Positive Behaviour Support

Practical, person-centred PBS that helps people feel safer, understood, and better supported

We work with participants, families, support teams, and providers to understand behaviours of concern, reduce restrictive practices, and build everyday strategies that improve quality of life.

Smiling mother holding baby girl over lake and nature background, warm autumn scene

NDIS registered provider

Evidence-based and person-centred

Support for families, teams, and providers

Sunshine Coast and wider Queensland

Understanding PBS

What is Positive Behaviour Support?

PBS is an evidence-based approach that focuses on understanding the function of behaviour and improving quality of life — not just stopping behaviours that cause concern. It is recognised under the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission framework and guided by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

What PBS is not

  • Labelling people as difficult or problematic
  • Using punishment to eliminate behaviour
  • Applying the same plan to every person
  • Treating behaviour as something to fix

What PBS is

  • Seeing the person behind the behaviour
  • Understanding the environment and context
  • Building skills, relationships, and opportunities
  • Reducing and eliminating restrictive practices

How PBS is built

The three layers of support

Positive Behaviour Support is not a single strategy. It is a layered system built from the ground up, always starting with what matters most to the person.

Foundation

Quality of life and human rights

Everything begins here. Before we think about behaviour, we ask what a good life looks like for this person. We consider relationships, activities, communication, choice, safety, dignity, and the environments that help them thrive.

Proactive

Skill building and environmental change

Once we understand the person's needs, we build toward them constructively. We teach useful skills, strengthen relationships, adjust the environment, and create supports that make everyday success more likely.

Reactive

Safe crisis response

Reactive strategies exist to keep everyone safe during moments of escalation. They are not the main focus. They should always use the least restrictive approach possible and feed learning back into the proactive plan.

How this works in practice

Good PBS does not start by asking how to stop a behaviour. It starts by asking four practical questions:

Where do they want to go?

Goals, values, participation, and quality of life.

Where are they now?

Current skills, environment, strengths, and unmet needs.

How will they get there?

Teaching, support strategies, and environmental change.

What maintains progress?

Meaningful outcomes, consistency, reinforcement, and review.

This is the constructional logic of PBS. We are not only trying to reduce behaviour of concern. We are building a better, safer, and more sustainable way for the person to get their needs met.

Understanding behaviour

A worked example

Before developing any plan, we assess what is driving the behaviour. The ABC model helps us understand what happens before, during, and after.

A — Antecedent Loud classroom, no warning, task feels too hard.
B — Behaviour Person pushes materials off the desk and walks away.
C — Consequence Person was removed from the task.

What this tells us

Function: Escape from an overwhelming task.

Our response: modify the environment, build tolerance gradually, offer choice and control.

Our process

How we work

Our process is collaborative, practical, and aligned with the NDIS Positive Behaviour Support Capability Framework.

THE PERSON AT THE CENTRE

Their goals / their story / their voice

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?

Goals + Vision

WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

Functional Assessment + Ecological Analysis

HOW WILL YOU GET THERE?

Build the Plan

HOW WILL GAINS BE MAINTAINED?

Monitor / Review / Celebrate / Rebuild

This is an ongoing, collaborative cycle — not a one-time process.

Who we work with

Who we support

PBS works across the whole support system – behaviour occurs in relationships and environments, so change happens there too.

Participants & families

We work directly with the person at the centre of the plan – and with the people who know them best. Families are essential partners, not bystanders.

  • A full functional assessment that explains why the behaviour is happening
  • A plain-language behaviour support plan co-designed with the family
  • Ongoing check-ins and adjustments as things change

Support workers & teams

Support workers are on the front line every day. They need clear, practical strategies they can actually use – not just a document to file away.

  • Training in understanding behaviour and de-escalation approaches
  • Clear, readable plans with step-by-step guidance
  • Reflective practice sessions to review what is working

Providers & coordinators

We work alongside support coordinators, service providers, and allied health teams to ensure the PBS plan fits within the broader support network.

  • NDIS-compliant behaviour support plans and reporting
  • Collaboration with existing allied health and medical supports
  • Practical guidance on restrictive practice reduction and elimination

In practice

A young person is experiencing distress during transitions. We identify that unpredictability is the issue, introduce visual supports and warnings, teach a way to request a break, and coach the team to respond consistently.

The behaviour reduces because the environment now meets the person's need for predictability. No punishment. No restrictive practice.

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Our approach

Why our approach is different

Many families and providers have worked with approaches that fell short. Here is how we do things differently.

What people often experience elsewhere

  • A plan written about the person, not with them
  • Strategies focused on stopping behaviour
  • Staff trained once and then left without support
  • Reviews only when something goes wrong
  • Restrictive practices without a reduction plan

What we do differently

  • Plans co-designed with the person and their network
  • Strategies focused on building skills and changing environments
  • Ongoing coaching and practical support for teams
  • Regular monitoring and proactive reviews
  • Restrictive practices only as a last resort, with elimination plan

01

Human rights first

Every person has the right to dignity, self-determination, and community participation. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities guides every decision.

02

Quality of life matters

Reducing a behaviour is not success on its own. Success means more choice, more community access, and more of what the person finds meaningful.

03

Practical support for the whole team

No one-size-fits-all plans. Every strategy is built with the individual, their communication style, sensory needs, and goals in mind — and the team around them.

NDIS aligned

PBS may be funded through Improved Daily Living in an NDIS plan, depending on the participant's goals and supports. Our services are fully aligned with the NDIS Positive Behaviour Support Capability Framework.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

Get in touch

Start with a conversation

Whether you are seeking support for a participant, guidance for a team, or training for a service, we can help you work out the next step.

Phone

0468 473 180

Service area

Sunshine Coast and wider Queensland