Positive behaviour support is an evidence-based, effective therapeutic approach to support people who are at risk of, or are engaging in, challenging behaviours that may limit their life opportunities, and/or are a risk of harm to themselves and others. Challenging behaviour is a form of communication that often expresses a person’s unmet needs. Via positive behaviour support, functional behavioural assessment, the development of a positive behaviour support plan and its implementation are the mechanisms used to effect positive quality of life and behavioural change.
A common question posed to researchers and practitioners in the field of positive behaviour support centres around positive behaviour support plan quality – how do we know if a plan is ‘good’ and if implemented, will likely result in positive outcomes for the person who is the focus of the plan? This webpage showcases the work of researchers from the School of Education at The University of Queensland who have dedicated considerable time and effort to answer this question.
This webpage contains freely available and downloadable resources for two pen/paper positive behaviour support plan quality assessment tools developed by the researchers (the PBSP-QA and BSPA-tool) and links to other relevant resources they have produced focused on positive behaviour support plan quality.
About the PBSP-QA
The Positive Behaviour Support Plan Quality Assessment (PBSP-QA; Vassos & Nankervis, 2025) is a newly developed, 43-item measure of positive behaviour support plan quality. It assesses the quality of plans that has been informed by a functional behavioural assessment (i.e., comprehensive plans, not interim plans).
The PBSP-QA items (spread across 11 domains) cover various aspects of plan quality including:
- Technical compliance with behavioural principles (e.g., behaviour description in terms of frequency, duration, and severity; identifying the function of behaviour, non-aversive strategies that focus on addressing the function of behaviour)
- Functional behavioural assessment (e.g., the use of direct and indirect measures of behaviour, including and consulting with the person who is the focus of the plan and other relevant stakeholders to inform plan development)
- Strategies to enhance the implementation of the plan (e.g., strategies to train plan implementers to use the proposed strategies, strategies to mentor plan implementers to use the strategies on a regular basis, outcome measurement and plan review)
- Readability and accessibility of plan content (e.g., concise descriptions of what needs to be done and when).
Each domain contains a set of optional items - the Additional Feedback items. These items focus on the acceptability and accessibility of the positive behaviour support plan being assessed, allowing the scorer the opportunity to provide feedback on plan quality markers that are more subjective (i.e., opinion-based).
Development of the PBSP-QA
The items included in the PBSP-QA were informed by a series of research activities focused on understanding the concept of positive behaviour support plan quality from multiple perspectives. These activities included:
- The findings of a systematic literature review focused on positive behaviour support plan quality, with the intention of uncovering the markers of a good quality plan discussed in the research literature.
- The findings from the review were presented at the 2023 ASID Conference in Melbourne. Access the presentation slides.
- The review findings were also used to inform a practice guide on plan quality for the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Access the practice guide.
- A series of focus groups with disability support workers that ascertained which of the quality markers gleaned from the systematic literature review were most important to them when it comes to reading and attempting to implement positive behaviour support plans.
- A journal article outlining the focus group findings is currently being prepared for publication.
- A textual analysis of 200 de-identified positive behaviour support plans of varying quality as assessed by Behaviour Intervention Plan Quality Evaluation, Version 2 (BIPQEII; Browning-Wright et al., 2013). This analysis allowed the identification of common content presented in plans and any issues related to comprehending the content.
- A journal article outlining the focus group findings is currently being prepared for publication.
- Individual consultations with three people with a lived experience of positive behaviour support to understand their expectations around positive behaviour support plan development and implementation, and if these expectations have been met in the past.
- Consultation with an expert reference group consisting of positive behaviour support practitioners, behaviour support service managers, people with lived experience of positive behaviour support and policy makers.
- This group reviewed multiple iterations of the PBSP-QA items and provided feedback on item clarity and relevance.
- The findings from two psychometric evaluations of the PBSP-QA.
Psychometric Properties
Two psychometric evaluations have been undertaken on the PBSP-QA. These evaluations found that the PBSP-QA has acceptable interrater, test-retest and internal consistency reliability, in addition to concurrent validity (measured against the BIPQEII), and face and content validity. The introductory pages of the PBSP-QA contain a summary of the psychometric evaluation findings.
- A journal article outlining the findings from the two psychometric evaluations is currently being prepared for publication.
