Help us put the
heart back into the NDIS

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There's no NDIS without disability support workers

The recent review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has found that skilled disability support workers (DSWs) are either being pushed out, or are burning out, due to poor working conditions and low wages. Plus, there’s not even a minimum qualification for workers, meaning standards are slipping.

The HSU is leading the charge to get government to urgently address these 8 main issues to put the heart back into the NDIS:

Lift quality & safeguards

Stop the rorts and rip-offs

All providers to be registered proportionate to risk

Fund training

To encourage professional development and workforce retention

Implement a national worker registration and accreditation scheme

To screen all workers and introduce minimum qualifications

Fund bargaining and wages

Above the award to make support work a career of choice

End worker exploitation

Regulate gig platforms

To ensure all DSWs receive fair basic worker entitlements

Fix the Award

Stop employers ripping off DSWs by misclassifying them, and fix the gendered $6.60 per hour sleepover allowance

Improve job security

Establishing a national portable leave entitlement scheme will aid worker mobility

Improve working conditions

To reduce burnout and benefit both participants and workers

Sign the petition to demand better

By signing the petition, you will be supporting disability support workers across the country.

There’s no NDIS without disability support workers.

A well-qualified workforce with decent, safe working conditions is best equipped to support participants. But standards are slipping across the NDIS, and workers and participants are paying the price.

Skilled workers are either being pushed out of the sector or are leaving due to burn out, and the sector is failing to attract more workers to fill the gap. Workers have never been less supported to deliver high-quality services, and the NDIS faces a workforce crisis.

HSU and HACSU are fighting for a national worker registration scheme which recognises the skills of support workers and disability support workers as the professionals they are.

We won a voluntary worker registration scheme in Victoria - now we're demanding a compulsory one, nationwide.

Worker registration and accreditation:

WILL ENSURE ALL WORKERS GET ACCESS TO BASIC TRAINING AND FAIR PAY.

Workers would need to have a Certificate to do some kinds of support work. This would ensure more workers are paid wages that reflect their skills and qualifications and have the training necessary to support clients.

WILL SUPPORT YOUR CAREER PROGRESSION

A positive worker registration scheme can involve a professional development requirement. Workers would be entitled to 10 hours a year of paid training to refresh learning or gain new experience.

WILL LEAD TO SAFER WORKPLACES

Workers' registration levels can be linked to supervision levels, so that staff with less training or experience get more support from a supervisor or another worker, and ensure appropriate client matching.

WILL TREAT DISABILITY SUPPORT WORK AS HIGHLY-SKILLED, PROFESSIONAL WORK.

Setting minimum standards for disability support work, as we do for nurses and allied health professionals, will lift the value of disability support work in the community and make it a career of choice.

IT CAN BE EASILY ROLLED OUT AND ENSURE NO WORKER OR CLIENT IS LEFT BEHIND.

Training requirements would not apply to lower-risk work, and all workers can still enter without qualification, provided they get one over time. Workers with lots of prior learning, work or training experience can access alternative pathways to attain qualification.

Sign the petition to support our campaign.

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What you’ve told us

Career progression in this sector is confusing and there are no clear qualifications pathways to follow. Career progression tends to require many years of experience in an entry-level
support worker role with little room for movement. This must change if we want more people to join the workforce.

Maryanne

VIC

Getting training opportunities really depends on where you work. I found that working for large providers, they didn't give you options to better yourself or train into new pathways. Getting training came down to who you were in the organisation.”

Laura

NSW