Manual Handling Training for Disability Support Workers in Queensland

Work health and safety in Queensland

Queensland adopted the model work health and safety laws with effect from 1 January 2012, and they are administered by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland. Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) your provider must eliminate risks from hazardous manual tasks so far as is reasonably practicable and minimise what remains, consult you about the risks, and give you the training, instruction and supervision you need. Queensland has adopted the Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice, which is admissible in proceedings as evidence of what a provider knew, or should have known, about controlling those risks.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has run compliance campaigns on hazardous manual tasks in health and community services, and inspectors visiting a disability provider will look for a risk management process, manual handling plans, training records and equipment maintenance rather than for a particular course name. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission regulates Queensland providers through the Practice Standards; it is not a WHS regulator.

Disability support across Queensland

The NDIS rolled out across Queensland region by region between 2016 and 2019, later than the southern states, so many Queensland providers and workers are comparatively new to the scheme's structures. The workforce is a mix of national providers, local community organisations and a large number of sole traders working directly for self-managed participants, particularly in regional centres. Sole traders carry their own WHS duties as a business, which makes documented training and a current manual handling plan for each participant more important, not less.

Queensland's climate shapes the tasks. Heat and humidity make transfers sweatier and slings and transfer boards slippery, dehydration and fatigue arrive faster on long community access shifts, and wet-season rain turns car parks and driveways into hazards. Older Queenslander houses on stumps come with front steps and raised decks that no manual wheelchair should be carried up, and regional distances mean that a missing sling or a broken vehicle hoist can take days to replace. In remote and Indigenous communities in the Gulf, Cape and Torres Strait, supports are often delivered by local workers with fly-in allied health visits, so the manual handling plan may be written by a therapist who visits infrequently and relies on workers to report changes accurately.

Worker screening and onboarding in Queensland

Queensland workers in risk-assessed roles with registered NDIS providers apply for the NDIS Worker Screening Check through the Queensland Government's disability worker screening unit, which replaced the earlier state-based yellow card system when the national check began. Workers supporting children also need a Blue Card. Both are background checks that say nothing about manual handling competence, and this course is not connected to either.

Before you work unsupervised, Queensland providers typically require the NDIS Worker Orientation Module, manual handling theory, practical training on the hoists and vehicles in each home and sign-off on each participant's plan. This course delivers the theory across eight modules, including Module 4, Risk Assessment and Risk Controls, Module 6, Supporting Participants with Mobility, and Module 7, Equipment and Assistive Technology. It is non-accredited online training; your provider remains responsible for the practical component, for supervision and for the equipment.

Common questions

Covered in the course

• Module 4: Risk Assessment and Risk Controls
• Module 6: Supporting Participants with Mobility
• Module 7: Equipment and Assistive Technology

Related guides

• Victoria
• Western Australia
• South Australia
• Tasmania
• Wheelchair to car transfers
• Working alone in a home