What is a manual handling plan and who writes it?
A manual handling plan, sometimes called a mobility plan or transfer plan, is the document that tells you how a particular participant is helped to move: the method for each transfer, the equipment, the sling type and size, the number of workers, and what the participant does for themselves. It is written by an occupational therapist or physiotherapist after an assessment of the participant, their home and their equipment, and it is kept with their support plan. It is how your provider's work health and safety duty reaches you in a participant's home. This guide explains what a plan contains, how it is written, what you do with it, and when it must be reviewed.
Last reviewed September 2026 · Applies to the Manual Handling Training for Disability Support Workers course.
Who writes it and why it exists
Under work health and safety law your provider must control the risks of hazardous manual tasks so far as is reasonably practicable, and supporting a person to move is one of the most hazardous tasks in disability support. A provider cannot assess every participant's transfer personally, so the assessment is done by an allied health professional, usually an occupational therapist and sometimes a physiotherapist, and the result is the plan. In NDIS-funded support the assessment and any equipment it recommends are typically funded through the participant's own plan.
The therapist looks at the participant's strength, balance, muscle tone, weight-bearing ability, cognition and behaviour, at the layout of the home or the vehicle, and at the equipment available. They then choose, for each transfer, the method lowest on the hierarchy of risk that works for that person, which is the same hierarchy of controls Module 4 of this course works through. The NDIS Practice Standards' expectations around support planning, risk management and the safe use of equipment are met largely through this document.
What a plan usually contains
Plans vary in format between providers and therapists, but a usable one answers the same questions for every transfer the participant needs.
- The method for each transfer: bed to wheelchair, wheelchair to toilet or shower commode, wheelchair to car, repositioning in bed, walking assistance, and what happens after a fall
- The equipment for each transfer, by type and often by model: hoist, sling type, size and loop settings, slide sheet, transfer board, transfer belt, shower commode
- The number of workers required for each transfer
- What the participant does for themselves and how they communicate during the move
- Environmental set-up: bed height, wheelchair position, brakes, footplates, space to clear
- Known triggers, pain points or behaviours during transfers, and how to respond
- The date of the assessment, the therapist's name, and when the plan is due for review
What you do with it
Read it before your first shift with a participant, not during the first transfer. Check what it requires is actually present and working, and check the participant against it every time: the plan describes them as they usually are, and mobility can change within hours after a seizure, a medication change, a poor night or a chest infection. If the participant is not moving the way the plan expects, keep them safe where they are, reassess, and follow your provider's procedure for reporting a change, rather than pushing on with yesterday's method.
If there is no plan, or the plan is clearly out of date, ask your coordinator before you provide the support. Your provider must arrange an assessment. Working from memory, from a family member's description or from what the last worker did is not following a plan, and it leaves you without the protection the plan provides if something goes wrong. Module 6, Supporting Participants with Mobility, puts the plan first for exactly this reason.
When a plan must be reviewed
A plan should be reviewed when the participant's needs change, when their equipment changes, when they move home or the home is modified, and when a worker reports that the method is not working, whether because it is unsafe, uncomfortable or disliked by the participant. Most plans also carry a routine review date. Support workers are the people most likely to notice a change first, which is why Module 8, Reporting, Incidents and Ongoing Safety, treats a change in the participant as something to report to your coordinator and in your shift notes so the OT can be asked to look again.
This course teaches you what a plan is for, how to read it against the participant in front of you, and how to escalate when it does not fit. It does not write plans and it does not qualify anyone to. Assessment is the therapist's role, arranging it is your provider's, and following it, checking it against the day and reporting when it needs to change is yours.
Common questions
Sources
- 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)
- NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission — NDIS Practice Standards — Provider obligations; this course is not the NDIS Worker Orientation Module.
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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