Risk Assessment and Risk Controls
Working through identify, assess, control and review for support tasks, and applying the hierarchy of controls rather than relying on technique.
Last reviewed September 2026 · Part of Manual Handling Training for Disability Support Workers
Key learning points
- Work through the identify, assess, control and review cycle for a support task
- Consider the task, the participant, the environment, the equipment and the worker together
- Apply the hierarchy of controls to transfers, wheelchair handling and household tasks
- Explain why technique and being careful are not controls on their own
- Know how controls reach a participant — plan reviews, OT and physio assessment, and equipment requests
The risk management cycle
- Identify the hazards — which of this participant's supports involve manual task risk factors?
- Assess the risk — how likely is harm, how serious could it be, and for whom?
- Control the risk — apply the most effective control that is reasonably practicable
- Review — check the control works in this home with this participant, and reassess when anything changes
What to consider when assessing
- The task
- How is it actually done on a Tuesday morning, not how the plan describes it? What postures and forces are involved?
- The participant
- Tone, weight-bearing ability, communication, cognition, pain, seizures, behaviour, size, and what they want
- The environment
- Space, floor surface, steps, bathroom layout, bed height, furniture, vehicle, weather
- The equipment
- Is the equipment in the plan present, charged, rated for the participant, and does it fit the home?
- Frequency and duration
- How often and for how long is the task performed across a shift and a roster?
- The worker
- Training, authorisation on this equipment, experience with this participant, fatigue, whether a second worker is rostered
Hierarchy of controls
Most effective at the top
- Eliminate
- Remove the hazardous task — a ceiling hoist so no one is ever lifted manually; groceries delivered rather than carried
- Substitute
- Swap for something less hazardous — a shower commode wheeled over the toilet instead of two separate transfers; power-assist wheels instead of pushing
- Isolate / engineering
- Change the environment or equipment — a rated portable ramp for the front step, a height-adjustable bed, a vehicle hoist, a swivel car seat
- Administrative
- Change the work method — two-worker supports funded in the plan, rostering, task rotation, procedures, training and supervision
- Personal protective equipment
- Gloves and non-slip footwear protect against other hazards; PPE does not reduce the force applied to your body
Technique is not a control on its own
The answer to manual handling risk is not telling workers to bend their knees or be more careful. Risk should be controlled at its source so far as is reasonably practicable — by changing the task, the environment or the equipment. Training and technique support those controls; they do not replace them.
How controls reach you
In disability support, most engineering controls arrive as assistive technology funded through the participant's NDIS plan and prescribed by an OT or physiotherapist. Your provider's job is to assess the supports, request what is needed, put interim arrangements in place and write the procedures. Your job is to follow the plan, notice when it no longer fits, and report so the cycle starts again. A home safety assessment before services begin and a plan review when things change are both part of that cycle.
Practical controls in disability support
- Requesting a ceiling hoist, height-adjustable bed or shower commode through the participant's plan
- Fitting a rated ramp or platform lift where there are steps
- Choosing a level parking spot and a route on paths rather than grass
- Funding and rostering two workers for hoist transfers and other tasks the plan requires
- Having heavy items delivered, or using a trolley or bag hooks rated for the wheelchair
- Raising a low couch with furniture risers, or agreeing a firmer chair with the participant
- Servicing hoists, checking slings and replacing worn castors and tyres
- Clear procedures, equipment-specific training, supervision and review
Dignity of risk is not the same as ignoring risk
Participants have the right to make choices about their own lives, including choices that carry some risk to themselves. Good controls are designed with the participant, not imposed on them. But a participant's choice does not extend to how much force your body absorbs — a control that protects you can still respect their preferences about when, where and how they are supported.
Practical scenario
Scenario: the front steps
An SIL home has two steps at the front door. Every morning a worker tips a participant's manual wheelchair back and bumps it down the steps to reach the van. Two workers have reported back pain this month.
What is the most effective response?
Reveal the explanation
Not a reminder to lift carefully. Assess and control at the source: request a rated portable or permanent ramp through the provider and the participant's plan, and until it arrives use an alternative step-free exit if the house has one, or arrange the van pickup differently. Then review whether the back pain reports stop.
Practical scenario
Scenario: the new power wheelchair
A participant's manual wheelchair is replaced with a power wheelchair weighing about 130 kilograms. A worker is asked to keep lifting the chair into the boot of the house car as before.
What should happen?
Reveal the explanation
The task has changed, so the assessment must change. A power wheelchair cannot be lifted by a worker, and no technique makes it safe. The provider needs to arrange a vehicle with a ramp or hoist and wheelchair restraints, or a different transport arrangement, and the participant's plan may need to fund it. Until then, do not lift the chair — escalate and use alternatives.
Knowledge check
These questions are for your own learning. They are not part of the final assessment.
1. Which approach is most effective for reducing hazardous manual handling risk?
Risk should be controlled at its source. Technique reminders and PPE are the weakest responses to manual task risk.
2. Installing a rated portable ramp over a participant's front step sits where in the hierarchy of controls?
Changing the environment or equipment is an engineering control, and is far more reliable than relying on how workers tip and bump the chair.
3. Arranging for a participant's groceries to be delivered instead of carried from the car is an example of:
If the carrying never happens, the risk is eliminated. Elimination is the top of the hierarchy and should always be considered first.
4. When should the manual handling risk assessment for a participant be reviewed?
Review is triggered by change, incidents, new information or evidence that a control is ineffective — a new wheelchair, a new home or a new pattern of spasms all count.