Who can use the PBSP-QA
The PBSP-QA should only be used by practitioners and researchers with extensive training in and knowledge of positive behaviour support - including the concept of capable environments (McGill et al., 2020) - in line with contemporary positive behaviour support frameworks (e.g., Positive Behavioural Support Coalition United Kingdom, 2015).
Download the PBSP-QA
Download the full version of the PBSP-QA. This document contains the measure itself (including scoring directions, plan content examples, and key definitions to aid scoring), scoring instructions and additional background information regarding the PBSP-QA (e.g., a summary of the PBSP-QA's psychometric properties).
Download the PBSP-QA items. This document contains only the measure itself without the scoring directions, plan content examples, and key definitions to aid scoring. This version may be helpful to users who have already familiarised themselves with the PBSP-QA, and feel that they no longer need the scoring directions, plan content examples and key definitions to aid their scoring.
Background
One of the pitfalls of currently available measures of positive behaviour support plan quality is that raters require extensive levels of experience and knowledge of positive behaviour support theory and practice to use such measures accurately.
- Given this, measures of plan quality have typically been used for research purposes or for auditing purposes by services providing positive behaviour support or regulatory bodies such as the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission in Australia.
- This also means that current measures of plan quality are inaccessible to the people who are typically the focus of positive behaviour support plans (e.g., people with disability, in particular intellectual disability) and interested stakeholders such as family members, support staff, and other professionals involved in supporting the person who is the focus of the plan.
The successful implementation of positive behaviour support is dependent on buy-in from the person who is the focus of the plan and the people who support them. If they don’t agree with or understand the strategies in the plan or they think the plan is of poor quality, it’s likely that the plan will not be implemented in full, or at all.
- Given this, it’s important that the assessment of positive behaviour support plan quality considers the perspectives of the person who is the focus of the plan, and the stakeholders involved in supporting the person.
Accessible Versions of the PBSP-QA
The researchers are currently working on translating the Positive Behaviour Support Plan Quality Assessment (PBSP-QA; Vassos & Nankervis, 2025) into two accessible versions:
- A plain language version for the person who is the focus of the plan, their family members, their support staff, or any other relevant stakeholders.
- An Easy Read version for people who may need additional support to understand written information (e.g., people with intellectual or cognitive disabilities, people who may not have English as a first language).
How You Can Help
In the near future, we will be seeking expressions of interest from people with disability (including people with intellectual and cognitive disability), family members, disability support workers and other professionals to provide feedback on the accessible versions of the PBSP-QA.
- If you are interested in taking part in this consultation process, please contact Maria Vassos via m.vassos@uq.edu.au
About the BSPA-tool
The Behaviour Support Plan Quality Audit Tool (BSPA-tool; Vassos, Davis, Wardale & Nankervis, 2021) is an audit tool to assess the quality of a positive behaviour support plan, from the perspective of the plan’s technical compliance with behaviour principles.
The BSPA-tool is based on the first nine items (Domains A to I) of the Behaviour Inventory Plan Quality Evaluation (BIPQEII; Browning-Wright et al., 2013) – the domains related to behavioural assessment and intervention planning (i.e., technical compliance with behavioural principles). Essentially, the BSPA-tool can be considered as a “simplified” version of the first nine items of the BIPQEII.
The items were simplified by:
- Removing technical language from the BIPQEII domain items as much as possible, and replacing it with lay descriptions (e.g., replacing the term ‘function’ with ‘purpose’).
- Changing the three-point Likert scale used by the BIPQEII to a NO/YES dichotomy scale (No = 0, Yes =1).
- This approach allows the scorer to identify the presence of a quality domain in a positive behaviour support plan, without needing to evaluate its sophistication to same degree required by the BIPQEII.
- Changing the structure of some items from one specific item to an item that contains multiple sub-questions.
- Where an item seeks a response to two or more questions, the scorer answers each question, and the item receives a score of 1 (Yes) if all relevant elements are present.
Development and Psychometric Properties of the BSPA-tool
An open-access journal article has been published that outlines the development and initial psychometric properties of the BSPA-tool. Access the article.
The citation for this article is:
- Vassos, M., Carberry, T., Davis, F., Wardale, S., & Nankervis, K. (2023). Can the Behaviour Intervention Plan Quality Evaluation, Version 2, be simplified for use by stakeholders with limited experience of positive behaviour support? Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 67(5), 488-497. https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.13020
The authors would like to acknowledge Multicap for supporting the development of the BSPA-tool.
Who Can Use the BSPA-tool
The authors of the BSPA-tool advise that the BSPA-tool should only be used by practitioners and researchers with extensive experience and knowledge of positive behaviour support.
