was received.
Who made the complaint (participant, family member, advocate).
The nature of the complaint.
Any immediate steps taken.
The name of the person handling the complaint.

This record is important for your own quality improvement processes and may be required by the NDIS Commission if a complaint is escalated or audited.

Step three: Investigate fairly

Gather information from all relevant parties. This means speaking to the worker involved, reviewing any relevant records (progress notes, incident reports, rostering information), and listening carefully to the complainant's account.

Keep the investigation proportionate to the seriousness of the complaint. A complaint about a worker being consistently late requires a different response than a complaint about alleged abuse or neglect.

Do not share the complainant's identity with workers or colleagues unless it is necessary for the investigation, and handle all information with discretion.

Step four: Communicate the outcome

Tell the complainant what you found and what you are doing about it. You do not need to share confidential information about workers or disciplinary outcomes, but you should explain what actions you are taking to address the issue and prevent recurrence.

If the complaint was not substantiated, explain why, clearly and respectfully. The person should understand how you reached your conclusion, even if the outcome is not what they hoped for.

When a complaint involves a serious incident

Some complaints will overlap with, or trigger, your serious incident reporting obligations. Under the NDIS (Incident Management and Reportable Incidents) Rules 2020, registered providers must report certain incidents to the NDIS Commission. These include:

Abuse, neglect or exploitation of a participant.
Unlawful sexual or physical contact.
Death of a participant.
Use of unauthorised restrictive practices.
Unexplained absence of a participant.

If a complaint raises any of these issues, your incident management process takes precedence alongside your complaints process. The two should be clearly linked in your internal policies so staff know what to do when the lines blur.

Do not wait for the complaint investigation to conclude before lodging a reportable incident notification. Notify the NDIS Commission as required and document your actions carefully.

Supporting participants to escalate if they choose to

Participants always have the right to take their complaint to the NDIS Commission directly, regardless of whether they have raised it with you first. Your complaints process should make this clear, in writing, without any language that discourages them from doing so.

The NDIS Commission can be contacted via its website, by phone on 1800 035 544, or in writing. Participants can also seek support from an NDIS advocate. The National Disability Advocacy Program (NDAP) funds advocates across Australia who can support people to raise concerns.

Telling participants about these external options is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that your organisation respects participant rights and is not trying to manage complaints in a way that protects the provider at the expense of the person receiving supports.

You can also point participants and families to resources on OpenWay's participant and family information pages if they are looking for guidance on their rights and how to find alternative providers if needed.

Turning complaints into quality improvement

Every complaint is a data point. Taken together, they tell you something about your service that routine supervision and audits might miss.

Build a simple process for reviewing complaints regularly. Monthly or quarterly, look at:

How many complaints were received and what they were about.
Whether the same issues are appearing more than once.
Whether any patterns relate to specific workers, rosters, locations or service types.
Whether timeframes are being met.
What changes have been made in response to complaints, and whether those changes have worked.

Share de-identified themes with your team. This normalises feedback as part of a quality culture rather than something shameful or threatening. Workers who understand that complaints lead to improvement, not blame, are more likely to encourage participants to speak up.

If you are a support coordinator helping participants find providers with strong quality cultures, OpenWay's provider directory lets you filter and review provider profiles, which can give you a starting point for assessing how providers present their approach to participant rights and safety.

Frequently asked

Do unregistered NDIS providers need a formal complaints process?

Unregistered providers are not required to meet the NDIS Practice Standards, which means the formal complaints management requirement does not technically apply to them. However, the NDIS Code of Conduct does apply to all providers and workers, and it requires them to act with integrity and respect participant rights. Having a clear, accessible complaints process is strongly recommended for unregistered providers as good practice and as a way to demonstrate trustworthiness to participants and support coordinators.

What happens if a participant complains to the NDIS Commission about my organisation?

The NDIS Commission will assess the complaint and decide how to respond. This might involve contacting you to gather information, conducting a compliance audit, or in serious cases, taking regulatory action. The Commission publishes its compliance and enforcement approach on its website. Cooperating promptly and transparently with any Commission inquiry is always the right approach, and having well-maintained complaint records will help you respond clearly and quickly.

Can a participant be removed from my service for making a complaint?

No. Retaliating against a participant for making a complaint, including by ending their service, is a serious breach of the NDIS Code of Conduct and the participant's rights. If a service relationship genuinely cannot continue for unrelated reasons, any exit process must follow the terms of the service agreement, give adequate notice, and support the participant to find alternative providers. The process should be clearly documented and should never appear connected to the complaint.

How OpenWay can help

If you are an NDIS provider looking to strengthen your profile and connect with participants and support coordinators who are actively searching for services, OpenWay offers a straightforward way to get listed and visible in the marketplace.

Providers on OpenWay can detail their service offerings, geographic coverage, and the values that guide their practice, including how they approach participant rights and quality. Participants and families browse listings for free, and support coordinators use the platform to shortlist and share options with the people they support.

To learn more about how OpenWay works for providers and what a listing involves, visit the OpenWay provider information page.

OpenWay is not part of the NDIS, NDIA or NDIS Commission. Final scope, pricing, travel, cancellation rules and non-face-to-face charges must be confirmed in a written service agreement between the participant (or their authorised support person) and the provider.

This article was written by OpenWay editorial with AI assistance. We review for accuracy + tone but the framing rules of the NDIS apply: nothing here is medical, legal or financial advice. Always check the NDIS Commission and your plan for the latest rules.