Manual Handling Training for Disability Support Workers in Victoria

Occupational health and safety in Victoria

Victoria is the only Australian jurisdiction that has not adopted the model work health and safety laws. It operates under its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, and workplace safety is administered by WorkSafe Victoria rather than a 'SafeWork' regulator. The duties are similar in substance — identify hazards, control risks so far as is reasonably practicable, consult with workers — but the legislation and the terminology differ from the rest of the country.

For disability support the practical difference is in the documents. The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 contain a specific part on hazardous manual handling, and WorkSafe Victoria publishes a compliance code on the subject that sets out how employers are expected to identify, assess and control it. Victorian providers therefore write their procedures around "hazardous manual handling" and "OHS", and workers who arrive from interstate sometimes assume the rules are different when the expectations on a transfer are much the same. Module 2 of this course, Australian Work Health and Safety Principles, covers the Victorian framework alongside the model laws so both sets of words make sense.

Disability support across Victoria

The Barwon region around Geelong was one of the original NDIS trial sites in 2013, and the scheme has since rolled out across the state. Most supported independent living in Victoria is now delivered by non-government providers, many of them in houses that were built or acquired decades ago as group homes and that were not designed around ceiling hoists, shower commodes or power wheelchairs. Melbourne's outer growth corridors, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo all carry large SIL and in-home support workforces, and the Gippsland, Mallee and north-east regions depend on workers who travel between participants and work alone.

Victoria's climate and geography add their own risk factors: wet winter footpaths and driveways for manual wheelchairs, hilly older suburbs, and long regional drives with vehicle transfers at each end. None of these change the principles, but they change what a task assessment has to notice, which is the focus of Module 3, Identifying Hazardous Manual Tasks.

Worker screening and the Victorian scheme

Workers in risk-assessed roles with registered NDIS providers in Victoria apply for the NDIS Worker Screening Check through the Victorian Worker Screening Unit, which also handles Working with Children Checks. Separately, the Victorian Disability Worker Commission runs the Disability Worker Regulation Scheme: a code of conduct that applies to all disability workers in Victoria whether or not they work in the NDIS, a complaints process, and voluntary registration for workers who want to demonstrate they meet its standards. The scheme regulates conduct; it does not deliver or approve manual handling training, and this course is not part of it.

What Victorian providers expect before you work unsupervised is much the same as elsewhere: the NDIS Worker Orientation Module, manual handling theory, practical hoist and transfer training on the equipment in each home, and sign-off on each participant's manual handling plan. This course covers the theory across eight modules, including Module 6, Supporting Participants with Mobility, and Module 7, Equipment and Assistive Technology. It is non-accredited and it does not replace the practical training your provider owes you under the OHS Act.

Common questions

Covered in the course

• Module 2: Australian Work Health and Safety Principles
• Module 3: Identifying Hazardous Manual Tasks
• Module 6: Supporting Participants with Mobility
• Module 7: Equipment and Assistive Technology

Related guides

• New South Wales
• Queensland
• Western Australia
• South Australia
• Hoist training
• Wheelchair to car transfers