Download the BSPA-tool
Download the BSPA-tool. (PDF, 214.2 KB) This document contains the measure itself and the scoring instructions.
Background
In 2023, the Promoting Positive Behaviour Support Practice website was launched. This website was developed by a consortium of researchers from three Australian universities (The University of Melbourne, Flinders University and The University of Queensland) and was funded by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. The website contains:
- Accessible and downloadable information resources about positive behaviour support for people with disability, their families, and service providers.
- Learning resources for behaviour support practitioners to enhance their behaviour support practice (e.g., learning modules about values-based goal setting, formulation and functional behavioural assessment, etc.)
- An AI-based tool that behaviour support practitioners can use to gain feedback on a written positive behaviour support plan.
The AI-Based Feedback Tool
Researchers from the School of Education at The University of Queensland were responsible for developing the assessment criteria that underpins the AI-based feedback tool and setting up the formatting of the tool. Researchers from The University of Melbourne developed the AI algorithm that underpins the tool and the online user interface.
- The tool contains an online form that allows a behaviour support practitioner to submit a summary of a positive behaviour support plan. The form consists of five separate pages that reflect the information that would typically be included in a plan.
- Once a summary plan is submitted, the content within the summary plan is assessed by an AI algorithm.
- The algorithm provides feedback on the content of the summary plan based on assessment criteria embedded into the algorithm.
- The algorithm is geared towards identifying the presence of content, not the quality of that content.
- Therefore, the feedback provided highlights if the summary plan contains information that would typically be included in a plan that is of good quality.
- The feedback provided may also contain specific weblinks to online learning resources related to positive behaviour support and plan development. These resources were developed by Flinders University.
- This feedback and the links to the online learning resources can be used by behaviour support practitioners to further develop their plans before they are finalised and implemented.
Access the AI-Based Tool
Access the AI-based feedback tool and positive behaviour support learning resources by visiting the Promoting Positive Behaviour Support Practice website. You will need to set up a free account to access the tool and resources.
Background
The PBSP-QA contains several positive behavioural support plan quality marker items that focus on whether the person who is the focus of a positive behaviour support plan and other relevant stakeholders (such as the focus person's family members) were:
- Included in plan development activities, or
- Consulted to inform the development of the plan and check the acceptability of goals and behaviour support strategies included in the plan.
These markers were included in the PBSP-QA based on feedback from people with lived experience of positive behaviour support indicating that they want to be included in the development of their positive behaviour support plans to ensure that any strategies to be used to support their behaviour suit their needs and reflect their preferences.
Unfortunately, recent evidence from an audit of positive behaviour support plan quality completed by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission in 2022 found that 65% of NDIS participants who have a positive behaviour support plan in place were not included or consulted to support the development of their own plans.
The Right Direction Website
Given this, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission funded the development of The Right Direction website which launched in September 2025. This website was developed by a consortium of researchers from The University of Melbourne and The University of Queensland, and several partner organisations from across Australia, and contains practical resources and tools to assist behaviour support practitioners to effectively engage NDIS participants throughout the behaviour support planning and implementation process.
- Example resources/tools include informative videos, videos demonstrating engagement techniques such as discussion mats and key word signing, information brochures and tip sheets, and customisable workbooks and worksheets for behaviour support practitioners to use when engaging with NDIS participants.
Researchers from the School of Education at The University of Queensland undertook several research activities to inform the development of the practical resources and tools housed on The Right Direction website. These activities included:
- A systematic literature review to identify effective practices used by behaviour support practitioners to facilitate the engagement of people with disabilities and their family members in behaviour support planning activities, and
- Two online surveys to gather lived experience from behaviour support practitioners and NDIS service providers regarding their use of various practices to engage NDIS participants in behaviour support planning activities, and how effective these practices were in facilitating engagement.
- Journal articles reporting the findings from the systematic literature review and the two surveys are currently being prepared for publication.
In addition, the researchers also supported the development of the practical resources and tools by drafting and reviewing content for the resources/tools and leading an evaluation project that piloted the resources/tools with behaviour support practitioners and evaluated their effectiveness.
- A journal article outlining the findings from the combined pilot and evaluation of the practical resources and tools housed on The Right Direction website is currently being prepared for publication
Access The Right Direction Resources and Tools
The Right Direction practical resources and tools are freely available to download and use via The Right Direction website.
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