Safety & Security

Safety and Security on Solotude

Finding the right person to support you is a decision that matters. So is deciding how much of yourself to share while you make it.

Solotude is built around two commitments. No provider appears in search until our minimum checks are complete. Before anyone can reach a provider, we check their identity, their business and their compliance record against government registers. And you stay in control of your own information for as long as you need to.

Here is exactly how that works.

Search and message privately until you are ready

You should be able to look for support without announcing it to anyone.

On Solotude, you can browse every verified provider in your area, read their full profile and credentials, and start a conversation without handing over your phone number, your email address or where you live.

How it works:

• Browse without an audience. Searching the directory does not notify providers or make you visible to them.
• Messages go through the platform. When you contact a provider, the conversation happens inside Solotude. Your personal contact details are never attached to it.
• You decide when to share. Phone numbers, email addresses and addresses are shared only when you choose to give them, at the point you are comfortable. There is no step that forces it.
• Conversations stay on record. Everything is kept in one place, which means there is a clear history if you ever need to raise a concern with us.
• You can stop at any time. If a conversation is not right, you end it. Nothing carries over and the provider has nothing they can contact you with.

This matters most for the first conversation, which is usually the hardest one. You can ask a support worker whether they have experience with your situation, ask an occupational therapist how they work, or ask about availability and rates, all before you have told them anything identifying about yourself.

Posting a job without identifying the participant

Support coordinators, participants and families can post a job and reach every matching verified provider in the area at once.

Jobs are written to be de-identified by design. Providers see the profession needed, the suburb, the hours and the schedule. They do not see the participant’s name, address, NDIS number or diagnosis. The platform actively checks job descriptions for personal information before a job is published and prompts you to remove anything that should not be there.

Our verification standard

No provider appears in search until our minimum checks are complete. Not a self-declaration. A person on our team checks each one against the register that governs it.

The minimum for every provider

Before a provider can be found or contacted on Solotude, we check all of these:

1. Government-issued photo ID, matched to the profile and to every other credential submitted.
2. An active ABN, cross-checked on ABN Lookup at the Australian Business Register.
3. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission’s register of compliance and enforcement actions, including banning orders.

Some professions need more. Nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychologists must hold current Ahpra registration, checked on the Ahpra register. Behaviour support practitioners must be registered NDIS providers, checked on the Commission’s register. If any minimum check cannot be completed, the profile does not go live.

Why we recommend an NDIS Worker Screening Check

A lot of platforms and agencies advertise that their workers hold a police check. A national police check lists disclosable court outcomes. That is all it does.

An NDIS Worker Screening Check is a risk assessment built specifically for disability work, and it goes considerably further:

• It assesses criminal history and workplace misconduct, disciplinary findings and professional conduct history.
• It is decided by a state or territory screening unit that asks one question: does this person pose an unacceptable risk to the safety and wellbeing of NDIS participants?
• A cleared worker is entered on the national NDIS Worker Screening Database, which supports national ongoing monitoring of cleared workers rather than a snapshot on the day it was issued.
• A clearance can be suspended or revoked. An exclusion decision bans a person from risk-assessed NDIS roles nationally.
• Clearances run for five years and are portable across every state and territory.

A criminal record does not automatically stop someone from passing a police check. An NDIS Worker Screening Check is a decision about whether a person is safe to work with people with disability. It is not mandatory for every profession on Solotude, but we highly recommend it. When a provider adds one, we verify it against the Commission’s records, it shows on their profile, and you can filter search to show only providers who hold one.

We verify people, not businesses

Every profile on Solotude belongs to one named individual.

There are no company listings, no shared team profiles and no “all our staff are checked” claims standing in for an actual check. Where a worker joins through a small business, they still hold their own profile and are verified in their own name on their own credentials. A business owner cannot vouch for their staff, and a business ABN, insurance policy or NDIS registration does not transfer to the people working under it.

When you look at a Solotude profile, you are looking at the person who will actually turn up.

What else we check

Working with Children Checks and NDIS registration are verified when provided, with the issuing state or territory and on the Commission’s public register. Qualifications, work experience, insurance and professional body membership (for speech pathologists, dietitians, exercise physiologists and counsellors) are self-reported and labelled that way on the profile, so ask for evidence before you engage someone.

