This video explains the Approved Quality Auditor features of the NDIS Commission Portal (new), after a provider has completed Part 2 of their registration application. It will take you through each step from start to finish of how an auditor processes the application.
Welcome to this short tutorial explaining Approved Quality Auditor features of the NDIS Commission Portal. When an NDIS provider completes Part 2 of their registration application, they will trigger the audit process with an Approved Quality Auditor.
After submitting Part 2 of their registration application, the provider must nominate their proposed Approved Quality Auditor. To do this, the provider downloads the Scope of Audit, gathers quotes manually, and selects their proposed Approved Quality Auditor in the system. The portal then automatically pre-populates the auditor's name, phone number and email address, sending the request to the auditor's request queue in the NDIS Commission Portal.
If you are an Approved Quality Auditor, you'll get an email notification directing you to log into the portal. When you do, you will find the request in the Audit Requests tab. On this page, you will see any providers that have nominated your organisation. Clicking on an entry displays the registration application ID, provider name, and audit type. If the provider is not known to you, or you cannot conduct the audit, you can select Decline. This sends the application back to the provider so they can nominate an alternate Approved Quality Auditor.
If you accept the nomination, the portal notifies the provider and prompts you to schedule the audit dates. With a certification audit, you will be prompted to schedule both Stage 1 and Stage 2 dates. These are proposed dates. You can update the scheduled dates and provide actual dates as you go. If you are an Auditor Team Lead, at this stage, you will assign a Lead Auditor from a list of staff linked to your organisation. Once accepted, the audit is added to the My Audits list. Based on your role, you can filter this view to see all audits assigned to your organisation, audits awaiting assignment, or your personal queue, if you are assigned as the lead auditor. Within this list, the application ID is a hyperlink that lets you review the provider's details, registration groups, sites and worker details via tabs in the application. Note that you will be able to view the provider's responses to the Practice Standards in later portal screens.
As the auditor conducting the audit, from the My Audits page, select the audit and click Start Audit or Continue Audit to open the assessment workspace. Follow the on-screen instructions carefully to complete the audit assessment. For each practice standard quality indicator, the lead auditor will view the provider's response and record a compliance rating, noting whether the provider is conforming, has a minor nonconformance, or a major nonconformance. An overall recommendation for each module is added and detailed comments entered to support your findings. When saving, the module status will change from In Progress to Completed, keeping you organised. Your progress is automatically saved as a draft as you go. So if the audit is lengthy, you can come back to it later, simply click continue audit to resume. The system preserves all your previously entered information, allowing you to pick up exactly where you left off.
In the next stage, you must record whether service delivery was witnessed, selecting witnessed or not witnessed in the action box. During the entire audit window, providers are blocked from editing Parts 1 or 2 of their application. Auditors cannot modify the nominated registration groups and service delivery.
Finally, you'll enter actual audit dates, a summary of the outcome and the name and role of each participating auditor. You'll also upload the final audit report along with any relevant supporting documentation. Because these fields are mandatory, the portal will not let you move to the declaration screen if any field is left blank. The Lead Auditor must complete the Declaration screen.
This step involves reading and selecting multiple checkboxes to confirm compliance with NDIS requirements, the absence of any conflicts of interest, and the accuracy of the attached files. The lead auditor's name, their Approved Quality Auditor, and current date are added automatically. Click Submit Declaration to log the file and finalise your recommendation. Once submitted, the audit record is locked.
The results are instantly sent to the provider's portal. The provider is notified via email and in portal alerts. It is then the provider's responsibility to review the auditor's read-only recommendation and audit report and formally click Submit to send their final application to the Commission. So that's how the audit process works in support of a registration application. You can access more detailed guides on the NDIS Commission website.
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