Skip to content
First Priority Care logo

First Priority Care

Free tool

NDIS Nursing Rates 2026-27.

What each nursing level costs, and — the part the price guides leave out — what each one can actually do.

The NDIS prices nursing at five levels. On a weekday the top level costs about 77% more per hour than the bottom one, and nothing in the pricing schedule explains when each is appropriate. This does.

  • Qualification
    Bachelor of Nursing, registered with AHPRA
    Support item number
    01_606_0114_1_1

    What this level adds: The first level that can assess a participant and write the care plan, rather than follow one. This is also the level that trains and delegates to support workers, which is often what makes a package affordable.

    Typically used for

    • Initial nursing assessment and care planning
    • Continence assessments and the reports that unlock product funding
    • Complex wound management
    • PEG feeding, catheter and stoma care, including training support workers
    • Delegation and competency sign-off for high-intensity tasks

Higher is not better. These levels describe scope of practice, not quality of care. The right level is the lowest one that safely and lawfully covers what is actually needed — anything above that just consumes the plan faster.

National rates from the NDIS pricing schedule, effective 1 July 2026. Providers may charge less. A guide to what the levels mean, not a quote or a clinical recommendation.

Why the level matters

The cheapest safe level is the right one.

Getting the level wrong is expensive in both directions. Booking a nurse practitioner for routine wound care burns a plan for no clinical benefit. Booking an enrolled nurse for a task that needs assessment and delegation is unsafe, and the care plan will not hold.

The most common saving we find is not a cheaper nurse. It is a registered nurse assessing once, writing the plan, then training and delegating the day-to-day task to support workers with proper competency sign-off and oversight. Nursing rates then apply to the assessment and supervision, not to every shift.

See our nursing services

Weekday daytime, per hour

  • Enrolled Nurse$103.44
  • Registered Nurse$128.05
  • Clinical Nurse$148.13
  • Clinical Nurse Consultant$175.18
  • Nurse Practitioner$183.15

Rates from the NDIS pricing schedule, effective 1 July 2026.

NDIS Price Guide 2026-27

All 276 support items, searchable, with free CSV and JSON.

Open

Support Worker Cost Calculator

What support hours cost by day type, including public holidays.

Open

Plan Budget Planner

How far a Core budget stretches, and how many weeks it lasts.

Open
FAQs

Choosing a nursing level.

Is a more expensive nurse a better nurse?
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding about these rates. The levels describe scope of practice, not quality. Paying nurse practitioner rates for routine wound care does not buy better wound care, it just consumes the plan faster. The right level is the lowest one that safely and lawfully covers what the participant actually needs.
Who decides which nursing level a participant needs?
The provider does, following a clinical assessment, and it should be documented in the care plan. A participant or support coordinator can and should ask why a particular level was chosen. If a provider cannot explain the clinical reason, that is worth questioning.
Can a support worker do nursing tasks instead?
Sometimes, and this is often where the real saving is. A registered nurse can assess, write the plan, then train and delegate specific high-intensity tasks such as PEG feeding or catheter care to support workers with competency sign-off and ongoing oversight. That means nursing rates apply to the assessment and supervision rather than every shift.
Why do weekend and public holiday nursing rates jump so much?
For the same reason support worker rates do. Nurses are paid penalty rates for evening, night, weekend and public holiday work, and the published prices reflect that. A Sunday hour of registered nurse time costs substantially more than the same hour on a Tuesday morning, so where a visit can safely be scheduled midweek, it stretches the plan considerably further.
Which budget do nursing supports come from?
It depends on the purpose. Hands-on nursing delivered as part of daily support is generally drawn from Core, while assessments and capacity building work such as a continence assessment or training a support team are usually funded from Capacity Building. Your plan manager or support coordinator can confirm which applies in your plan.
Ready when you are

Let's build a care plan that works for you.

Speak with our care team about your NDIS plan, your goals, and how we can help.

1800 402 205Send a message
Call 1800 402 205Book now