Plenty of everyday support actions cross into restrictive practice territory without anyone meaning them to. Locking a gate so someone can’t wander. A medication given to settle behaviour. Holding someone’s arm to stop them hitting out. Each one may be a regulated restrictive practice, and using it without the right authorisation and reporting turns a care decision into a compliance breach.
Here is what the NDIS actually regulates, and what your obligations are. It is current as of August 2026; confirm the detail against the NDIS Commission.
The five regulated restrictive practices
The NDIS Commission regulates five types. If a support restricts a person’s rights or freedom of movement, it is worth checking it against this list.
| Practice | What it means in plain terms |
|---|---|
| Seclusion | Leaving a person alone in a room or space they cannot freely leave, such as a locked door or being told they cannot come out. |
| Chemical restraint | Using medication to influence a person’s behaviour, other than medication prescribed to treat a diagnosed condition. |
| Mechanical restraint | Using a device to restrict a person’s movement, other than for therapeutic or safe-transport reasons. |
| Physical restraint | Using physical force to restrict or subdue a person’s movement. |
| Environmental restraint | Restricting a person’s free access to parts of their environment, such as locking a cupboard, fridge or outdoor area. |
The part providers miss: intent doesn’t matter
A practice is still a restrictive practice even when it is well-meant, even when it keeps someone safe, and even when the family asked for it. Locking the pantry because a participant eats until they are unwell is environmental restraint. A PRN medication used to calm agitation can be chemical restraint. Good intentions do not take it outside the rules.
What you must have in place
The use of a regulated restrictive practice is only lawful when it is:
- In a behaviour support plan written by a registered NDIS behaviour support practitioner, based on a functional assessment, and working toward reducing and removing the practice over time;
- Authorised under the rules of your state or territory. The NDIS Commission does not authorise restrictive practices. Authorisation is a state and territory matter, so check the process that applies where you operate; and
- Reported to the NDIS Commission. Registered providers report their use of regulated restrictive practices to the Commission, and any use that is unauthorised or not in line with the behaviour support plan is a reportable incident.
Where this connects to reportable incidents
Unauthorised use of a restrictive practice, or use that does not follow the behaviour support plan, is a reportable incident. If it has not caused serious injury you generally have five business days to notify; if it caused harm, you are back to 24 hours. That overlap is exactly why your team needs to recognise both a restrictive practice and a reportable incident on the spot.
What good practice looks like
Restrictive practices are a last resort, not a management tool. The goal is always to understand why a behaviour is happening and to build supports that reduce the need for restriction. That is the whole point of positive behaviour support: fewer restrictive practices over time, not more comfortable ones.
Help your team recognise and reduce restrictive practices
Our Positive Behaviour Support Essentials course helps support workers understand why behaviours happen, recognise restrictive practices, and work within a behaviour support plan to reduce them. Built by AHPRA-registered clinicians and mapped to the NDIS Practice Standards, with a dated completion record for your workforce evidence.