Manual Handling Training for Aged Care Workers in the Australian Capital Territory

Work health and safety in the Australian Capital Territory

The ACT adopted the model work health and safety laws from 1 January 2012, alongside the Commonwealth, New South Wales, the Northern Territory and Queensland. WorkSafe ACT administers them, and it lists the Work Health and Safety (Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice) Approval 2020 among the codes approved under the Act.

Canberra's workforce draws on Queanbeyan and the surrounding region of New South Wales, and some aged care workers take shifts on both sides of the border. The two jurisdictions both operate under the model laws, so the underlying duties travel with you, but employer procedures do not, and each service's care plans and equipment differ.

Aged care in the Australian Capital Territory

Aged care in the ACT is compact compared with the states. Residential homes and home care services are spread through Canberra's districts, from Gungahlin and Belconnen in the north to Tuggeranong in the south, and a home care round can take in several visits in different suburbs, each with a different house, bed, bathroom and set of equipment.

The ABS puts Canberra's median age second-youngest among the capital cities, after Darwin, but older Canberrans live right across the city. Clients' homes range from newer apartments to houses in established suburbs with steps at the entrance, split levels and compact bathrooms, and Canberra's frosty winter mornings add slippery paths and driveways to car transfers and outings.

The border is the ACT's distinctive complication. Queanbeyan, Yass, Bungendore and the surrounding NSW region are part of Canberra's daily life, and a worker who takes a shift in a Canberra residential home and a home care visit in Queanbeyan on the same day moves between WorkSafe ACT and SafeWork NSW. The duties are the same in substance because both run the model laws, but New South Wales has had its section 26A rule on codes of practice since 1 July 2026, and each employer's procedures, care plans and equipment are its own. Module 6, People Handling in Aged Care, is built around checking the care plan that applies in the setting you are in.

What WorkSafe ACT publishes on hazardous manual tasks

WorkSafe ACT's codes of practice page lists the Work Health and Safety (Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice) Approval 2020, which applies to all types of work and all workplaces where manual tasks are carried out, and the Work Health and Safety (Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice) Approval 2025, which covers remote and isolated work among other things. WorkSafe ACT explains that an inspector can refer to a code when issuing an improvement or prohibition notice, and that codes are admissible in court as evidence of what is reasonably practicable.

For care work, its health and community services section has a page on safe moving of clients, written for home carers as well as hospitals, nursing homes and residences. It describes the manual lifting and moving of people as a high-risk activity and a major contributor to musculoskeletal injuries among nurses, health professionals and carers, promotes mechanical lifting equipment wherever the person being moved is fully dependent or weighs 55 kilograms or more, and says training in moving people should be competency based, include practical demonstrations and be reinforced with supervision and retraining.

What it means on shift in the Australian Capital Territory

• WorkSafe ACT's safe moving of clients guidance promotes mechanical lifting equipment whenever a client is fully dependent or weighs 55 kilograms or more.
• The same guidance says training in moving people should be competency based with practical demonstrations: an online course covers the theory, and your employer's hands-on assessment covers the rest.
• WorkSafe ACT lists repeated positioning and turning of patients in bed and prolonged stooping to dress or support a client among the actions and postures that can lead to injury.
• If you work both sides of the border, WorkSafe ACT covers your Canberra shifts and SafeWork NSW covers work in Queanbeyan or elsewhere in New South Wales.

Who is responsible for what

Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (ACT), the business you work for, known as a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), must eliminate the risks of hazardous manual tasks so far as is reasonably practicable and minimise any risk it cannot eliminate. As a worker, you must take reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of others, follow reasonable instructions and cooperate with reasonable policies and procedures.

In practice the answer to a heavy or awkward transfer is rarely "lift more carefully". It is a change to the task, the environment, the equipment or the staffing. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, the national aged care regulator, oversees providers against the Aged Care Quality Standards, but WHS law is WorkSafe ACT's job.

How the course fits with your employer's training

Eight self-paced online modules take about 45–60 minutes. The assessment has 20 multiple-choice questions, a 75% pass mark and unlimited attempts, and a retry only re-asks the questions you answered wrongly. The A$49 Certificate of Completion carries a unique number and a QR code that anyone can check at /verify.

It does not replace your employer's practical, equipment-specific training on the hoists, slings and care plans you will actually use. This is non-accredited workplace training. It is not Nationally Recognised Training and does not issue a Statement of Attainment.

Common questions

Covered in the course

• Module 6: People Handling in Aged Care

Related guides

• Northern Territory
• New South Wales
• Victoria
• Queensland