Disability Support Worker

A Disability Support Worker provides individualised personal care and support to people with physical, intellectual, sensory, or psychosocial disabilities in community settings, residential facilities, or day programmes. They assist with activities of daily living, facilitate social participation, and implement person-centred support plans aligned with NDIS goals and NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission standards.

Assist clients with personal hygiene, grooming, toileting, and dressing according to their assessed needs and preferences. Prepare and serve meals, accommodate dietary requirements, and support clients with eating and drinking. Administer or prompt medication reminders and record administration in accordance with workplace protocols. Support clients to access community activities, transport, shopping, and social engagement opportunities. Implement behaviour support strategies and de-escalation techniques in response to challenging behaviours, documenting incidents. Monitor and report changes in client health status, mobility, mood, or behaviour to supervisor or case manager. Maintain detailed client records and progress notes in line with NDIS recordkeeping requirements and privacy legislation. Assist with continence management, catheter care, or other clinical supports as trained and within scope.

The standard entry pathway requires a Certificate II or III (ABS skill level 4). Specific qualification requirements vary by employer and state. Some employers may accept equivalent experience. Check yourcareer.gov.au for available courses and dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe for subsidised training options.

Physical and emotional exhaustion is real. You'll handle toileting, bathing, and managing aggression or distress daily. Pay growth is often limited even with experience, and you're on your feet constantly doing repetitive intimate care. Burnout is high in this field.

Jobs are everywhere Australia has people: metro areas, regional towns, and rural areas all need support workers. Remote work is basically non-existent since this is hands-on care.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 4231, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.

This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.

Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

• Community Support Worker: what carries over
• Family Support Worker: what carries over
• Residential Care Officer: what carries over

• Active Listeningcore
• Case Note Documentationcore
• Confidentiality and Privacy Compliancecore
• Cultural Awareness and Sensitivitycore
• Empathy and Emotional Intelligencecore
• Incident Reportingcore
• Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
• Professional Boundaries Maintenancecore
• Time Management and Prioritisationcore
• Verbal Communicationcore
• Adaptability and Flexibility
• Health Terminology Literacy
• Inclusive Practice
• Participant or Client Advocacy
• Regulatory and Legislative Awareness
• Risk Identification
• Team Collaboration
• Trauma-Informed Communication
• Written Communication

• ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
• ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
• ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.

Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.

Where our numbers come from.

What Disability Support Worker move into, from ten years of tax records.

Last updated: 30 October 2026