Childcare Manual Handling Guides
The same course for childcare and early childhood educators wherever you work — eight modules, a 20-question assessment and a Certificate of Completion for A$49. These pages answer the questions people ask before they start, with the regulator guidance each answer rests on.
Take the AssessmentCommon questions
Straight answers, with the regulator guidance they rest on linked at the end of each.
- Is training required?WHS law requires approved providers to train educators in the hazardous manual tasks they do; the NQF requires safe environments, but neither names a course.
- Lifting toddlersGet close, prepare the child, hold them against your body and stand through your legs — and avoid the lift altogether where a toddler can walk or climb instead.
- Change tables with stepsSteps let toddlers climb to the change table themselves, removing the floor-to-bench lift for every child who can climb. How to supervise and keep them clean.
- Floor work and back painFloor sitting, kneeling and knee-height furniture cause most educator back pain, not one heavy lift. Adult chairs, stools, rotation and early reporting help.
- PregnancyUsually yes, with a risk assessment and adjusted duties: fewer lifts, no double carries, no lifting buggies. How to raise it and what the law says.
- OSHC and older childrenIn outside school hours care the risk is furniture and equipment, not lifting children: stacked chairs, trestle tables, sports gear, kitchens and excursions.