4 Tips for a Stress-Free NDIS Verification Audit

In the seven years I spent working as an NDIS Lead Auditor and Senior Manager at an Approved Quality Auditor (AQA), I reviewed and wrote hundreds of NDIS Verification audit reports. I’ve seen providers breeze through the process with a great end result, and I’ve seen many others struggle through weeks of back-and-forth emails.

The difference between one result and the other isn’t usually how much a provider spent on consultants (although that can certainly help you prepare!), but instead it’s usually how well they understood the actual requirements of an NDIS Verification audit.

If you want to walk into your desktop audit feeling like a quality provider and not a student being graded, here are some tips to help you prepare.

1. Precision in your audit scope: getting the application right for your NDIS Verification

One of the most common ways providers accidentally blow out their audit cost or complexity is by over-scoping. When you submit your application to the Commission, you are asked which registration groups you intend to provide. The language can be confusing and often differs to how you might describe your supports: e.g. ‘0120 Household Tasks’ actually means cleaning and gardening, ‘0106 Assist Life Stage Transition’ actually refers to Support Coordination.

• The Trap: Not understanding what each group refers to, or including groups you might do in the future. If you include a higher risk group by mistake, you’ll trigger a full Certification audit (on-site, multiple days, thousands of dollars extra) instead of a desktop-based Verification.
• The Tip: Make sure you’re aware of what each registration group actually means, and which groups may unwittingly tip you over into a Certification audit. If you’re not quite sure on the difference, read our guide on NDIS Certification vs Verification Audit.

2. Proportionality: keep it simple (and accurate!)

An auditor’s biggest and most common red flag is a one or two person business with a 480-page policy manual that mentions the Board of Directors and the HR Department. This very quickly tells the auditor you haven’t read your own documents. Extra points if there is an ‘Insert Logo Here’ placeholder on your front page and document headers!

• The Trap: Purchasing a generic set of NDIS policies and procedures and not comprehensively reviewing each policy and procedure to ensure it matches your setup.
• The Tip: Make sure every document you submit actually reflects your day-to-day operations. If you’ve purchased generic policies and procedures, don’t automatically trust the ‘audit ready’ label – you need to double check. Check out Paperbark NDIS’s Verification Toolkit, designed to help you build compliant and honest documents that match what you do.

3. Evidence of action: the living system

Your policy manual says how you’ll do things, your registers show how you do things. During a verification audit, the auditor needs to see the tools you use to stay safe and compliant.

• The Trap: Submitting your empty registers – Complaints, Incidents, and Staff Tracking. For complaints and incidents in particular, many providers mistakenly believe that an empty register looks better than your actual records. In all honesty, it can look a bit suspicious if you’ve been operating for 4 years and you say you’ve never had a complaint or incident.
• The Tip: A register with entries is always more useful as evidence than a blank register. As an auditor, trust me – we know that NDIS providers receive complaints and experience incidents and expect to see this! What we’re looking for is to see that you’ve recorded them properly and made changes to your processes if needed.

4. A competent and qualified workforce: certificates, please!

Verification audits often stall because the provider forgets that their people are as important as their policies. As an auditor, I need to see that the person delivering the service is competent and qualified to do so, especially for specific registration groups that require licences or qualifications.

• The Trap: Expecting that your policy and procedures are sufficient to meet the Human Resources standard of the Verification Module. Your Staff Register or Training Matrix, while useful, also is not sufficient evidence to prove qualifications.
• The Tip: Provide copies of your workers’ screening checks, qualifications, professional memberships, and NDIS Worker Orientation Module certificate. Evidence of ID and Right To Work may also be required. This also includes anyone in your business who meets the definition of key personnel.
• Extra Resource: The NDIS Practice Standards Qualification and Professional Associations Required Documentation Guide outlines exactly what qualifications/evidence are required for each registration group.

Summary

A verification audit is an important quality check on your professional standards, but it shouldn’t be scary. When you approach it with a correct scope, proportional documents, and a evidence of your competent operations and workforce, you remove the stress and the guesswork.

If you’re preparing for your NDIS Verification Audit and looking for policies and procedures that actually reflect what you do, be sure to check out our Verification Toolkit.

And, as always, good luck with your audit!