Manual Handling Training for Aged Care Workers in New South Wales
Online manual handling training for aged care, personal care and home care workers across Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, the Central Coast and regional NSW. The duties it explains come from the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), administered by SafeWork NSW. The course and the assessment are free; you pay A$49 only if you pass and want the certificate.
Last reviewed September 2026 · Applies to the Manual Handling Training for Aged Care Workers course.
Another industry? Manual handling training in New South Wales covers every industry.
Work health and safety in New South Wales
New South Wales was among the first jurisdictions to adopt the model work health and safety laws, which commenced on 1 January 2012. The duties that apply to hazardous manual tasks in aged care come from the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) and section 60 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025, which replaced the 2017 Regulation on 22 August 2025 and requires a business to manage the risk of musculoskeletal disorders associated with hazardous manual tasks. Since 1 July 2026, section 26A of the Act has also required businesses to comply with approved codes of practice, or to manage the risk in a different way that gives an equivalent or higher standard of safety.
Aged care in New South Wales runs from large residential homes in Sydney's suburbs to home care in the Hunter, the Illawarra, the Central Coast and the far west. Many workers move between a residential facility and clients' own homes, and the second setting is far less predictable: narrow hallways, low beds, small bathrooms and equipment that varies from house to house.
Aged care in New South Wales
SafeWork NSW describes the aged care sector as workers who provide care, physical assistance and supervision for older people in the home, in residential settings, in privately funded care and in hospitals, and it lists muscular stress from hazardous manual tasks and patient handling first among the risks they face. Its guide on hazardous manual tasks in aged care opens by noting that workers in residential aged care experience one of the highest numbers of musculoskeletal injuries in the state, and that over a quarter of those reported injuries are to non-clinical workers such as kitchen and laundry staff.
The state's older communities are not only in the cities. ABS population estimates put Tea Gardens–Hawks Nest, on the coast north of Newcastle, at the top of the list of areas with the oldest median age in Australia. In many smaller rural towns, residential aged care sits inside a Multi-Purpose Service, which NSW Health describes as combining hospital, health care and residential aged care services under one roof for regional, rural and remote communities, with care provided by networks of local services, including registered nurses and local and visiting GPs. The manual handling principles are the same as in a large Sydney home, but there can be fewer colleagues on hand for a two-person transfer.
Home care brings its own rules. SafeWork NSW states that when work is done in a client's home, the home is a workplace, and that a privately owned car used for work, including travel between clients, is a workplace too; it calls this the 'grey fleet'. For agency staff, it spells out that both the agency and the host aged care business have obligations under WHS law, and it publishes a checklist for inducting new agency workers into a facility.
What SafeWork NSW publishes on hazardous manual tasks
SafeWork NSW's aged care page points to three documents in particular: the Hazardous manual tasks code of practice; the Healthcare and social assistance industry code of practice, which includes practical examples relevant to aged care; and its own Managing musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) risks guide – hazardous manual tasks (non-clinical) in aged care. That guide works through kitchen and laundry tasks, and it states plainly that clinical risks such as patient transfers must also be assessed and controlled.
For care in clients' homes, SafeWork NSW runs a 'Working in People's homes' webinar that introduces its Home Safety Checklist and Home Safety Risk Assessment, and it publishes an interactive hazard identification diagram for in-home care, a Transporting clients safety checklist and an External Venue Safety checklist for outings. With section 26A in force, an aged care business in New South Wales must follow the approved codes, or manage the risk in a way that is equivalent to or higher than the standard in the code. Module 4, Risk Assessment and Risk Controls, covers how that assessment is done.
What it means on shift in New South Wales
- Since 1 July 2026, section 26A of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) requires your employer to follow approved codes of practice, or to manage the risk in a way that is equivalent or better.
- A client's home is a workplace under NSW WHS law while you deliver care there, so an unsafe bathroom or bed set-up is something to report, not to work around.
- Your own car is a workplace when you use it for work, including travel between clients, so car transfers and loading equipment belong in the risk assessment.
- Agency workers are owed duties by both the agency and the host aged care business; ask for the host's induction before your first transfer.
- Kitchen and laundry staff face manual task risks too, and SafeWork NSW's aged care guide is written for exactly those non-clinical tasks.
Who is responsible for what
Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), 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 SafeWork NSW'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
Sources
- SafeWork NSW — Hazardous manual tasks
- Safe Work Australia — Model Code of Practice: Hazardous manual tasks — The national code the state and territory regulators adopt or mirror.
- Safe Work Australia — Lifting, pushing and pulling (manual tasks)
- Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission — Provider standards that sit alongside WHS duties in aged care.
General information about Australian work health and safety duties, not legal advice. Your employer’s procedures and the regulator in your state take precedence.
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Work through the aged care course and the assessment at your own pace. You only pay A$49 if you pass and want the certificate.
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