What are the Principles of Positive Behaviour Support?

Positive behaviour support (PBS) is a person-centred approach to managing challenging behaviours and promoting positive outcomes for people with disabilities. This strategy aims to reduce or eliminate the use of restrictive practices, enhance quality of life, and ensure the person’s dignity and independence.

Here, we explain the core principles and values of positive behaviour support (PBS), how they are reflected in the NDIS capability domains, and how they promote positive outcomes for people living with disabilities.

What is the Positive Behaviour Support Capability Framework?

The PBS Capability Framework was developed in consultation with PBS experts across Australia, allied health professionals, government bodies and people living with disability and their families. It aims to ^[1]:

• Improve the quality of life for people living with a disability
• Reduce behaviours of concern
• Reduce and eliminate restrictive practices
• Help practitioners understand the best way to provide positive behaviour support
• Increase the number of skilled practitioners working in the sector

The PBS Capability Framework outlines principles and values that underpin one overall goal: to create a skilled and capable workforce to deliver positive behaviour support to people living with a disability.

Core Principles of Positive Behaviour Support

Positive behaviour support operates under several core principles that ensure ethical, effective, and respectful interventions. These principles include legal and ethical practices, cultural awareness, reflective practice, and the use of evidence-based strategies.

The core principles provide a framework for how PBS should be structured and delivered. They include:

• Legal and ethical practice: Practitioners are required to be aware of all relevant state and territory regulations, as well as the NDIS (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018, the NDIS (Restrictive Practices and Behaviour Support) Rules 2018 and the NDIS Quality Indicator Guidelines 2018.
• Cultural awareness: Practitioners must be aware of and respectful of a person’s cultural background.
• Reflective practice: Plans should be regularly reviewed and changed as necessary to promote positive changes
• Evidence-based practice: Plans must be measurable and reviewed, and amendments must be data-driven.
• Supported decision-making: Plans must be developed collaboratively between all parties including the person with behaviours of concern, their families, allied health professionals, the Behaviour Support practitioner and any others involved in the person’s care, education or employment.
• Understanding the different factors in life changes that affect areas of concern: The recognition that behaviours of concern are often the result of interactions between the person and their environment.

Core Values of Positive Behaviour Support

The core values are the ethical and moral beliefs that underpin positive behaviour support. They reflect the attitudes and behaviours that practitioners should embody within their work. They include:

• Respect for a person’s opinion: To provide behaviour support, the practitioner must listen and value the perspective and preferences of the person receiving support and others involved in the positive behaviour support plan. This includes actively seeking and considering their input in the PBS plan.
• Protection of human rights: Ensuring that the individual’s rights are upheld is integral to positive behaviour support. This includes respecting the dignity, privacy, and freedom from abuse, neglect and exploitation.
• Person-centered approaches: PBS focuses on the individual’s needs, preferences, and goals. It emphasises understanding the person’s unique circumstances and designing support strategies that enhance their quality of life.
• Capacity building and participation: PBS focuses on implementing positive behaviour support strategies to address challenging behaviours. This is achieved best through skill building including communication and social skills to reduce challenging behaviour.
• Collaboration and teamwork: Successful PBS involves working collaboratively with the individual, their family, and other support networks to achieve common goals on the behaviour support plan.
• Honesty: Maintaining transparency in all interactions with the individual and their support network. This involves providing clear, accurate information, being open about the support processes and potential outcomes.
• Recognition of the connections between a person’s physical, emotional, spiritual and family wellbeing: Understanding the reasons behind challenging behaviour in order to develop proactive strategies.

Capability Domains of Positive Behaviour Support

The capability domains reflect the PBS principles and values. The capability domains are specific areas of knowledge, skills and practices that practitioners need to master to deliver high-quality behaviour support. They are:

• Interim response: Within 30 days, an interim plan is created to minimise the risk of behaviours that are concerning to the person and to others while a comprehensive plan is developed.
• Functional assessment: This is a detailed assessment that focuses on the person’s strengths, likes, and dislikes to develop a comprehensive plan.
• Planning: A comprehensive plan should aim to improve a person’s quality of life and support them to make positive changes. The entire support network should have input into the plan.
• Implementation: Ensuring the broader team is aware of the plan how to implement strategies to prevent challenging behaviours, and what to do if challenging behaviour does occur.
• Know it works: The measurable, evidence-based plan should be monitored and updated regularly.
• Restrictive practices: Practices that restrict a person’s freedom or physical movement in order to protect themselves and others from harm can be recommended as a last resort, by an appropriately qualified practitioner
• Continuing professional development and supervision: All practitioners should be supervised and be continually improve their knowledge, skills, confidence and professionalism.

How Does Everyday Independence Approach Positive Behaviour Support Within the NDIS?

At Everyday Independence, we focus on the reasons why an NDIS participant uses challenging behaviours with the goal of reducing or eliminating them. By working closely with you and your support team, we can pinpoint your triggers and create strategies to reduce or eliminate the use of challenging behaviours.

Our highly trained behaviour support practitioners focus on the reasons behind challenging behaviours. Your practitioner will:

• Assess your environments and abilities to identify reasons for the use of challenging behaviours
• Use these findings to develop PBS strategies in an Interim Support Plan within 30 days of the initial visit if restrictive practices are being used
• Develop a comprehensive behaviour support plan within 6 months
• Ensure that your entire support network understands your behaviour support plans and works towards creating supportive environments
• Help you build emotional regulation skills and promote positive behaviours and routines to increase independence and quality of life
• Connect with essential services including family and mental health support and employment to help you reach your goals
• Create outcome reports detailing what has been achieved with the NDIS funding and what’s needed in the next NDIS plan to achieve desired outcomes

Get started with Everyday Independence and work towards positive change by completing this form. Our friendly team will get back to you to chat about the next steps.

If you haven’t yet applied for an NDIS plan, read our NDIS page for information on applying for NDIS funding.

Summary

Implementing positive behaviour support frameworks within the NDIS is key to ensuring the best outcomes for people with disabilities. With a focus on collaboration, evidence, and continuous improvement, PBS strives to enhance individuals’ lives and wellbeing and reduce use of challenging behaviours.

References

[1] NDIS, 2024. Behaviour Support and Restrictive Practices. https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/rules-and-standards/behaviour-support-and-restrictive-practices#paragraph-id-9127