Positive Behaviour Support in the Illawarra: the 2026 guide

Every week we get a call from a family or a support coordinator in the Illawarra asking the same question in different words. Their young person has behaviours of concern. The current plan is not working. They have heard about Positive Behaviour Support but the whole thing feels opaque.

This guide answers what they actually want to know. What PBS is, how it works for young people, what to look for in an Illawarra provider, and how to fund it through the NDIS.

If you are a parent, a support coordinator, a DCJ caseworker, or the young person themselves, this is written for you. If you already know you want support, our Positive Behaviour Support Illawarra page explains how we work with young people across Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama.

What Positive Behaviour Support actually is

Positive Behaviour Support is an evidence-based approach to reducing behaviours of concern by understanding what those behaviours are communicating.

That is a bigger statement than it looks.

Traditional behaviour work treats the behaviour itself as the problem. A young person hits a wall, so you write a strategy to stop them hitting the wall. You count the incidents. You reward the days without incidents.

PBS starts somewhere else. It asks what the young person is trying to say, or achieve, when they hit the wall. Usually the answer is one of four things: they are overwhelmed by sensory input, they are trying to escape a demand they cannot meet, they are seeking connection or attention in the only way they have learned, or they are responding to trauma the environment has triggered.

Once you know which function the behaviour is serving, you can teach a different way to meet that need. The behaviour reduces because the underlying need is being met more effectively. Not because the young person has learned to suppress it.

That is the whole model in one paragraph. Everything else, the functional behaviour assessment, the plan document, the implementation coaching, is the mechanics of doing that well.

How PBS works for young people specifically

PBS was originally developed for adults with severe disabilities. Most of the training and most of the practitioners in the Illawarra came through that lineage. It shows in how they work.

Youth PBS is different because young people 12 to 20 are neither children nor adults. Their behaviour has to be understood in the context of adolescent brain development, identity formation, trauma responses that often only surface at this age, and the social environments that dominate a teenager’s life: school, peers, and family.

A young person hitting a wall at 16 might be responding to sensory overwhelm the way a 6 year old does. It might also be a communication of “I have no control over my life and this is the only decision I can make.” Same behaviour, radically different function. A generalist PBS practitioner often reads the first cause and misses the second.

When you engage a PBS practitioner for a young person, ask them how their practice differs between adult and youth work. If the answer is that it does not, keep looking.

What to look for in an Illawarra PBS provider

The Illawarra has more NDIS participants per capita than most of NSW and fewer specialist youth practitioners than most of Sydney. That mismatch means you can end up with two problems: either a national provider with a Wollongong office that has no actual local practitioner, or a good local practitioner with a six month waitlist.

Six things worth asking before you sign a service agreement:

1. Is the person writing the plan the same person delivering the sessions? In good practice, yes. In lots of providers, no.

2. Are they an NDIS behaviour support practitioner? NDIS-funded behaviour support plans have to be written by a behaviour support practitioner the NDIS Commission has approved. It is fine to ask.

3. What is their functional assessment methodology? A real answer will mention direct observation across settings, interviews with the young person and their support network, and review of existing reports. A vague answer means they use a template.

4. How do they think about restrictive practices? The right answer is that PBS plans have a legal obligation to reduce restrictive practice with measurable targets. A wrong answer is anything about “using restrictive practice safely” without mentioning reduction.

5. What is their experience with your young person’s specific profile? Autism with complex trauma is not the same as ADHD with anxiety. OOHC placements need different formulation than family-based supports. Ask for anonymised examples.

6. How do they communicate with the family, the school, the coordinator, and DCJ if relevant? Weekly session notes, monthly summaries, and a named contact person are the minimum. Reports once a quarter is not enough for a plan in trouble.

If a provider cannot answer these clearly, that is data. Keep looking.

How PBS is funded through the NDIS

PBS is paid from the Behaviour Support budget in a young person’s NDIS plan (called Improved Relationships on older plans). If the plan has Behaviour Support funding, PBS is fundable.

If it does not, you can make a case for adding it at the next plan review. The evidence needed usually includes a psychology or paediatric report noting behaviours of concern, documentation of what other supports have been tried, and a rough estimate of the hours PBS will need. Your support coordinator or LAC can help build this evidence base.

For families in the Illawarra without an NDIS plan, PBS can also be delivered on a self-funded basis. The rates published in the NDIS Pricing Schedule apply to both funded and self-funded families in our practice with no private-pay premium.

For families in OOHC or with DCJ involvement, PBS is often funded through a combination of NDIS Capacity Building funding and DCJ case management. If you are unclear on which pathway applies, ask us during a free 15-minute chat and we will work it out together.

For the full pricing detail, our pricing page sets out how we bill against the NDIS Price Guide and how DCJ scopes work.

Signs a Positive Behaviour Support plan is not working

You do not need to be a practitioner to spot a PBS plan that is failing the young person. Some patterns worth flagging:

The plan reads like a template. Real functional assessment produces a document specific to the young person. If the plan could apply to anyone with the same diagnosis, it was not written from a real assessment.

Restrictive practices are listed without a reduction pathway. Every PBS plan should have measurable targets to reduce restrictive practice over time. “Consider reducing” is not a target.

The strategies do not fit the young person’s actual life. A strategy that requires a calm quiet space is useless if the young person lives in a busy household or a disrupted placement. Real practice adapts to the environment, not the reverse.

No one on the ground was trained to use the plan. A PBS plan is only as good as its implementation. If the family, teachers, and support workers have not been coached on how to use it, it will sit in a drawer.

Behaviours are the same or worse three months in. PBS should show measurable change within 90 days of implementation. Not always improvement, sometimes the assessment revealed the plan needs to change. But something should be shifting.

If any of these are true for a young person you support, the plan needs a review. A different practitioner can often re-examine the functional assessment and identify what was missed. That is not a criticism of the first practitioner. It is how the model is meant to work.

Where to start

If you are worried about a young person 12 to 20 in the Illawarra and PBS looks like part of the answer, three practical steps:

Step 1: book a free 15-minute chat. Fifteen minutes is enough to work out whether we are the right fit or whether we should point you to someone else. No commitment. Details in the popup on this page, or call 0480 800 521.

Step 2: get the NDIS plan ready. Locate the current plan document. Check for Behaviour Support (or Improved Relationships) funding. Note the plan management type. Have this ready for the call.

Step 3: think about what you actually want to change. Not the behaviour itself, but the life circumstance the behaviour is making harder. School attendance? Placement stability? Family relationships? Independence? The clearer the outcome, the better the PBS plan.

About our practice

Supporting Communities Australia delivers specialist Positive Behaviour Support across the Illawarra region: Wollongong, Shellharbour, and Kiama. PBS is led personally by Yosmerys Aparicio Cuencas, an NDIS behaviour support practitioner who works only with young people aged 12 to 20.

We work exclusively with young people aged 12 to 20. Our practice is trauma-informed by default, neuroaffirming, and focused on restrictive practice reduction as a measurable outcome, not a phrase in the paperwork.

For more detail on our Illawarra practice specifically, see the Positive Behaviour Support Illawarra page. For the wider service context, the Positive Behaviour Support service page has the mechanics. Many young people also do well with behaviour support alongside one-to-one youth mentoring, where a consistent mentor helps put the plan into practice in everyday life.

If you are ready to refer a young person, our referral form takes about three minutes. Every referral gets same-day acknowledgment and a free 15-minute chat before anything is signed.