NDIS Practice Standards
Module 5: Specialist disability accommodation
m5-5.5 SDA service agreements: participant supported to understand terms and conditions
Clause and reference m5-5.5, our reference for this requirement in the NDIS Practice Standards and Quality Indicators
The requirement
Each participant gets support to understand the agreement and its conditions, in the language, the form of communication and the words the participant is most likely to follow.
Our wording of the requirement: our statement of what the clause asks, not the instrument verbatim. Source: NDIS Practice Standards on the compliance desk.
The evidence to bring
- File note of the meeting where the agreement was explained, who attended and the format used
- Easy Read summary of key agreement terms
- Record of offer of an advocate or support person at signing
What assessors commonly find
- Agreement signed by a family member without evidence the participant understood it
- Explanation recorded only as 'agreement discussed'
What evidence do I need?
For m5-5.5 SDA service agreements: participant supported to understand terms and conditions, the evidence to bring is: File note of the meeting where the agreement was explained, who attended and the format used; Easy Read summary of key agreement terms. Keep every record dated, signed and current, and name who owns it.
Answer the reviewer first
Show me file note of the meeting where the agreement was explained, who attended and the format used, and tell me who owns it and when it was last reviewed.
That is the question a quality assessor opens with for this requirement. Have the record on the desk and the date it was last reviewed to hand.
Read your own evidence against this clause
Paste your policy or evidence pack and the reading marks, line by line, whether a phrase from this requirement appears and quotes your own words when it does. It is a reading of your text, not a compliance result; a quality assessor decides whether a requirement is met. Read your pack, free See the paid reading