Manual Handling Training for Disability Support Workers in Western Australia
Western Australia came to both the national disability scheme and the national safety laws later than the rest of the country. The state ran its own disability arrangements before transitioning into the NDIS from 2018, and its Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA), administered by WorkSafe WA, only became operational in 2022. Disability support in WA runs from a dense network of supported independent living and community access in Perth, Mandurah and Bunbury to in-home and community supports in Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, the Pilbara and the Kimberley, where the nearest replacement hoist or second worker may be hundreds of kilometres away. This course covers the theory WA support workers need under the current framework.
Last reviewed September 2026 · Applies to the Manual Handling Training for Disability Support Workers course.
Another industry? Manual handling training in Western Australia covers every industry.
Work health and safety in Western Australia
Western Australia was the last jurisdiction to move across. It passed its version of the model laws in November 2020, and they became operational on 31 March 2022, replacing the previous Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984. Longer-serving WA workers may still have been trained under the older framework. Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA) your provider is a person conducting a business or undertaking with a duty to control the risks of hazardous manual tasks so far as is reasonably practicable, and WA has adopted a Code of Practice on hazardous manual tasks that WorkSafe WA uses as its benchmark.
Because the change is recent, WA providers' procedures and training records are still catching up in places. You may find older documents that refer to the OSH Act, to "manual handling" regulations or to the former WorkSafe division of the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety. The duties are the same in substance, but if a procedure in a home you work in has not been updated, that is something to raise through your provider's hazard reporting rather than to work around.
Disability support across Western Australia
Before the NDIS, Western Australia ran its own state-based disability system, and for several years it operated a separate WA-administered version of the scheme before agreeing to join the national NDIS, with transition from July 2018. Many WA providers, plans and workers therefore carry habits and terminology from the state system. Manual handling plans, OT assessments and equipment funded through a participant's plan work the same way as elsewhere in the country.
Perth and the south-west carry most of WA's SIL homes, day programs and community access, with the Perth hills, coastal suburbs and long suburban distances all part of vehicle transfers. In the Wheatbelt, Goldfields, Mid West, Pilbara and Kimberley, supports are delivered over vast distances, frequently by lone workers, and often in Aboriginal communities where allied health input is periodic and equipment repairs and replacements take time. Heat in the north is a risk factor of its own: fatigue, dehydration and slippery hands and surfaces make a transfer harder than the same task in Perth. Planning the task, checking equipment before you leave, and knowing when to stop and call are the skills that matter most where support is far away.
Worker screening and onboarding in WA
WA workers in risk-assessed roles with registered NDIS providers apply for the NDIS Worker Screening Check through the NDIS Worker Screening Unit within the Department of Communities, with their employer verifying the application. Workers supporting children also need a Working with Children Check. Both are background clearances; neither assesses whether you can operate a hoist, and this course is not connected to either.
WA providers typically require the NDIS Worker Orientation Module, manual handling theory, practical hoist and vehicle training and sign-off on each participant's plan before you work unsupervised. This course provides the theory through eight modules, including Module 2, Australian Work Health and Safety Principles, which explains the model laws now in force in WA, and Module 8, Reporting, Incidents and Ongoing Safety, which covers escalating a concern when you work alone. The practical training, the equipment and the supervision are your provider's duties under the WHS Act 2020 (WA).
Common questions
Sources
- WorkSafe WA
- 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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