The best way for providers to use positive behaviour support is to work with:

bullet the person with disability

bullet their family

bullet their support workers

bullet other people that know them well.end of list

Working with these people can help everyone:

• understand what the person wants and needs
• give the person the right support.

This includes behaviour support practitioners.

Behaviour support practitioners work with a person to create a behaviour support plan.

They follow the rules in our policy about restrictive practices.

Some behaviour support plans might include restrictive practices.

These plans must support our 5 principles for each restrictive practice.

Principles are important ideas that guide us.

1. Providers must try better ways to support a person before using a restrictive practice.

2. Providers must only use the least restrictive practice to keep people safe.

3. Providers must only use a restrictive practice that lowers the risk of harm to people.

4. Providers must only use a restrictive practice that doesn’t cause more harm than the behaviour.

5. Providers must only use a restrictive practice for the shortest time possible.

Behaviour support plans need to include information about how a provider will:

• stop using restrictive practices
• use restrictive practices less over time.

Behaviour support practitioners must work with the person and their support team.

They must work together to understand:

bullet what the person wants

bullet what information they need to collect before they can use a restrictive practice less

bullet when to start using the restrictive practice less.end of list

For example, information about:

bullet how often the provider uses the restrictive practice

bullet what other supports the provider uses

bullet whenbehaviours of concern happen. end of list

Behaviour support practitioners should work with the support team to decide who will:

• collect the information
• check the information.

Making a plan makes it safe for everyone when the restrictive practice is used less.

It’s important providers and behaviour support practitioners:

bullet meet the needs of the person with disability

bullet stop or use less restrictive practices

bullet make sure staff can take part in meetings about the information they collect.end of list

It’s also important that everyone respects the rights of people with disability.

Rights are rules about how people must treat others:

• fairly
• equally.

It’s also important that a person’s support team:

bullet supports people with disability to live a good life

bullet uses supported decision-making.end of list

Supported decision making is when someone supports a person with disability to make important decisions about their life and how they live.