Manual Handling Training for Disability Support Workers in the Northern Territory

Work health and safety in the Northern Territory

The Northern Territory adopted the model work health and safety laws from 1 January 2012, under legislation that carries 'National Uniform Legislation' in its name. NT WorkSafe administers it. Under the Work Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011 (NT) your provider must eliminate the risks of hazardous manual tasks so far as is reasonably practicable and minimise what remains, consult with you, and give you the training, instruction and supervision the work needs. The Territory has approved the Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice, which NT WorkSafe uses as the benchmark for what a reasonable provider does about transfers, hoists and equipment.

The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission regulates Territory providers through the Practice Standards and Code of Conduct and receives reportable incidents. It is not a WHS regulator. A serious manual handling risk that your provider is not addressing, whether in a Darwin SIL home or a remote community, is a matter for NT WorkSafe.

Disability support across the Territory

The Barkly region around Tennant Creek was an early NDIS trial site in 2014, chosen partly to test how the scheme would work in remote Australia, and the Territory has wrestled with those questions ever since. Outside Darwin and Alice Springs, many supports are delivered by Aboriginal community-controlled organisations and local workers, in housing that was not built for hoists or wheelchairs, in heat and humidity that make every transfer harder, and with equipment that can take weeks to repair or replace. A manual handling plan in a remote community may be written by a therapist on a periodic visit, which places more weight on workers reporting changes in a participant accurately and promptly.

Darwin and Palmerston carry most of the Territory's SIL homes, day programs and community access, with the wet season turning car parks, driveways and footpaths into hazards for months at a time. Alice Springs combines town-based supports with outreach to Central Desert communities along unsealed roads, where vehicle transfers, long drives and the absence of a second worker are routine features of a shift. Across all of it, knowing how to assess a task and when to stop matters more where the alternative support is hours away, and that judgement is the thread running through Module 4, Risk Assessment and Risk Controls, Module 6, Supporting Participants with Mobility, and Module 8, Reporting, Incidents and Ongoing Safety.

Worker screening and onboarding in the NT

Territory workers in risk-assessed roles with registered NDIS providers apply for the NDIS Worker Screening Check through SAFE NT, the screening unit within Northern Territory Police, with their employer verifying the application. Workers supporting children also need the Territory's Working with Children Clearance, known as the Ochre Card, which SAFE NT also administers. Both are background clearances rather than training qualifications, and this course is not connected to either.

Territory providers typically require the NDIS Worker Orientation Module, manual handling theory, practical training on the equipment in each home or community and sign-off on each participant's plan before you work unsupervised. This course provides the theory across eight modules, including Module 7, Equipment and Assistive Technology, which covers pre-use checks, weight ratings and why equipment is never improvised. It is non-accredited online training; the practical component, the equipment and the supervision are your provider's duties under the Territory's WHS Act.

Common questions

Covered in the course

• Module 4: Risk Assessment and Risk Controls
• Module 6: Supporting Participants with Mobility
• Module 8: Reporting, Incidents and Ongoing Safety
• Module 7: Equipment and Assistive Technology

Related guides

• ACT
• New South Wales
• Victoria
• Queensland
• Hoist training
• Wheelchair to car transfers