NDIS Audits: What You Should Expect 

NDIS audits are an essential quality control process that ensures people with disability receive high-quality, safe supports. The goal of an NDIS audit is to confirm that you’re adhering to the NDIS Practice Standards.

The NDIS Audit Process 

The NDIS audit process varies slightly depending on your disability services’ risk level. But, as a general rule, you’ll need to contract an approved Quality Auditor to examine your business operations. For certification audits, the auditor will visit you on-site. 

How Often Do NDIS Providers Get Audited? 

NDIS-registered providers are typically audited every 18 months. But, if auditors find major non-conformities, you’ll have to undergo additional audits.

What Questions Will NDIS Auditors Ask Your Support Workers?

There’s no set list of questions that the auditor will ask your carers and disability support worker team. But they might ask about your agency’s processes, the on-the-job support your team receives and what your staff members do in case of incidents. 

Your admin and leadership staff will also be interviewed, along with your clients, so use our audit preparation checklist to help brief your team.

NDIS Audit Results & What They Mean

Your contracted auditor will score your compliance with each element of the NDIS Practice Standards. There are four possible results they can give you:

Conformity with Elements of Best Practice

It might sound dry, but this is actually a glowing commendation of your processes.

Conformity

A pass mark: you meet all minimum requirements, even if you don’t exceed them.

Minor Non-Conformity

This normally reflects a problem with your documentation. With any non-conformities, you’ll need to submit a Corrective Action Plan to the NDIS Commission within five calendar days. 

But, providing you have fewer than three minor non-conformities, the Commission won’t check its implementation until your next regularly scheduled audit, 18 months later.

Major Non-Conformity

A major non-conformity means you either have three or more minor non-conformities or that the auditors found high levels of risk. With this result, you’ll need to take immediate action.

What Happens if You Fail an NDIS Audit?

Whether the auditors have found minor or major non-conformities, your first course of action will be the same: submit a Corrective Action Plan within five calendar days. 

But while NDIS providers with minor non-conformities have 18 months to enact this plan, you’ll need to operate on a much faster timeline if you’ve got major non-conformities. You must implement the plan and book a new, corrective audit within three months. 

After the corrective audit, you’ll receive one of three results:

• Conformity: You fixed the issue and you now conform to best practice standards. Your next audit will be in 18 months’ time. 

• Minor non-conformity: Your issue has been downgraded from major to minor. You’ll be audited again in nine months’ time. 

• Major non-conformity: If the auditors still find a major non-conformity, the NDIS Commission will evaluate whether you can continue offering disability services.

Booking multiple NDIS audits is expensive, time-consuming and disruptive, so it’s in your best interests to avoid this situation.

Common Reasons for Failing NDIS Audits 

Many NDIS providers fail their NDIS audits for easily avoidable reasons. These include:

1. Poor Documentation 

Not having adequate documentation for your processes is an instant non-conformity. Use NDIS management software with built-in document management and document all your systems and protocols. 

You’ll also want to review your documents regularly. ShiftCare can help by creating automated document expiry notifications.

2. Lack of Preparation

Your auditors have limited time in which to find proof of conformity. Help them by making sure all your evidence is ready and waiting for them to review. 

In particular, be prepared to demonstrate your participant documentation, incident records and risk assessments.

3. Outdated Staff Information

In any growing business, staff roles frequently evolve. But as part of the NDIS audit process, you’ll need to show that your team members have the right competencies for their roles. 

Come prepared with a list of skill sets and qualifications. Demonstrate processes that prevent you from assigning unqualified workers, such as NDIS software with staff filters.

Stay Audit-Ready with NDIS Software

While stressful, audits are an unavoidable part of being an NDIS-registered provider. The most foolproof way to ensure a successful audit is to follow best practices for compliance and record-keeping from day one.

ShiftCare’s NDIS software supports you in managing every part of your disability services provider business, from client onboarding to rostering, funds management and invoicing. It helps you stay compliant through securely storing client documentation and providing comprehensive digital records. Key features include document expiry notifications and customisable incident report templates.

Discover how the right software can help you improve your audit preparedness. Try ShiftCare for free.