NDIA Service Code
Clear, enforceable standards for how NDIA staff must treat participants — written by the disability community, grounded in the Agency's own practice guidelines, legislation, and human rights frameworks. Read the Code, see the evidence behind each clause, or propose a change.
5 of 46 sections drafted so far (current version 0.2)
How to read this Code
Each section is written in three parallel layers, which you can compare side by side.
Proposed enforceable Code text
The operative wording that would become enforceable if the Code were enacted or adopted with legal effect.
Plain English
What the rule means in practice, without diluting it.
Easy Read-style text
An initial text-only accessibility draft. A final Easy Read version will be co-designed and user-tested with people with intellectual disability and supported by appropriate images and layout.
Authority and reform labels
Each section's evidence notes label every proposed rule against one of these categories, so it's clear how much of the Code is already grounded in existing law or practice, and how much is a proposed extension.
Current legal anchor
The draft rests directly on an Act or other current binding Commonwealth law.
Treaty anchor
The draft rests directly on a CRPD (or other international treaty) provision.
Disability Royal Commission anchor
The draft is grounded in a Disability Royal Commission finding or recommendation.
Existing policy anchor
The draft turns an existing NDIA public commitment into a clearer mandatory standard.
Verified internal practice anchor
An FOI-released internal NDIA document shows this practice, guidance or expectation already exists internally.
Proposed extension
The draft deliberately creates a protection that is not presently expressed as an enforceable NDIA service duty.
Drafting choice
Explains a wording or terminology decision made while drafting, rather than citing a new authority.
Chapters
Chapter 1
Purpose, coverage and governing principles
Who the Code binds, what it covers, the words it relies on, and the human rights and equality duties that run through every other chapter.
Chapter 2
Communication, participation and relationships
How the Agency communicates with people, supports their decisions and choices, involves the people they choose to involve, and treats them with cultural safety and professional conduct.
Chapter 3
Access, planning and decisions about supports
The access, planning, evidence and support-decision process itself, from a first access request through to reasonable and necessary support decisions, restrictive practices and using a plan day to day.
Chapter 4
Administrative safeguards and continuity
The administrative backbone: records, privacy, timeframes, funding continuity, urgent risk response, automated decision systems, and continuity across staff and teams.
Chapter 5
Reviews, complaints and individual remedies
What happens when a person disagrees with or is harmed by a decision: review and appeal rights, complaints, protection from retaliation, and correcting Agency errors.
Chapter 6
Independent oversight, enforcement and systemic improvement
Independent oversight of the Code itself: enforcement and consequences for breach, public reporting, workforce training, and ongoing co-design with people with disability.