An NDIS service agreement is a signed record between you and a provider. It sets out the supports, how they’ll be delivered, what they cost, how the provider is paid, and how you change any of that later.
Easy Community Services has delivered NDIS support in Brisbane since 2017. Sisters Andrea and Jessica Curtis still run the service. The NDIA page on service agreements is the official checklist for what that pack should contain.
You aren’t required to create a written agreement in most cases. The Agency recommends one every time you start with a new provider. The only support where a written agreement is mandatory is specialist disability accommodation (SDA). ECS does not deliver SDA. For SIL, respite and daily living, the written pack is still the page you can point to if a claim, a roster or a cancellation doesn’t match what you thought you had bought.
Why the PDF sits unopened
Families delay the first shift because the file looks like something a lawyer should read. It’s usually a provider template. The NDIA expects that template to be simple, and it expects the provider to help you understand it. You can ask for it in the language and format you use. A family member, a friend, a support coordinator or a recovery coach can sit with it too.
Andrea and Jessica built ECS after years in policing and corporate accounting, and they deliberately do not offer Support Coordination. That’s a conflict they will not carry. If you already have a coordinator, they can walk the draft with you. If you don’t, you can still mark the pages, ask for a change, and hold the start date until the wording matches the week you’re trying to run.
The agreement can also carry your written consent to begin. That’s useful when more than one person in the household is making the call.
Supports, times and where the work happens
A useful agreement names the supports in ordinary words and in the NDIS item language the invoice will use. If the hours are Supported Independent Living, the document should say SIL, and it should say whether that is shared or one-to-one time, which house, and which days. If the hours are Assistance with Daily Life, it should say which tasks sit in the week: personal care, meals, household work, community time. If the booking is respite or short-term accommodation, it should name the stay dates and the 14-day ceiling ECS works to.
“When and where” is the line families skip and then argue about later. A Thursday morning shower in the participant’s own bathroom is a different booking from a Saturday community outing that starts at a Capalaba shopping centre. Write the usual days, the usual place, and what happens if the plan for that day moves.
The NDIA also wants the agreement to say how long it runs and when you’ll look at it again. It doesn’t have to cover the whole plan period. A three-month start, with a date to check the roster, is a complete agreement. So is a 12-month document if that’s what you want.
Money lines that should be written in dollars
The cost section is where a lot of Brisbane families lose a week of support while they wait for someone to explain the rates. The official checklist is specific. The page should show the price you’ll pay, any cost for materials or products, travel, other fees, whether GST applies, and how the provider is paid: by you, by a plan manager, or by a claim against an NDIA-managed plan.
Those dollar lines should match what you’ve already read about what NDIS support can cost. Price limits in the NDIS pricing schedule are ceilings. A provider can charge less. They cannot write a term that sits outside the Agency’s pricing rules. From 1 July 2026 the NDIA also says a provider must talk with you about any proposed change to an existing agreement, and you must agree before that change is made. A new schedule in an inbox is not consent.
If the plan is plan-managed, use the agreement to say whether invoices come to you first or go straight to the plan manager. That one sentence saves a month of “we thought you had already seen it”.
Cancellation, notice and how the agreement ends
The cancellation clause is the paragraph people highlight in the kitchen. The NDIA tells you to look for the provider’s cancellation policy, the rules each side has to follow, and what happens if either of you is not meeting those rules. It also tells you to understand how to end the agreement.
When a family later wants to leave, the Agency’s change-provider steps start with that same document. The agreement says how many days’ notice you give. That notice is sometimes called a cancellation period. A fee can apply if the notice in the agreement is not given. The conditions for claiming a cancellation from a participant’s plan sit in the NDIS pricing arrangements, not in a provider’s fine print. Providers can waive a fee, or offer a shorter notice than the Agency allows them to claim. They should write the version they will use in your agreement, in words you can find again on a week when someone is unwell.
Picture a household that cancels a Thursday shift on the Wednesday night because a hospital appointment overran. The question is already answered if the agreement says the notice period, whether a no-show counts, and who you text. If those lines are missing, you’re negotiating in the doorway.
The disagreement section belongs next to cancellation. A good agreement says how you raise a concern, who you talk to at the provider, and where you go if that does not resolve it. You can complain to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission about a provider or a worker. ECS’s registration number, if you want to check it, is 4050170268.
When you need a fresh agreement
A new provider means a new agreement. The NDIA is blunt about that. Changing providers is ordinary, and you can switch at any time. The old pack stays with the old provider.
You may also need a new agreement when you add a new support from a provider you already use. Weekday SIL hours plus a weekend respite stay is a different booking. Write it down.
A new NDIS plan is the other trigger. The Agency says it is a good idea to make new agreements when the plan changes, because the hours, the goals or the providers may have moved. You can keep a provider you trust. You still sit with the dollars and the roster again.
Sitting with a template you did not write
Most providers hand you their standard pack, and you can ask for changes. The NDIA says so on the how to make a service agreement page. Read it before you sign, then mark the travel line, the notice period and the check-in date. If a sentence is written in a way you would not say out loud, ask for it to be rewritten.
If you and the provider cannot agree the terms, you can keep looking. Choice and Control sits with the participant. ECS will help a person move to another provider when that is the better fit. The agreement should say how many days’ notice that move takes, in words you can find again.
Keep a copy where more than one person can find it. Email is fine. A folder on the fridge is fine. The person who takes the 7am call on a public holiday needs the same page as the person who signed it.
After the pages are signed
In Greater Brisbane the first useful hour is often ordinary: a Thursday morning routine in Morayfield with a named worker. The agreement is the record of that week, written before anyone is tired.
When you want a draft walked through in plain language, contact the team or call 0474 559 083. The signed pack comes after that conversation, once the roster and the dollars are the ones you meant.