Every profile shows exactly what Solotude has verified and what the provider has reported themselves, so you are never guessing.

Verification is done by a person, not an algorithm, and takes two business days from the point a complete set of credentials is submitted.

Read the full Verification Policy →

Your data and privacy

We collect what we need to run the platform, and we protect it properly.

• Verification documents are never public. Photo ID, screening checks, certificates and insurance documents are reviewed by our team and are never visible to other users. What appears on a profile is the verified outcome, not the document.
• Your contact details are not published. Provider profiles do not display personal phone numbers or email addresses. Contact happens through the platform.
• Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with access restricted to the small number of team members whose role requires it.
• We do not handle payments between participants and providers. Solotude is a directory and a messaging platform. You arrange invoicing and payment directly with your provider, which means we hold no financial records about your supports. Provider subscription payments are processed by a certified third-party payment provider and we do not store card numbers.
• We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles. You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete your account and your data.

Full detail is in our Privacy Policy.

For support coordinators and families

If you are finding support for someone else, here is what Solotude does, and what is still up to you.

• Every profile is a real, verified person. Providers on Solotude are individuals and small businesses, not agency logos. Before a profile appears in search we check photo ID, ABN and the NDIS Commission’s compliance records, plus Ahpra registration for nurses, OTs, physios and psychologists, and NDIS registration for behaviour support practitioners.
• You stay anonymous until you are ready. Message providers inside Solotude without sharing your phone number, email or the participant’s details, and post a job without identifying the participant.
• No platform in the middle. No payments, commissions or NDIS funds go through Solotude. You agree rates, service agreements and invoicing directly with the provider.
• Your judgement still matters. Verification is a safety floor, not a recommendation. Meet the provider, check their experience fits the participant’s goals, confirm screening and insurance for the supports involved, and put a service agreement in place.
• Free for you, always. Participants, families and support coordinators never pay to search, post jobs or message.

If something goes wrong, tell us through our contact page or contact the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission on 1800 035 544. In an emergency, call 000.

Safety for providers

Providers are entitled to the same protection.

• Your personal contact details stay private. Your phone number and personal email are not displayed on your profile. Coordinators and participants message you through the platform.
• Nothing goes live until you say so. Your profile is invisible until it is complete, verified and you choose to publish it. This matters if you are still employed elsewhere while you build your own business.
• You own the client relationship. We take no commission and do not sit between you and your client. When a working relationship starts, it is yours.
• Every enquiry comes from an account we can trace. If a conversation becomes inappropriate, report it and we will act.
• Your documents are handled once. Verification documents are reviewed and stored securely, not passed around or shown to anyone searching.

Raising a concern

If something is wrong, tell us. We would rather hear about it early.

• Concerns about a provider’s credentials or conduct: contact us through our contact page. Where there is a safety concern, we suspend the profile while we investigate.
• Inappropriate messages or behaviour on the platform: report the conversation and we will review it.
• Serious concerns about an NDIS provider or worker: the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission takes complaints on 1800 035 544.
• In an emergency, always call 000.

We investigate every report against our community standards and we remove providers who do not meet them.

What verification does not mean

We would rather be straight with you than oversell this.

• Verification is a check of credentials and identity. It is not an endorsement of a provider’s skill, judgement or fit for your situation.
• Solotude is a marketplace. We do not employ providers, supervise their work or deliver supports ourselves.
• A credential is verified as at the date we checked it, and we record every expiry date. We do not currently monitor credentials continuously.
• You are engaging the provider directly. Interview them, ask for references, and agree the supports and rates in writing before you start.

The safest arrangements are the ones where both people are clear on what was agreed.

Where we are heading

Safety standards are not a launch feature, they are ongoing work. We review our verification policy annually and update it whenever the requirements around us change. We are building toward continuous credential monitoring, richer profile information and a review system that reflects real experiences rather than noise, and we take feedback from participants, coordinators and providers seriously in deciding what comes next.

If there is something you think we should be doing, email info@solotude.com.au.

Frequently asked questions

More questions are answered on our FAQ page.